Presented by: Arlene Stedler-Brown
When: November 19th, 1:30 ET
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) assures infants and toddlers with disabilities, and their family members, receive family-centered early intervention (FCEI). There is an extant body of evidence documenting the use of FCEI provider behaviors when therapy is delivered in the traditional in-person condition. In a recent research study, Dr. Stredler-Brown investigated the use of a different service delivery platform – telepractice – to deliver FCEI to infants and toddlers who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). Telepractice utilizes telecommunication technologies to deliver health-related services and information to support patient care and is provided from a distance to a client. In this exploratory study, Dr. Stredler-Brown investigated the potential of telepractice to enhance providers’ use of participatory-based FCEI behaviors. The results of the study review how often selected FCEI provider behaviors occur in the telepractice condition in contrast to the frequency of each behavior as it occurs in the in-person condition reported in the literature. Dr. Stredler-Brown also investigated the relationship between characteristics of providers (i.e., training discipline, experience with telepractice) and the providers’ use of FCEI behaviors. The findings from this study will be discussed in the context of the growing use of telepractice. If providers use similar amounts of FCEI behaviors in both in-person therapy and telepractice, there may be more support for the expanding use of telepractice.