TY - JOUR
T1 - Telehealth assessment of autism in preschoolers using the TELE-ASD-PEDS
T2 - a pilot clinical investigation
AU - Hodge, Antoinette
AU - Sutherland, Rebecca
AU - Ong, Natalie
AU - Chan, Esther
AU - Barnett, Diana
AU - Bennett, Beverley
AU - Boulton, Kelsie
AU - Francis, Deanna
AU - Guastella, Adam
AU - Papanicolaou, Angela
AU - Tomsic, Gail
AU - Williamsz, Marcia
AU - Silove, Natalie
PY - 2024/12
Y1 - 2024/12
N2 - Purpose: Appropriate early intervention is beneficial but dependent on accurate and timely diagnoses. This has been affected by long waiting lists for face-to-face clinical services, in part due to pandemic lockdowns, with telehealth introduced in many services to continue clinical services. This pilot clinical study investigated the feasibility of integrating a specially-designed telepractice autism assessment tool into a tertiary diagnostic service. Method: Eighteen boys (2;4–5;1) participated in the study. Assessment was undertaken as per standard practice (parent interview, questionnaires, review of reports), with an additional telepractice assessment, included in place of face-to-face assessment, to provide clinicians with an observation of the children’s communication, behaviours, and interests. Ten parents provided feedback via semi-structured interviews. Result: The TELE-ASD-PEDS was a feasible assessment tool in terms of administration, clinical experience, and information gained through the assessment process. Parents reported mostly positive experiences of the TELE-ASD-PEDS and made suggestions for improvements for future use of this tool. Conclusion: It is possible to obtain useful information about a child’s autism-specific behaviours using the activities in the TELE-ASD-PEDS. This information can be combined with clinical history from parents using the DSM-5 framework to provide a gold standard assessment for autism.
AB - Purpose: Appropriate early intervention is beneficial but dependent on accurate and timely diagnoses. This has been affected by long waiting lists for face-to-face clinical services, in part due to pandemic lockdowns, with telehealth introduced in many services to continue clinical services. This pilot clinical study investigated the feasibility of integrating a specially-designed telepractice autism assessment tool into a tertiary diagnostic service. Method: Eighteen boys (2;4–5;1) participated in the study. Assessment was undertaken as per standard practice (parent interview, questionnaires, review of reports), with an additional telepractice assessment, included in place of face-to-face assessment, to provide clinicians with an observation of the children’s communication, behaviours, and interests. Ten parents provided feedback via semi-structured interviews. Result: The TELE-ASD-PEDS was a feasible assessment tool in terms of administration, clinical experience, and information gained through the assessment process. Parents reported mostly positive experiences of the TELE-ASD-PEDS and made suggestions for improvements for future use of this tool. Conclusion: It is possible to obtain useful information about a child’s autism-specific behaviours using the activities in the TELE-ASD-PEDS. This information can be combined with clinical history from parents using the DSM-5 framework to provide a gold standard assessment for autism.
KW - autism
KW - COVID-19
KW - diagnosis
KW - multidisciplinary
KW - preschool children
KW - telehealth
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85180207417&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/17549507.2023.2270187
DO - 10.1080/17549507.2023.2270187
M3 - Article
C2 - 38105699
AN - SCOPUS:85180207417
SN - 1754-9507
VL - 26
SP - 767
EP - 783
JO - International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
JF - International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
IS - 6
ER -