Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research, while enhancing transferable skills. Students were challenged to describe their research, scholarship or creative activity in 150 or fewer words to share with our community.
Lauren Denusik
PhD candidate, Faculty of of Health Sciences
Virtual More Than Words®: A Caregiver-Mediated Program for Autistic Preschoolers
Families with an autistic child are experiencing long waitlists to access services. Caregiver mediated programs may be one solution by educating and empowering caregivers to support their child’s development when the clinician is not present. My doctoral research explores the virtual adaptation of More Than Words®, a caregiver-mediated program that provides caregivers strategies they can implement into daily routines to support their autistic preschooler's social communication and play skills development. Outcomes of over 2000 Ontario families that participated in the virtual program between 2020 and 2021 will be examined. Additionally, the experiences of families and clinicians will be explored to understand the facilitators and barriers of this virtual adaptation. As we move beyond the pandemic, virtual services are important in reducing accessibility barriers. My research will provide researchers and clinicians with new findings on virtual programming and where adaptations are needed to ensure positive and impactful experiences for families.
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