Child Therapists Research Articles

Dynamics of the Experience of Smart ABA (Smart Applied Behavior Analysis) Therapists Who Have Competence in Dealing with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Competent Smart ABA therapists conducting therapy in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are needed now and for the future, considering the increasing incidence of Autism throughout the world. This study aims to explore the dynamics of the experience of Smart ABA therapists who have competence in dealing with children with ASD. This study uses a qualitative phenomenological approach to understand in depth how the dynamics of the experience of being a Smart ABA-based ASD child therapist. Data collection using interviews, observation, and documentation. Three competent Smart ABA therapists participated in this semi-structured interview. Interview transcripts and other data are analyzed through data reduction, presentation, and conclusions. The results of this study produced five themes: knowledge & understanding, abilities, values, attitudes, and interests. The findings of this study are crucial in revealing diverse aspects of the valuable experiences of Smart ABA therapists. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed in the context of an increased understanding of the role of Smart ABA Therapists who have competence in interventions for children with ASD. Furthermore, the results of this study can be used by all professionals who explore the field of Autism and policymakers in terms of therapist competence to provide appropriate therapeutic services for children with ASD.

The experiences of occupational therapists supporting children with self-regulation needs: A qualitative descriptive study.

Occupational therapists support children with self-regulation needs to engage in meaningful occupations at home, school, and in the community. However, little is known about how Australian practitioners perceive their role working with children with self-regulation needs in the Australian healthcare context. Therefore, we explored the contemporary practice experiences of Australian occupational therapists working with children 4-12 years referred for self-regulation support, to better understand elements constituting efficacious service delivery to enhance occupational engagement. A qualitative descriptive design, underpinned by constructivism and relativism, was implemented to address the research aim. Occupational therapists were recruited online to participate in audio-recorded focus groups and interviews. The audio recordings were anonymised, transcribed verbatim, and analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. No consumers were involved in the study design or analysis. Four themes were generated, encapsulating the experience of 13 occupational therapists working with children with self-regulation needs: (1) navigating the complexities of self-regulation, (2) intervening to support the child and surrounding systems, (3) bringing the occupational therapy perspective to the self-regulation puzzle, and (4) working within an evolving practice context. Themes 1-3 describe specific processes that all occurred within the context of Theme 4. Overall, participants detailed successful practice to support children with self-regulation needs to participate in meaningful occupations that required person-centredness, collaboration, coaching, and adaptability of therapists responding to different stakeholder demands. Self-regulation is a complex area of practice, and occupational therapists have a key role in supporting occupational engagement by balancing the child's needs with those of family, other stakeholders, and funding bodies. Findings support occupational therapists and decision-makers advocating for the unique role of occupational therapy in supporting self-regulation in childhood as part of a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach. Specific consideration must also be given to ways that current funding schemes in Australia enable occupational therapy services for children with self-regulation needs. Controlling emotions and behaviours is sometimes called 'self-regulation'. Some children find this hard and need help from an occupational therapist, who knows a lot about the body and the systems within it. A lot of occupational therapists in Australia help children with their self-regulation. There is not much known about how these therapists see their role in working with these children. We wanted to understand what it is like for occupational therapists who help children, between 4 and 12 years old, with their self-regulation. We interviewed 13 occupational therapists from across Australia and analysed what they said. The data showed four main points: (1) understanding the challenges of self-regulation, (2) helping the child and their environment, (3) using an occupational therapy approach to solve self-regulation issues, and (4) working in a changing practice environment. The therapists described how important it is to focus on the child, work together with many people like caregivers and teachers, and being flexible. They talked about how they balance the needs of the child, family, and funding bodies, which could sometimes be tricky. The study shows the things that therapists are doing when working with children who need help with their self-regulation and the things that therapists find hard working in this space. The results of the study can be used by people who advocate for services that help children and by people who make decisions about Australia's healthcare. One way the study can be used is to think about how current funding schemes do or do not allow different people and professions to work together to support children's self-regulation. Even though there were some limitations, such as a low response rate due to the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did interview therapists from different parts of Australia who work in different settings to each other.

