| Description |
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a chronic pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder emerging in the first year life and characterized by severe impairments in social communication skills and the presence of unusual behaviors. The prevalence of ASD has nearly doubled in recent decades, with 1 in 68 receiving this diagnosis, yet access to services is only one tenth of what is expected based the high diagnostic rate. In particular, there is limited access to early ASD-specific intervention, which has been shown to have a critical impact on brain development and long-term outcomes. While young children spend the vast majority of their time with parents, parents have few opportunities to learn strategies shown to have a profound impact on the developmental trajectory of children with ASD. However, when parents are taught to use early ASD interventions, such as Reciprocal Imitation Training (RIT), increases in children’s fundamental early social communication skills have been observed. The goal of the current research was to identify strategies for increasing parental access to ASD- specific early interventions such as RIT. Specifically we examined the use of a telehealth intervention, Online RIT, to teach parents the intervention techniques from RIT. Data from initial pilot studies of Online RIT will be presented, as well as a protocol for examining the use of Online RIT in a stepped-care format. The overarching goal of this work is to identify accessible, effective, and sustainable service delivery models to improve care for young children with ASD and their families.
|