Feasibility of utilizing autism navigator® for primary care in South Africa.
A free web course lifted South African primary-care staff’s early-autism red-flag knowledge with a 94 % finish rate.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Sasson et al. (2018) asked South African nurses, doctors, and community health workers to take a free web course. The course is called Autism Navigator for Primary Care. It shows short videos of babies with and without early autism signs.
The team wanted to know: can busy clinic staff finish the course? Will they spot red flags better afterward? They tracked log-ins, quiz scores, and a before-and-after knowledge test.
What they found
Ninety-four out of every 100 starters reached the final page. After the videos, staff named more early warning signs on the checklist. The course fit low-bandwidth clinics because each clip was under two minutes.
Workers said the baby videos felt real and easy to remember. No one asked for paper handouts after seeing the clips.
How this fits with other research
Wetherby et al. (2018) used the same Autism Navigator clips, but gave them to U.S. parents with live Zoom coaching. Toddlers gained social skills in only three months. J et al. show the same content works when you skip the coach and aim at clinic staff instead.
Dai et al. (2021) and Kingsdorf et al. (2024) also tried pure e-learning for families. Completion hovered around two-thirds. J’s 94 % rate hints that professionals stick with the course better than tired parents.
Dai et al. (2023) later ran a true experiment and saw parent knowledge rise while child skills stayed flat. J did not measure child outcomes, so the gap remains open.
Why it matters
You can lift an entire clinic’s red-flag radar in one lunch-break course. Send the link to nurses, receptionists, and interns today. Ask them to watch the five-minute “social communication milestones” clip before tomorrow’s well-baby checks. When every team member spots early signs, kids get referred sooner and families wait less.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
There is a significant research-to-practice gap in early detection of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) worldwide but particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where expertise is limited and high-quality training is difficult to access. Autism Navigator® for Primary Care is a web-based course designed to increase awareness of red flags of ASD in the second year of life and thus promote earlier detection and referral for intervention. It contains extensive video illustrations that offer rapid access to multiple exemplars of ASD red flags. This study examined aspects of feasibility of the Autism Navigator® for Primary Care in one LMIC, South Africa. A mixed-methods quasi-experimental design was used to examine relevant professionals' implementation of the course and measure changes in their knowledge of red flags after training. Perceptions of the acceptability, demand, and practicality of the course were explored in focus groups. Sixty-two providers completed the course online with a 94% completion rate. Built-in learner assessment pass rates ranged from 88% to 100%. Second-language English speakers took longer to complete the learner assessments, and professionals with less access to the Internet spent less time in the course. Participants' perceptions of the acceptability, demand, and practicality of the course were mostly positive with some suggestions made for local conditions. Results supported the feasibility of the course in this LMIC with some supports required pertaining to language and Internet access. We propose that this training has the potential to lower the age of detection of ASD in South Africa and other LMICs. Autism Research 2018, 11: 1511-1521. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Professionals in low- and middle-income countries urgently need training to recognize red flags of autism in very young children. The feasibility of utilizing the Autism Navigator® for Primary Care course for this training was explored with 62 South African professionals. After training, professionals' knowledge of early red flags improved, and most reported the course important and needed in South Africa. They found the web-based design mostly acceptable, practical, and culturally applicable. The course could help lower the age of autism detection.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2018 · doi:10.1002/aur.2018