Preliminary evidence on the use of telehealth in an outpatient behavior clinic

Suess et al. (2016) tested a short telehealth package for families in an outpatient clinic. One-hour Zoom FA plus three 15-minute FCT coaching calls were given to parents of kids with autism.

The team asked: can parents cut problem behavior at home after only four brief online meetings?

Problem behavior dropped by about two-thirds. Parents learned to spot the function and teach a replacement phrase in under a week.

No family had to drive back to the clinic after the first call.

Lindgren et al. (2020) later ran an RCT with the same recipe and saw a 98% drop, beating the 65% found here. The 2020 paper now sets the gold standard, but Suess gave the first clear signal that telehealth FA+FCT could work at all.

Schieltz et al. (2022) took the idea global and repeated the ~65% drop in 199 families across six continents, showing the 2016 numbers hold up at scale.

Craig et al. (2022) moved the package into public schools; staff coached via Zoom got the same gains, proving the model travels beyond the clinic.

This 2016 paper is the proof-of-concept you can show administrators who still doubt remote services. One hour of FA plus three micro-coaching calls is a low-cost first step when waitlists are long or miles are many. Use it as your opening bid: start with brief telehealth, then add more sessions if needed.