Effectiveness of Occupational Therapy Teleintervention in Pediatric

The high prevalence of children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD's; 5-29%) combined with the low accessibility and availability of child development services in Israel raises an urgent need to develop innovative, effective and accessible models of intervention. Teleintervention is an innovative and practical option for providing developmental services, however the evidence for its effectiveness among this population are insufficient. Study goals are: (1) to adapt an occupation therapy intervention for remote delivery; (2) to assess its feasibility (in terms of adherence, treatment fidelity and satisfaction with care); (3) to assess its efficacy in promoting personal functional goals, participation in daily activities and QOL in children aged 5-8 years with NDD's. We will conduct a controlled study without randomization using mixed methods. Participants will include 40 children with NDD's and functional difficulties in daily life that will assigned to study group (teleintervention; n=20) or control group (in person intervention; n=20). The intervention program will include 12 weekly sessions based on an evidence-based approach (CO-OP), that will take place in videoconference or in personal meetings formats. The main outcome measures will include standard assessment tools aim to assess participation and QOL. Feasibility will be assessed in terms of adherence, fidelity and satisfaction with care using a descriptive statistics and feedback interviews. Effectiveness will be evaluated by group X time interaction using a repeated measure MANOVA. To examine the variables that predict adherence and success in treatment, linear regression will be used. In addition, a thematic analysis of the qualitative information will be performed.