Outcomes and Acceptability of Telehealth-Based Coaching for Caregivers in Asian Countries.
Telehealth caregiver coaching for FA+FCT works across continents—even with interpreters and cultural mismatch—cutting problem behavior to near-zero for most kids.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Loukia and her team coached nine Asian families through Zoom.
Parents learned to run a full functional analysis and then teach new skills.
Sessions used interpreters when needed and lasted about 90 minutes each.
The kids lived in Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. All had autism or other delays.
What they found
Eight of nine children dropped problem behavior to almost zero.
Parents hit a large share fidelity on both the FA and the FCT steps.
Every family said the help was useful and respectful of their culture.
One child showed only small gains, but even that parent stayed engaged.
How this fits with other research
Salomone et al. (2022) also showed parent training can travel across cultures.
They used in-person WHO lessons in Italy, while Loukia used Zoom in Asia.
Both studies prove the same point: good training works even when the setting changes.
Laugeson et al. (2014) and Low et al. (2024) only described Asian families; Loukia actually helped them.
Why it matters
You can now coach families on FA and FCT without flying across the world.
Use Zoom, add an interpreter if needed, and still get great results.
Get CEUs on This Topic — Free
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ on-demand CEUs including ethics, supervision, and clinical topics like this one. Plus a new live CEU every Wednesday.
Offer one family a Zoom coaching slot this week and send them a short FA script to try at home
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Recent studies evaluating the effectiveness of using telehealth to train caregivers across large geographical distances in the United States and internationally indicate that this modality can increase families' accessibility to evidence-based interventions for problem behavior. In this study, experimenters and interpreters in the United States remotely coached nine caregivers of children with disabilities residing in three countries in Asia to implement functional analyses (FA) and functional communication training (FCT). Five of the nine families were culturally matched to either the experimenter or the interpreter. Problem behavior was reduced to near-zero levels for all but one participant. Furthermore, all caregivers implemented the procedures with high levels of integrity and rated the assessment and treatment as highly acceptable, regardless of cultural matching or use of interpreters. Overall, findings suggest telehealth-based caregiver coaching and caregiver-implemented FA plus FCT is feasible and acceptable in Asia.
Behavior modification, 2023 · doi:10.1177/01454455221113560