中華心理衛生協會

 Purpose: We review the literature on parent-mediated intervention (PMI) for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and then draw implications specifically for telehealth PMI. Methods: We first conducted a narrative literature review of PMI for ASD in general. Next, we identified 12 studies on telehealth PMI published before March 2019 in the PsycINFO database using the following keywords: parent, autism, ＂intervention or training＂, and ＂distance or telehealth or video conferencing or internet.＂ Results: The literature indicated that parents/caregivers were able to learn the intervention techniques and to implement them with high fidelity for children. Specifically, the studies reported that through PMI, children with ASD not only improved in social and communication skills, but also decreased in problem behaviors. Parents who received PMI training experienced lower stress and improved competency. Moreover, PMI was shown to help children maintain their learning skills, and the finding generalized to various situations. Finally and critically, we discovered that studies on telehealth PMI generally reported similar results to those on broader PMI. Conclusions: Both PMI and PMI training are time-consuming. Double-career families and families living in rural areas thus have difficulty with completing the training and implementing the intervention. However, a telehealth model may help parents/ caregivers fit PMI into their schedules, as the approach provides more flexibility than does its predecessors. Ideally, PMI through a telehealth model may allow the benefits of PMI to be more accessible for families in need.