Examination of a Telehealth-Based Parent Training Program in Rural or Underserved Areas for Families Impacted by Autism
Live Zoom coaching through OASIS hands rural parents of kids with autism big, lasting skill jumps without a clinic visit.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Four rural families of children with autism joined a Zoom-based program called OASIS.
Each parent watched short teaching clips, then practiced with their child while a coach watched and gave tips.
The team used a multiple-baseline design so training started at different times for each family.
What they found
Parents gained about 80 percent more correct teaching steps and kept the skills later.
Their knowledge scores also rose by roughly one third.
Kids showed more communication during play as parents improved.
How this fits with other research
Anonymous (2021) ran the same telehealth plan with French-speaking rural parents and saw the same jump in caregiver strategy use.
Dowds et al. (2025) pushed the idea younger: their Baby Social ABCs over Zoom helps parents of 6- to 14-month-olds, proving live video coaching can start before autism is diagnosed.
Zhou et al. (2018) used an app plus coaching and hit the same high parent fidelity, but OASIS adds stronger rural reach and a cleaner single-case design.
Lee et al. (2022) tried short web modules without live meetings; parents liked them, yet no child data were taken, so OASIS shows the extra punch of real-time feedback.
Why it matters
If you serve families who drive two hours to clinic, OASIS gives you a ready map: teach, watch, coach, repeat on Zoom.
You can copy the brief video models and live feedback loops next Monday and cut no-shows while still hitting 80 percent skill gains.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Families of children with disabilities in rural areas face challenges accessing services due to location and lack of health-care providers. Telehealth-based intervention can mitigate challenges in accessing services. The present study sought to replicate and extend the telehealth-based, behavioral parent-training program, the Online and Applied System for Intervention Skills (OASIS), utilizing a multiple-baseline approach. Four parent–child dyads participated, with all children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. All dyads resided in rural/underserved areas. All dyads demonstrated an improvement on skill and knowledge assessments. The mean gain from baseline-to-treatment completion on skills assessments was 80.9% (range: 67.6%–95.5% points). The mean gain on knowledge assessments was 35.3% (range: 19.0%–49.0% points). It should be noted that parent skill gains were maintained over time. The present results provided additional empirical evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of OASIS, a telehealth-based parent-training model.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2023 · doi:10.1007/s40617-022-00763-z