Association for Behavior Analysis International

The COVID-19 global pandemic of 2020 and the ensuing state of emergency proclamation presented a threat to delivery of essential services for individuals receiving applied behavior analysis (ABA) based therapy for autism, as clinics and in-home care were prohibited in some parts of the country by regional restrictions and declined by families due to health concerns in other areas. Telehealth service models are a viable and established option for medical care, but applications of remote ABA-based services were not well documented in best practice literature. This panel will provide an overview of the ethical considerations (e.g., 2.09 Right to Effective Treatment) which guide the evaluation of client outcomes, and focus on evaluating those outcomes in a novel treatment modality. In a season of rapid innovation, ABA providers were left to design systematic problem-solving approaches to quickly deploying telehealth services that met ethical guidelines. These services were offered as case oversight/supervision, caregiver consultation, and, in some cases, direct 1:1 services. The panelists, representative of multiple ABA provider agencies in the United States, will share how they approached this challenge with a combined total of over 13,000 patients who received telehealth services. Methods of assessing outcomes will be reviewed, and initial family outcomes will be discussed.

Audience members should be familiar with the range of services that can be provided via telehealth.