My poster, “Expanding Access of Applied Behavior Analysis Services for Autistic Children from Low Income Families,” aims to bring awareness to the need to expand access to quality health care for young autistic children from low income families. 

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is often diagnosed in early childhood indicated by having difficulty using words to express their needs and wants. After the diagnosis, psychologists highly recommend families to get Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) with a certified ABA therapist because it is an effective research-based service that helps autistic children develop social skills which are transferable in various life scenarios. The ABA therapist will meet with the caregiver and the autistic child and discuss the child’s current behavior and the family situation (financial, resources, etc) to determine the goals the therapist, caregiver, and the autistic child should work on for the sessions. Research has shown that ABA improves autistic children’s behavior and ability to understand and reciprocate verbal and nonverbal communication effectively (Markygianni, et al, 2018). However, autistic children from low income families experience barriers to receiving ABA which includes being far away from providers, waiting a long time to start their appointments, and having expenses that are not covered by insurance (Littman et al. 2023). As a result, low income autistic children have poor academic, social and behavior skills. 

Caregiver coaching telehealth service can potentially help expand access to ABA services for autistic children from low income families because it allows providers to teach caregivers how to incorporate social and behavioral skills into their daily routines virtually. The ABA therapist and the caregiver will meet weekly on virtual platforms to discuss updates on the child and the family. Then, the therapist will encourage the caregiver to use the resources they have in the house that can help prompt the child to communicate what they want verbally. Caregiver coaching telehealth helps parents save money on costs that come from in-home sessions such as provider transportation to and from the caregivers’ home. This strategy also helps save caregivers and providers time transporting for clinic sessions and increase caregivers’ confidence to support their autistic children’s skill development while receiving the same high quality service from in-home and clinic sessions (Lindgren et al., 2018, Gentile, et al, 2022).

My PURM project, PEACE for ImPACT, is related to my poster because it evaluates the providers’ implementation of an ABA based training program in their sessions with autistic children and caregivers in Philadelphia. In my role, I used fidelity forms to analyze how much training the providers implement in their recorded sessions. I also had hands-on experience improving autistic children’s social skills in play activities. Furthermore, I helped research sensory-friendly fun events for autistic children and their caregivers on PEACE for ImPACT’s new social media page. As an aspiring Board Certified Behavior Analyst, this experience helped me understand effective strategies that I can use in the sessions with my future clients from low income backgrounds.

Reference List

Gentile, M., Messineo, L., La Guardia, D., Arrigo, M., Città, G., Ayala, A., Cusimano, G., Martines, P., Mendolia, G., & Allegra, M. (2022). A Parent-Mediated Telehealth Program for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder : Promoting Parents' Ability to Stimulate the Children's Learning, Reduce Parenting Stress, and Boost Their Sense of Parenting Empowerment. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 52(12), 5285–5300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05482-6​

Lindgren, S., Wacker, D., Suess, A., Schieltz, K., Pelzel, K., Kopelman, T., Lee, J., Romani, P., & Waldron, D. (2016). Telehealth and Autism: Treating Challenging Behavior at Lower Cost. Pediatrics, 137 Suppl 2(Suppl 2), S167–S175. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2015-2851O​​

Littman, E. R., Gavin, L., Broda, A., Hodges, A. C., & Spector, L. (2023). Barriers to Receiving Applied Behavior Analysis Services in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder. Cureus, 15(11), e48585. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.48585​

Makrygianni, M. K., Gena, A., Katoudi, S., & Galanis, P. (2018). The effectiveness of applied behavior analytic interventions for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A meta-analytic study. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 51, 18–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2018.03.006