Digital Interventions for Combating Internet Addiction in Young Children: Qualitative Study of Parent and Therapist Perspectives.

Internet addiction is an emerging mental health issue in this digital age. Nowadays, children start using the internet in early childhood, thus making them vulnerable to addictive use. Previous studies have reported that the risk of internet addiction tends to be higher in lower-income regions with lower quality of life, such as Indonesia. Indonesia has high risks and prevalence of internet addiction, including in children. Digital interventions have been developed as an option to combat internet addiction in children. However, little is known about what parents and therapists in Indonesia perceive about these types of interventions. This study aims to investigate the experiences, perceptions, and considerations of parents and therapists regarding digital interventions for combating internet addiction in young Indonesian children. This study used a qualitative exploratory approach through semistructured interviews. We involved 22 parents of children aged 7 to 11 years and 6 experienced internet addiction therapists for children. The interview data were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Participants in this study recognized 3 existing digital interventions to combat internet addiction: Google Family Link, YouTube Kids, and Apple parental control. They perceived that digital interventions could be beneficial in continuously promoting healthy digital behavior in children and supporting parents in supervision. However, the existing interventions were not highly used due to limitations such as the apps' functionality and usability, parental capability, parent-child relationships, cultural incompatibility, and data privacy. The findings suggest that digital interventions should focus not only on restricting and monitoring screen time but also on suggesting substitutive activities for children, developing children's competencies to combat addictive behavior, improving digital literacy in children and parents, and supporting parental decision-making to promote healthy digital behavior in their children. Suggestions for future digital interventions are provided, such as making the existing features more usable and relatable, investigating gamification features to enhance parental motivation and capability in managing their children's internet use, providing tailored or personalized content to suit users' characteristics, and considering the provision of training and information about the use of interventions and privacy agreements.

The role of speech therapists for children with visual impairment: A thematic analysis

Background: Visual impairment creates adverse effects on the affected individual and on his family. Speech therapists played an essential role in the development of children who had communication problems. Objective: To explore the perceptions of special education teachers and speech pathologists about role of speech therapists in children with visual impairment. Methodology: A qualitative study on exploring the role of speech pathologists in visual impairment was conducted in Rawalpindi and Islamabad region in 2022. Purposive sampling was used to include 8 speech therapists and 7 special education teachers. Speech pathologists having minimum qualification of MS/SLP or PGD and Special education teachers with minimum qualification of master’s in special education with a minimum two years of experience were included. Open-ended questions were developed, and data was gathered by using semi-structured interviews. Recordings were done after informed consent. Thematic analysis was done to generate the themes. Results: Four major themes were identified by both professionals. These include 1) the need for guidance for professionals 2) auditory and tactile orientations for the development of language 3) scarce resources in therapy, 4) the need for training for professionals who are working with visually impaired children. Conclusion: Speech therapists had a vital role in developing communication of children with visual impairment. Professionals suggested that speech therapists should work with children with VI as they work with sighted children. Keywords: Speech therapistsspecial education teachersvisual impairment

Exploring key job demands and resources in Norwegian child mental health services: a cross-sectional study of associations with and relationship between compassion satisfaction, burnout, secondary traumatic stress and turnover intention.

Burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and high turnover rates among child mental health clinicians are a challenge, not only for the individual therapist and the organization but also for the successful implementation of evidence-based practices. However, little is known about which and how job-and implementation-related factors are associated with burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and turnover intention as well as compassion satisfaction among child therapists. In the present study, we aimed to explore these factors and related mechanisms by integrating the "professional quality of life" and the "job demands-resources" models of occupational health. We measured the perceived professional quality of life and turnover intention among a national sample of 256 therapists working in Norwegian Child and Adolescence Mental Health Clinics (n = 44) that implemented Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT). Seventeen Job-and implementation-related resources and demands were also measured using the General Nordic Questionnaire for Psychological and Social Factors at Work and the Implementation Component Questionnaire. Path analysis was used to test whether burnout and compassion satisfaction mediate the relationship between job demands and resources on one hand, and secondary traumatic stress and turnover intention on the other hand. Results revealed that two job resources, i.e., positive challenges at work and mastery of work, were significant predictors of all professional outcomes. The proposed model was only partly supported. That is, while burnout did mediate the relationship between some job demands (i.e., work-family interference and role conflict) and job resources (i.e., human resource primacy, positive challenges, and mastery of work) with secondary traumatic stress and turnover intention, compassion satisfaction did not mediate the relationship between job resources and turnover intention. Moreover, in addition to their indirect effects via burnout, role conflict and organizational climate (human resource primacy) also directly affected turnover intention. These findings propose that interventions that reduce burnout should be prioritized to improve the professional quality of life and turnover intention among child therapists. Theoretically, it seems that compassion satisfaction and work engagement act differently.

Factors associated with capability and performance in children with neurodevelopmental disorders: an exploratory cross-sectional study

Background Children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD) have a lower level of independence and major need of assistance to perform daily living skills is one the main concerns of caregivers and therapists of children, adolescents and adults with these disabilities. Aim To identify factors associated with capability and performance in self-care, mobility and social activities in children with NDD. Method A cross-sectional study was performed with 96 children with NDD, most were male (69.8%), with a mean age of 8.53 (± 1.83) years. The Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory was used to evaluate capability and performance outcomes. The explanatory variables were intellectual function, motor skills, economic level, and maternal education. Stepwise multiple linear regression models were used. Results The motor skills were the main factor that explained self-care, mobility and social function capability outcomes and, self-care and mobility performance outcomes (p < 0.05). The intellectual function explained only the social function performance outcome (p < 0.05). Moreover, highest economic extracts increased the explanation of outcomes. Conclusion The findings are relevant to understanding the factors associated with performance and capability and performance in self-care, mobility and social activities to help clinicians to make an informed decision based on the best practice evidence for these children. An expanded assessment of functioning and of the environmental factors is necessary to help the planning interventions to improve capability and performance of the children with NDD.

Within- and between-therapist agreement on personalized parameters for robot-assisted gait therapy: the challenge of adjusting robotic assistance

BackgroundStationary robotic gait trainers usually allow for adjustment of training parameters, including gait speed, body weight support and robotic assistance, to personalize therapy. Consequently, therapists personalize parameter settings to pursue a relevant therapy goal for each patient. Previous work has shown that the choice of parameters influences the behavior of patients. At the same time, randomized clinical trials usually do not report the applied settings and do not consider them in the interpretation of their results. The choice of adequate parameter settings therefore remains one of the major challenges that therapists face in everyday clinical practice. For therapy to be most effective, personalization should ideally result in repeatable parameter settings for repeatable therapy situations, irrespective of the therapist who adjusts the parameters. This has not yet been investigated. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the agreement of parameter settings from session to session within a therapist and between two different therapists in children and adolescents undergoing robot-assisted gait training.Methods and resultsFourteen patients walked in the robotic gait trainer Lokomat on 2 days. Two therapists from a pool of 5 therapists independently personalized gait speed, bodyweight support and robotic assistance for a moderately and a vigorously intensive therapy task. There was a very high agreement within and between therapists for the parameters gait speed and bodyweight support, but a substantially lower agreement for robotic assistance.ConclusionThese findings imply that therapists perform consistently at setting parameters that have a very clear and visible clinical effect (e.g. walking speed and bodyweight support). However, they have more difficulties with robotic assistance, which has a more ambiguous effect because patients may respond differently to changes. Future work should therefore focus on better understanding patient reactions to changes in robotic assistance and especially on how instructions can be employed to steer these reactions. To improve the agreement, we propose that therapists link their choice of robotic assistance to the individual therapy goals of the patients and closely guide the patients during walking with instructions.

