Functional assessment and function‐based treatment delivered via telehealth: A brief summary

Schieltz et al. (2020) wrote a short story-style review. They looked at every paper where families ran a functional analysis or FCT over video chat.

No new kids were tested. The team simply mapped what has been tried and what worked.

Telehealth FA and FCT is doable. Parents can collect data that looks like clinic data.

The authors say start with a five-minute tech check and give the family a one-page script.

Foti et al. (2015) came first. That case study showed a BCBA coaching from 200 miles away. Schieltz et al. (2020) later stitched many such cases together, so the 2020 paper extends the 2015 story.

Rahaman et al. (2024) asked which FA format is most accurate. They found brief and trial-based versions keep the same hit rate as long sessions. Schieltz et al. (2020) list telehealth studies that used exactly those brief formats, so the two reviews line up.

Doughty et al. (2010) proved trial-based FA cuts assessment time by about 85 %. Telehealth teams now copy that speed, showing the lab finding travels to living-room settings.

You can run an FA tonight without leaving your home office. Mail the family a toy kit, meet on Zoom, and watch the data roll in. The review says clear written steps and a quick tech test keep the session smooth. Start small: one condition, five trials, ten minutes. If the graph looks clean, you just saved a clinic visit and gave the parent real-time skills.