Interventionist Acquisition of Incidental Teaching Using Pyramidal Training via Telehealth.

Leslie and her team trained four early-intervention staff to run incidental teaching with kids on the spectrum.

First, a lead coach took a short online module. Then she watched her own teaching videos and got e-mail feedback until she hit 90 % fidelity.

Next, the coach trained three co-workers the same way—online lesson, video clips, e-mail notes. All training happened over Zoom and Gmail, no one drove to a site.

Every adult reached mastery in about five practice loops. Kids who rarely asked for things started pointing, reaching, and naming—mands jumped from zero to 12–20 per hour.

The whole pyramid stayed solid for eight weeks, showing the telehealth package stuck without extra booster sessions.

Tavassoli et al. (2012) did the same pyramid idea in person and got 90 % accuracy on preference assessments. Leslie keeps the pyramid, swaps travel for telehealth, and still hits high fidelity—proof the model works online.

Hinton et al. (2017) also coached parents through a screen and saw child behavior improve. Together, the two studies say remote training can travel past parenting and into direct autism intervention.

D'Elia et al. (2014) showed low-intensity TEACCH helps preschoolers, but they never trained staff to keep it going. Leslie fills that gap by giving teams a cheap, repeatable way to learn naturalistic teaching without losing classroom time.

You can clone this package next week: send a 20-minute module, ask staff to film a five-minute play routine, and e-mail scored feedback until they hit 90 %. No hotel costs, no missed sessions. If you run an ASD clinic, school, or home program, this is your fastest route to more child mands and less staff travel.