Child therapists' views and experiences of video conference psychotherapy with children.

Although important research on remote psychotherapies was conducted for many years, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the spread of remote therapies. However, studies focusing on children and the family population are still quite new. Exploration of therapists' views and experiences of using online psychotherapy interventions is of importance. In addition to these, confusion caused by referring to remote therapies with different names and using them for different purposes and forms makes it difficult to know which evidence is available for tools and forms. Therefore, this study aims to investigate psychotherapists' views and experiences of video conferencing psychotherapy (VCP) for children using a qualitative description method. In line with this purpose, semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with seven female specialists who conducted VCP with children in different cities in Turkey. Data collected from the interviews were analyzed using an inductive content analysis approach. Analysis results indicated two themes and ten sub-themes that described benefits, new opportunities as well as limitations and difficulties of VCP provided to children. Results showed that VCP enhanced accessibility for both therapists and children and their families, enabled comfort and flexibility, and was economic. Besides, such psychotherapy was found to increase fathers' participation in psychotherapy. On the other hand, difficulties are experienced in therapeutic relationships in the VCP process; the child's characteristics affected the applicability of the psychotherapy; maintaining focus became difficult; lack of materials and toys affected psychotherapy applications; children's connecting to psychotherapy from home caused privacy issues; and technological problems affected communication and sustainability.

Electroencephalographic interbrain synchronization in children with disabilities, their parents, and neurologic music therapists.

As with typically developing children, children with cerebral palsy and autism spectrum disorder develop important socio-emotional rapport with their parents and healthcare providers. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these relationships have been less studied. By simultaneously measuring the brain activity of multiple individuals, interbrain synchronization could serve as a neurophysiological marker of social-emotional responses. Music evokes emotional and physiological responses and enhances social cohesion. These characteristics of music have fostered its deployment as a therapeutic medium in clinical settings. Therefore, this study investigated two aspects of interbrain synchronization, namely, its phase and directionality, in child-parent (CP) and child-therapist (CT) dyads during music and storytelling sessions (as a comparison). A total of 17 participants (seven cerebral palsy or autism spectrum disorder children [aged 12-18 years], their parents, and three neurologic music therapists) completed this study, comprising seven CP and seven CT dyads. Each music therapist worked with two or three children. We found that session type, dyadic relationship, frequency band, and brain region were significantly related to the degree of interbrain synchronization and its directionality. Particularly, music sessions and CP dyads were associated with higher interbrain synchronization and stronger directionality. Delta (.5-4Hz) range showed the highest phase locking value in both CP and CT dyads in frontal brain regions. It appears that synchronization is directed predominantly from parent to child, that is, parents and music therapists' brain activity tended to influence a child's. Our findings encourage further research into neural synchrony in children with disabilities, especially in musical contexts, and its implications for social and emotional development.

The Importance of Affective Neuroscience for Child Psychotherapy

ABSTRACT In this article, I will discuss how affective neuroscience can help us be better child therapists. I will highlight several important contributions of affective neuroscience, especially theory and research on SEEKING, PLAY, separation distress, and the role of positive emotion systems in child mental health. I will describe how these ideas deepen our understanding of healthy and pathological emotional development in childhood and inform our therapeutic work with both children and parents. I will also discuss the importance of feelings of pride and shame – vital aspects of children’s emotional lives that have not yet been extensively studied by affective neuroscience. I will briefly describe an integrative model for child therapy, informed by both psychodynamic theory and affective neuroscience. Our most successful interventions with children and families set in motion positive cycles of healthy emotional and interpersonal experiences – increased confidence and engagement in life and more affirming interactions between parents and children. In this way, we help troubled children and families reclaim some of the joyousness and wonder of childhood.

