Feasibility and Initial Efficacy of an Adapted Telepractice Listening Comprehension Intervention for School-Aged Children with Autism.
Alyssa R Henry, Carlin Conner, Matthew C Zajic and 1 others
PMID 35181846WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism attending remote listening comprehension sessions showed significant improvement in understanding spoken paragraphs, but no change in vocabulary or narrative retell.
Adding a parent-led read-aloud component did not produce better outcomes than the child sessions alone.
Key findings
01Participants showed statistically significant improvement on the CELF-5 Understanding Spoken Paragraphs subtest.
02There was no significant growth in expressive vocabulary or narrative memory scores.
03Adding a supplemental parent-mediated component did not result in significantly different outcomes compared to the child intervention alone.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Small sample size (n=14) limits generalizability and statistical power. Lack of a true control group means improvements cannot be definitively attributed to the intervention rather than maturation or school services. Assessors were not blind to treatment condition. Standardized measures lacked alternate forms, potentially allowing practice effects. The study was a pilot, so no adjustments were made for multiple comparisons.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the significant improvement in listening comprehension as proof that the telepractice intervention is more effective than standard care or that the parent component adds value. The study lacked a true control group, and the comparison between the two active treatment arms showed no difference, meaning the parent component did not enhance outcomes beyond the child sessions alone.