I really believe that parents are the captain of the family ship, and experts like Dr. Ally Patterson and myself are here to help make things better onboard. Dr. Patterson is a Board Certified Behavioral Analyst-Doctoral (BCBA-D) who is passionate about early intervention. But at the beginning of the pandemic, she realized the shutdown could cause her clients to lose progress, so she quickly had to adapt her practice to reach them using telehealth.
There can be so many barriers to good ABA therapy for a child: the waitlist for a diagnosis, insurance coverage, finding a great therapist, and copays. By flexing to virtual appointments, Ally has found that she can make herself a little more accessible to her clients.
As she approaches every appointment, Ally simplifies her goals so that parents can help her reach the desired outcome. She lays out three guiding principles that she follows for each of her appointments. She discusses why she chose these three principles as well. From the parent side, Ally has some advice on how parents can make telehealth appointments an effective tool for helping children succeed.
Of course, there are also some drawbacks to telehealth therapy. A parent’s or caregiver’s help on the other end of the screen is a necessary component to telehealth, and sometimes parents don’t have that time to give. But Ally’s seen some really positive benefits from having a parent even more involved in therapy, and she’s also seen how parents can use an “all hands on deck” approach that lets them access care despite barriers.
I see telehealth as such an important part of our future in ABA, and I’m really thrilled to watch another therapist use it to reach more families. Utilizing telehealth has given many parents the chance to become better captains of their family’s ship.
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