“The Parallel Dialogue”: Parental experience of their role in the relationship with their child's counsellor/psychotherapist

AbstractThe parent–therapist relationship is a central consideration in child counselling and psychotherapy, particularly in private practice where parents are typically financially, emotionally and practically invested in the process. The relationship, which can be ambiguous and anxiety‐laden on both sides, has historically received scant attention in therapeutic discourse, leading to gaps in practitioner confidence and training. In this context, and seeking to centre parent voices, this study provides an interpretative phenomenological analysis of four mothers' experiences of their role in the relationship with their child's therapist. Key identified themes encompass parental expectation of involvement; the destabilising, disorienting nature of the relationship; the centrality of trust; and critical evaluations of value. Findings are discussed in relation to attachment theory and cultural expectations of parental responsibility. The study concludes that the relationship is a live and potent property with potential to impact the course of the intervention, and recommends that practitioners thoughtfully consider the potential benefits and drawbacks of meeting or frustrating parental involvement expectations.

Inclusive Education in Nepal and Role of School Psychologist

Inclusive education is a strategy that identifies children who, for any reason, are&#x0D; excluded. from a specific context of schooling and promotes a process of social and&#x0D; academic inclusion of all children within the school Traditionally, learning outcomes&#x0D; for students involve academic, social, and emotional outcomes and are closely tied to&#x0D; a school’s culture and ethos. Many school psychologists, as well as child therapists and&#x0D; professionals, have been seriously concerned with the effectiveness of their individualcentred&#x0D; practice, and they are concerned with the development of more child-focused&#x0D; and system-centered approaches as they recognise that incorporating children’s and&#x0D; stakeholder perspectives into the counselling or therapeutic process appears to improve&#x0D; its effectiveness. The major objective of this review is to understand the current context&#x0D; of inclusive education in Nepal and also compare it with international progress in&#x0D; inclusive education. In In addition, the role of school psychologists in improving the&#x0D; inclusive education environment is also studied. Although an inclusive educational&#x0D; environment benefits students greatly, it is not widely recognised due to a lack of&#x0D; awareness and strategic education implementation. policies that promote inclusive&#x0D; education. School psychologists play the most vital role in the successful implementation&#x0D; of inclusive education, as they understand the school environment’s pros and cons and&#x0D; students’ psychological states in every inclusive environment. And for this reason, the&#x0D; presence of school psychologists is essential in any inclusive educational environment.

On the Role of Empathy in Child Development and Psychotherapy: What is Empathy and How Does it Help?

In this article, I will present a contemporary understanding of the nature of empathy and the importance of empathy in successful psychotherapy with children. This perspective highlights the intrinsic relationship of empathy and affect. I will consider how the child therapist’s empathy is expressed and offer a specific hypothesis on the therapeutic efficacy of empathic understanding in clinical work with children. Finally, I will discuss how the experience of empathic understanding is beneficial in the emotional life of the child and in all human relationships, throughout life.

Relationship Between Functional Classification Systems in Children With Cerebral Palsy

Objective: Cerebral palsy refers to a group of postural and movement disorders that limit movements and can be related to a non-progressive disorder in the developing brain. The international classification of disability emphasizes the child's functional abilities and routine performance. Some classification tools have been developed to describe and evaluate child's functions in daily activities such as walking, manipulating objects, and everyday communication. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between classification systems (gross motor function, manual ability, communication function, and eating and drinking ability) in children with cerebral palsy. Materials &amp; Methods: This study was performed by cross-sectional correlation method and of descriptive analytical type. Children with cerebral palsy aged 12-144 months were recruited by convenience sampling from patients referred to clinics and public and private rehabilitation centers in Tehran and Arak cities, Iran, in 2019-2020. After completing the demographic information questionnaire by the child's primary caregiver, the gross motor function classification system (GMFCS), manual ability classification system (MACS), Communication function classification system (CFCS), and eating and drinking ability classification system (EDACS) were completed by a child therapist. Results: In the present study, 154 children with a Mean±SD age of 49.45±32.22 months participated. also, 87 children (56.5%) were boys, and 67(43.5%) were girls. According to GMFCS, the highest percentage distributions at levels II and IV were 31.2% and 26%, respectively. In other words, more than 57% of children were distributed in these two levels. According to MACS, the distributions of the highest percentages at levels II, III, and IV were 28.6%, 22.1%, and 20.8%, respectively. In other words, more than 70% of the children were distributed in these three levels. According to EDACS, the distribution of almost all levels was equal except the V level, with 4.3% having the lowest percentage. According to CFCS, the distribution of the highest percentage at levels V and IV was 23.5%. In examining the relationship between functional systems, significant relationships were observed in all cases: MACS and GMFCS, r=0.672; CFCS and GMFCS, r=0.581; EADCS and GMFCS, r=0.593; CFCS and MACS, r=0.555; EADCS and MACS, r=664; EADCS and CFCS, r=0. 547 (P&lt;0.01). Conclusion: It seems that children with more motor function limitations show more limitations in other performance classification systems, too. Of course, the number of studies in this field is limited and needs further investigation.

