Parent engagement with a telehealth-based parent-mediated intervention program for children with autism spectrum disorders: Predictors of program use and parent outcomes

Abstract

Background: There has been growing interest in using telehealth to increase access to parent-mediated interventions for children with ASD. However, little is known about how parents engage with such programs. Objective: This paper presents program engagement data from a pilot study comparing self-directed and therapist-assisted versions of a novel telehealth-based parent-mediated intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Methods: Parents of young children with ASD were randomly assigned to receive a self-directed or therapist-assisted version of ImPACT Online. Parent engagement and satisfaction with the different components of the program website were examined using the program's automated data collection and a post-treatment evaluation survey. We examined the relationship between program engagement and changes in parent knowledge and implementation and participant characteristics associated with program engagement. Results: Of the 27 parent participants, the majority were female (26/27, 96%), married (22/27, 81%), with a college degree or higher (18/27, 66%), and less than half were employed outside of the home (10/27, 37%). The mean chronological age of the child participants was 43.26 months, and the majority were male (19/27, 70%) and white (21/27, 78%). Most of the families (19/27, 70%) resided in a rural or medically underserved area. Parents logged into the website an average of 46.85 times, spent an average of 964.70 minutes on the site, and completed an average of 90.17% of the lesson learning activities. Participants in the therapist-assisted group were more likely to engage with the website than those in the self-directed group: F2,24=17.65, P