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Full paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1750946721001343

AccessibleAcademia

Nothing about us without us
Who: Gibbs and colleagues
Journal: Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Published: 2021
Title: Autism assessment via telehealth during the Covid 19 pandemic: Experiences and perspectives of autistic adults, parents/carers and clinicians

Telehealth & Autism Assessments

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of people now receive healthcare, including assessment & intervention, via telephone or other telecommunication device.

How do people feel about this?

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Previous research has found that diagnostic assessments, intervention, and therapy via telecommunications have largely positive experience, equivalent to face-to-face services.

The Participants:

16 autistic adults.
56 parents/carers of autistic children & adults.
7 diagnostic clinicians.
Recruited from an autism assessment service in Sydney, Australia.

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They were interviewed about their experiences of telehealth assessments.

The Results:

About a third of participants felt that there were important things that they were unable to do or say online that they would be able to do in person.

About 80% of people felt comfortable interacting with the clinician online, and about 60% would be happy to do future assessments online.

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The majority were very experienced with telecommunication, and about a third experienced technical difficulties during their assessment, although this only impacted the assessment in 12.5% of cases.

Clinicians generally felt comfortable delivering assessments online, although some felt slightly less confident with the observation aspect of the assessment, or with assessing younger children.

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From the interviews, there were four main themes, and eight subthemes.

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Acceptability of autism assessments via telehealth.
Theme 1: Teleassessments are a convenient option

• Clients did not have to travel
• Great during COVID
• Clients felt relaxed in familiar surroundings

Theme 2: Teleassessments may not be for everyone

Theme 3: Clinicians needed to adapt their practices

• Heavier reliance on other sources of information
• Complete reliance on carers for child assessment

Theme 4: Technology can negatively impact assessment experiences

• Some behaviours may not be apparent
• Communication difficulties of client
• Using appropriate technology