Important Preliminary Insights for Designing Successful Communication between a Robotic Learning Assistant and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Germany

Early therapeutic intervention programs help children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to improve their socio-emotional and functional skills. To relieve the children’s caregivers while ensuring that the children are adequately supported in their training exercises, new technologies may offer suitable solutions. This study investigates the potential of a robotic learning assistant which is planned to monitor the children’s state of engagement and to intervene with appropriate motivational nudges when necessary. To analyze stakeholder requirements, interviews with parents as well as therapists of children with ASD were conducted. Besides a general positive attitude towards the usage of new technologies, we received some important insights for the design of the robot and its interaction with the children. One strongly accentuated aspect was the robot’s adequate and context-specific communication behavior, which we plan to address via an AI-based engagement detection system. Further aspects comprise for instance customizability, adaptability, and variability of the robot’s behavior, which should further be not too distracting while still being highly predictable.

Professional wellbeing and turnover intention among child therapists: a comparison between therapists trained and untrained in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

BackgroundPoor professional wellbeing and job turnover is challenging for child mental health clinics and despite an increasing interest in implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs) in mental health services, little is known about if and how using EBPs may influence therapists’ professional wellbeing and turnover intention. To investigate this, we compare the average level of compassion satisfaction, burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and turnover intention between therapists trained in an EBP (Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – TF-CBT) and untrained therapists. We also explore the prevalence of and the associations between these personal and organizational outcomes.MethodIn this cross-sectional study, the data is collected from a national sample of 373 therapists 5 years after an implementation program began (i.e., in the sustainment phase). The variables were measured by the Professional Quality of Life and the Turnover Intention Scales. The Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale was also used to measure therapists’ attitudes toward EBPs.ResultsOver 70% of the respondents reported medium to high levels of burnout, secondary traumatic stress symptoms, and compassion satisfaction, whereas one-third of the respondents reported a high level of intention to leave their job in the current or near future. Higher ratings on burnout and secondary traumatic stress were significantly associated with lower compassion satisfaction and higher turnover intention. Finally, we found significantly lower degree of burnout and turnover intention along with higher compassion satisfaction among TF-CBT therapists (n = 96), compared to other therapists who were not trained in TF-CBT (n = 231). These differences could not be explained by between-group differences in age, job tenure, educational background, or therapists’ attitudes towards EBPs. However, mean differences in ratings on secondary traumatic stress symptoms were not statistically significant.ConclusionAlthough the prevalence findings are in general alarming, the present study provides the first empirical evidence for a potential positive effect of being trained in TF-CBT on therapists’ wellbeing and turnover intention. We discuss these findings in the light of self-efficacy theory and the job demands-resources model.

Working With High Conflict Divorce and Custody Cases: An Interview With Lynn Louise Wonders

Dr. Rebecca Pender Baum interviews Lynn Louise Wonders, a licensed professional counselor and registered play therapist supervisor. Ms. Wonders has over 20 years of experience working with children and families. This interview focuses on her work and research into working with high conflict divorce and custody cases. Ms. Wonders discusses her book, When Parents are at War: A Child Therapist's Guide to Navigating High Conflict Divorce and Custody Cases, which highlights potential pitfalls to avoid and the importance of self-care and consultation.

