Adapting an early autism caregiver coaching intervention for telehealth delivery in low-resource settings: A South African study of the 'what' and the 'why'.

The study analysed meeting notes and planning summaries retrospectively, so some adaptation details or reasons may be missing. It describes adaptations only; it did not test whether telehealth sessions changed caregiver or child behaviour. Fidelity consistency of the adapted content was not evaluated at this stage. The online training and supervision were designed for ECD practitioners who already had in-person training, so they may not fit practitioners without that background. Adaptations were made under COVID-19 restrictions and time pressure, which may limit transfer to other settings. Community stakeholders and autistic individuals were not directly involved in designing the telehealth sessions.

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. Funding came from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Fogarty International Center.

Do not read this as evidence that telehealth caregiver coaching improves autism outcomes. The paper documents 10 planned adaptations and the reasons for them, but it did not measure caregiver or child behaviour change.