Stead Family Department of Pediatrics, The University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities, University of Houston, Clear Lake, Houston, TX 77004, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Feb 15;19(4):2190. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19042190.
Functional analyses (FA) and functional communication training (FCT) are the most commonly used behavioral assessment and treatment approaches via telehealth for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who display challenging behavior. The FA + FCT telehealth model has been shown to maintain treatment effectiveness (i.e., child behavioral outcomes and parent acceptability), as well as demonstrate treatment efficiency (i.e., cost savings). However, the majority of these studies have been conducted in the United States. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes obtained with the telehealth FA + FCT model that included global applications. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results of the 199 participants who enrolled in the telehealth project across all project sites. The results showed that behavioral outcomes and parent acceptability maintained at similar levels to previous studies across all sites. Additionally, very few differences were found across project sites in relation to drop-out rates, visit cancellations, and technology issues. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the FA + FCT telehealth model for addressing the challenging behavior needs of children with ASD globally and highlight areas in need of additional evaluation (e.g., drop-outs, cancellations) to determine the conditions under which telehealth could be best used.
功能分析（FA）和功能沟通训练（FCT）是通过远程医疗为患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）并表现出挑战性行为的儿童提供的最常用的行为评估和治疗方法。FA+FCT 远程医疗模式已被证明可以维持治疗效果（即儿童行为结果和家长接受度），并具有治疗效率（即节省成本）。然而，这些研究大多数都是在美国进行的。因此，本研究的目的是评估包括全球应用在内的远程医疗 FA+FCT 模型的结果。描述性统计用于分析在所有项目地点参加远程医疗项目的 199 名参与者的结果。结果表明，所有地点的行为结果和家长接受度都保持在与以往研究相似的水平。此外，在辍学率、预约取消和技术问题方面，各项目地点之间几乎没有差异。这些结果表明，FA+FCT 远程医疗模式对于解决全球 ASD 儿童的挑战性行为需求是有效的，并强调了需要进一步评估的领域（例如辍学、取消预约），以确定远程医疗的最佳使用条件。
