The Research Says

One study took 107 children ages 21 months to 6 years old with ASD or other developmental disabilities and who were treated between 1996 and 2014. The children were divided into three groups: 52 kids treated between 1996 and 2009 who had a behavior consultant come to their home; 23 children treated between 2009 and 2012 whose parents went to a clinic near their home to be coached via telehealth; and 32 children who were treated between 2012 and 2014 as part of a trial in which their parents were trained in functional communication training (FCT), a type of ABA treatment, via telehealth coaching at home.

"It's been impressive to me to see how well this works in different settings," he says. "Almost all of the parents do well enough in this training to be able to help their kids a lot. And that reduces stress on the family and helps kids succeed in school and in life.""This coaching is more than having a casual talk with families," Lindgren says. "It's setting up a variety of situations in which problem behavior may occur, and helping parents find ways to address problems constructively, and to better understand why that behavior is occurring. Source: Scott Lindgren, David Wacker, Alyssa Suess, Kelly Schieltz, Kelly Pelzel, Todd Kopelman, John Lee, Patrick Romani and Debra Waldro. Pediatrics February 2016, 137 (Supplement 2) S167-S175; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2015-2851O