Telehealth for Family Guidance: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Parent-Focused Preference Assessment, and Activity-Based Instruction for the Support of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Families

Cameron et al. (2021) wrote a how-to paper. They give a five-step script for running telehealth sessions with families who have a child with autism.

Step one is a short Acceptance and Commitment Therapy values game with parents. Step two asks parents what daily activities they already enjoy. Step three turns those activities into child goals. Steps four and five coach the parent to use those activities to teach the child.

The paper tells you what to say, what buttons to click, and how long each part takes. No kids were tested, so there are no outcome numbers.

The authors did not collect data, so they report no results. The paper is a road map, not a scoreboard.

Bloomfield et al. (2019) used a similar telehealth parent-coach style. They showed a single child with food refusal ate new foods when parents followed a step-up plan on Zoom. Their data prove the remote format can work.

Perez et al. (2015) did the same kind of parent coaching, but in person. Parents learned the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce plan at home and every child’s problem behavior dropped. Cameron keeps the parent-power idea and simply moves it to the screen.

Cosbey et al. (2017) also coached parents at home, but only for feeding. All three kids ate more foods and screamed less. Cameron’s script is broader—you can plug in any goal, not just meals.

You now have a ready-made Zoom agenda. Open with the values game so parents feel heard. Ask what they love doing—gardening, baking, race cars—and write goals inside those moments. Coach live while they try it. No extra travel, no lost sessions, just a clear five-step loop you can run tomorrow.