An evaluation of virtual home visits in early intervention: Feasibility of "virtual intervention"

Abstract

The provision of consistent high quality home- and community-based services to children with disabilities living in rural and frontier areas is a challenge. Distance, weather, geographic terrain (mountains, canyons), and shortages of pediatric early interventionists are among the challenges to ensuring appropriate and equitable services. Videoconferencing offers a viable means to address these challenges and is becoming increasingly accepted due to the popular use and rapid advancement of voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) technology, Internet expansion, the growing "digital native" population, and coaching service models. This article offers a rationale for using a telepractice model for early intervention-virtual home visits (VHV) conducted via videoconferencing-and describes components of the service model, including equipment needs, costs, and training requirements. Additionally, the article summarizes evaluation results, including service provider and family satisfaction with the use of technology, and a comparison of interactions during home visits conducted face-to-face with those via VHV.