No abstract

Required Coronavirus quarantining provided a unique opportunity for clinicians to grow professionally. This study examines use of HIPAA compliant telehealth technologies in two ways. First, telehealth offered a chance for professionals like APNs (advanced practice nurses) and LPCs (licensed professional counselors) to team up, trade referrals and to work together as virtual caring teams. Secondly, this study highlights several ways a caring professional team can mitigate ASD youth (and caregiver) anxiety through improved treatment delivery via telehealth, and ways added functionality can serve this vulnerable population. This study provides information clinicians can use at once to enhance alliances with one another and with ASD youth as well as caregiver(s) using richer multimedia, multimodal treatment delivery.

Purpose: Black and LatinX youth diagnosed on the autism spectrum experience higher incidence of expressive communication delay and so this study examines culturally competent techniques for expanding ASD youth verbal/non-verbal expressive/receptive communication leveraging echolalia using action research methodology with play/sensory therapies.Method: This 1.5 year study followed the progress of five ASD youths. It used licensed professional counselor (LPC), culturally competent action research infused with play/sensory therapies to identify ways this vulnerable population can enjoy enhanced verbal/non-verbal expressive (speaking)/receptive (listening) communication. Results: using a weighted average across all five youth, this study indicated a fully 61% increase in abilities. The success rate examined the number of times in ten youth successfully used verbal/non-verbal expressive/receptive communication at both the outset and at the finish of the study.