Families’ and professionals’ perspectives of building and maintaining engagement in telepractice early intervention for young children with communication disability

Abstract

Purpose

To explore and describe families’ and professionals’ perspectives about building and maintaining engagement in telepractice early intervention (EI).

Methods

Individual semi-structured reflexive interviews were conducted with Australian families of young children with communication disability receiving telepractice EI and their treating professionals. These interviews were conducted within one day of a telepractice EI session and analysed using thematic analysis.

Results

Thematic analysis of 72 interviews resulted in five themes that emphasised collaboration as an overarching enabler of engagement. The themes were: (1) the delivery of family-centred telepractice was essential for engaging children and families; (2) engagement in telepractice was variable and was affected by child, parent and professional factors; (3) engagement was an investment that required time, consistency and technology; (4) maximising communication interactions during telepractice sessions encouraged children and families to engage with professionals; and (5) joint planning and preparation facilitated child and family engagement in telepractice.

Conclusions

In the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the present study shed light that in many ways, engagement in in-person and telepractice intervention is similar. However, the findings revealed the importance of families having an active role in telepractice EI sessions that occur in the family’s social and communication environment.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Family engagement and high levels of parent participation are recommended in family-centred early intervention (EI).

• In EI delivered via telepractice, families and professionals invest in engagement-building and collaboration in a similar manner to in-person EI and in line with the principles of family-centred practice.

• The distinctiveness of telepractice engagement includes professionals being conscious of their communication style, taking advantage of the home environment, communicating inside and outside appointments, and jointly planning with parents/primary carers.

• EI professionals and students who work with young children with communication disability via telepractice can benefit by considering the engagement-building strategies described in the present study.

Keywords:

• Engagement
• telepractice
• early intervention
• family-centred care
• communication disability

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all families and young children with communication disability, professionals, and organisations who took the time to get involved in this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known conflicts of interest.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, FRW. The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Additional information

Funding

This research was conducted as part of the first author’s doctoral dissertation, which is funded by a PhD scholarship from the Chilean National Scholarship Program for Graduate Studies – Becas Chile CONICYT. All authors approved the final manuscript as submitted and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work.