Abstract
Technology-enabled interventions have the potential to break through barriers related to travel time and access in rural and remote communities. Practitioner training to provide high-quality behavioral interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is typically resource intensive including multiday trainings and ongoing live coaching. Although technology-enabled training including video conference and video review may be more accessible, technology may also introduce unique challenges by increasing the coach’s reliance on verbal feedback and reducing their ability to use common strategies such as modeling and environmental arrangement. Therefore, it is not clear whether technology-enabled training will result in similar outcomes for interventionists or the children they serve. Secondary analyses of data from a randomized controlled intervention trial compared new interventionists receiving 3 months of face-to-face training (n = 16) to interventionists receiving remote training (n = 11) to deliver a social communication intervention with fifty children age 3–9 with ASD. No significant differences were found in fidelity after 3 months between interventionists receiving face-to-face versus those receiving remote training. Overall, interventionists made significant gains in fidelity and children made significant gains in initiations of joint attention, requests, and play diversity. This study provides preliminary support for the use of a technology-enabled interventionist training protocol.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to extend our thanks to the local assessors, interventionists, and the children and their families. We would also like to highlight the incredible efforts of the STs without whom; this work would not be possible including Ashley Butt, Sarah Hollett, Sherri-Lynn Mulroney, Lorelei Pittman, and Nicole Smyth. Further, we would like to acknowledge the time and efforts of both the leadership and the information technology professionals within the health authority who assisted the STs. We would also like to thank members of the research team including Caitlin Elliot for her support to deliver JASPER training with the STs as well as graduate students Beth Donati and Stacy Arbuckle for their support to manage and code the video data.
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The second author is an employee of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. The first author was a clinical consultant for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.
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This study includes research with human participants. Informed consent materials and processes were approved by Institutional Review Boards from both the University of California Los Angeles and Memorial University (required by the Health Authority of Newfoundland and Labrador). In-person review of the consent materials was conducted with the caregiver(s) of the children with autism spectrum disorder and with the adult participants (interventionist and senior trainers).
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Shire, S.Y., Baker Worthman, L., Shih, W. et al. Comparison of Face-to-Face and Remote Support for Interventionists Learning to Deliver JASPER Intervention with Children Who have Autism. J Behav Educ 29, 317–338 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10864-020-09376-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10864-020-09376-4