Parent-mediated intervention training delivered remotely for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has preliminary evidence for parent intervention fidelity and improving parent knowledge and children's social behaviour and communication skills

Objective: To systematically review existing evidence of studies using parent-mediated intervention training delivered remotely for parents of children with ASD living outside urban areas. Design: This systematic review met 15 out of the 16 AMSTAR 2 criteria. One criterion was partially met as limited information was provided regarding excluded studies. Search strategy: A comprehensive systematic search was conducted across CINAHL, Embase, ERIC, PsycINFO and
Pubmed databases. Selection criteria: Included studies were required to (1) be
published in English, (2) involve parents/caregivers of children with a formal diagnosis of ASD aged under 18 years, who resided outside major cities/urban areas with limited access to services and (3) where intervention involved training parents/caregivers (via various modes of telehealth remote delivery methods) in intervention skills to improve their child’s social behaviour and communication skills. Methods: 1218 abstracts were identified and screened independently by two authors against the inclusion/exclusion criteria with 90% agreement on included articles. NHMRC levels of evidence and the Kmet critical appraisal tool were used to assess the methodological quality of included studies. Main findings: The seven included studies comprised a total sample of 197 parents living in the United States, Canada or Australia. The overall quality of study design was low with: two pre/post-cohort studies, three multiple baseline design studies and two randomised controlled trials.