Using Telepractice to Build Capacity Within Families and Communities

High-quality early interventions are characterized by services that are developmentally appropriate, evidence-based, and delivered by caregivers and therapists in the child’s natural environment. However, there are significant challenges to providing services with needed dosage or intensity to families and Autistic children/children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities. Innovative solutions are needed to positively impact the early development of Autistic children/children diagnosed with ASD and other developmental disabilities by providing greater access to research-based interventions. Training and coaching the natural change agents, via telepractice, could help in building capacity within families and communities. This presentation will describe a cascading intervention model and a series of intervention studies on this topic. Challenges and opportunities related to telepractice will be discussed.
Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, participants will be able to: (1) explain the use of cascading intervention model for supporting professionals, family members, and children; (2) describe methods, benefits, and barriers for using telepractice; (3) discuss the importance of working with natural change agents in the natural environment.
Hedda Meadan, PhD, BCBA-D, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Meadan is a Professor and the Head of the Department of Special Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a Goldstick Family Scholar and a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst. Her research focuses on social-communication skills and challenging behavior of children with autism and other developmental disabilities and intervention methods to enhance these spheres of functioning. Dr. Meadan and her team use a cascading intervention model in which they train and coach, via telepractice, natural change agents (e.g., family members, service providers, behavior analysts) to use evidence-based strategies to promote social-communication skills of children in the natural environment. She has published widely on topics related to interventions for children with autism and their families and on the use of technology to enhance these interventions.
Recorded on April 6, 2022