The Utilisation of Adaptive Behaviour Assessment Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Scoping Review

Adaptive behaviour in children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is defined as the degree to which the children can be self-reliant and function independently in real-life conditions. Assessing the adaptive behaviour is vital to provide insight and guide the diagnosis of ASD. Therefore, this scoping review aims to map the utilization of adaptive behaviour assessments conducted by occupational therapists for children with ASD. Published articles between 2006 and 2020 were retrieved from three databases, including Scopus, Cochrane Library, and the Web of Sciences, that included English, full-text published articles, reviews, or thesis which provide relevant highlights on adaptive behaviour assessment for ASD. Nineteen articles met the inclusion criteria. There are three themes emerged from the review: adaptive behaviour as an individual, adaptive behaviour as a society and utilising the instrument. Adaptive behaviour assessment has been used as a comprehensive monitoring tool for functional status among children with ASD. This scoping review mapped the utilization of adaptive behaviour assessment by an occupational therapist that directs future research and clinicians on potential future guidelines of adaptive behaviour evaluation for children with ASD.

Accessibility at What Price? Therapists’ Experiences of Remote Psychotherapy with Children and Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT Psychotherapy has traditionally been delivered in person, but recent technological advances have made it possible to conduct remote treatments. There is currently strong evidence for the efficacy of guided self-help with online support from a therapist, but less is known about video-mediated psychotherapy. The COVID-19 pandemic has however forced many therapists to provide remote treatments. This transition might be especially trying for therapists of children and adolescents, but their experiences are underexplored. This study aimed to investigate their perceptions of video-mediated psychotherapy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 therapists and analyzed using thematic analysis. The therapists described how they struggled with technical and ethical issues and tried to overcome the loss of their usual therapeutic tools. They were concerned that the online format led to less effective treatments or could have negative effects, even if it might increase care availability. Generally, they felt frustrated, inadequate, and stressed, and experienced less job satisfaction. The therapists concluded that video-mediated sessions might be a good alternative for children and adolescents – provided the therapists themselves could determine for whom and when to offer video sessions. Implications of their experiences are discussed, including how psychotherapy training might have to incorporate issues related to remote psychotherapy.

Komunikasi Terapeutik di Yamet Child Development Center Sukabumi

Therapeutic communication is a communication process in the health sector carried out by nurses, midwives, doctors, psychiatrists, and psychologists. This communication pattern is a process to create a relationship between medical personnel and patients to find out and recognize the information needs of the patient so that it can then be directed to action plans and medical actions. This communication method is a process to create a relationship between medical personnel and patients to find out and recognize the information needs of the patient so that it can then be directed to action plans and medical actions. This study aims to determine the implementation of therapeutic communication between therapists and Children with Special Needs Ex Learning difficulties in developing potential social skills at the Yamet Child Development Center Sukabumi; what are the factors that hinder therapeutic communication between therapists and Children with Special Needs Ex Learning difficulties ; and efforts that must be made in overcoming barriers to therapeutic communication for therapists in Children with Special Needs Ex Learning difficulties . The research method is qualitative with a case study approach. While the data sampling is done purposively and snowball, triangulation collection techniques, data analysis is inductive/qualitative. The results of the research on therapeutic communication between therapists and CSN ex Ld in developing the potential for social skills are going well, as can be seen from the response of children who are increasingly responsive to the direction and guidance of the therapist. The decreasing number of inhibiting factors in the implementation of therapeutic communication carried out by therapists for CSN ex Ld can be seen from the response of children who are increasingly starting to understand the guidance taught by the therapist. An increase in the effect of communication by the therapist on CSN ex Ld can be seen from how the ability and responsiveness of children increases in performing social skills.