Caregiver Skills Training: Comparing Clinician Training Methods

Parenting Clinical Trial

— CST  

Official title:

Caregiver Skills Training: Comparing the Effectiveness of Training Clinicians Via Telehealth and In-Person Training

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT06038799
• Other study ID #: STUDY23040076
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: September 15, 2023
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2024

Study information

• Verified date: February 2024
• Source: University of Pittsburgh
• Contact: Benjamin Handen
• Phone: 14122355452
• Email: handenbl[@]upmc.edu
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Caregiver Skills Training (CST) is an evidence-based intervention for parents of young children with developmental disabilities that was developed through a collaboration between Autism Speaks and the World Health Organization. The intervention is typically offered by Facilitators who are trained and supervised by CST Master Trainers. This study seeks to use a remote training model to compare two training and supervision processes. One group, comprised of facilitators from rural settings, will be trained and supervised by two master trainers from the University of Pittsburgh using a remote training model. A second group, comprised of facilitators from an agency serving primarily low-income households and located near Pittsburgh, will be trained and supervised in a face-to-face manner. Both groups will initially receive ten 90-minute training sessions over a 2-month period and will subsequently receive 1 hour per week of supervision while conducting their first 12-session CST group. Outcome measures will include assessment of change in caregiver stress and didactic skills as well as improvement in each child's communication/social skills, functional skills, and overall behavior. We have also added an additional research question in which we compare face-to-face CST sessions with remote CST sessions.

Description:

There are two aspects to this study: First, the investigators will compare two training and supervision processes. One group, comprised of facilitators from rural settings, will be trained and supervised by two master trainers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Center for Autism and Developmental Disorders (CADD). A second group, comprised of facilitators from an agency serving primarily low-income households and located near Pittsburgh, PA, will be trained and supervised in a face-to-face manner. Both groups will receive 15 hours of training spread over the course of 2-3 months (in summer 2023). The focus of these sessions will be to introduce and train staff on the CST model, ensure their understanding of the curriculum, and to help them gain proficiency in administration. During the training phase, both groups will practice administration of activities and will be provided feedback. The master trainers will also assist the newly trained facilitators in navigating recruitment and organization of their first CST groups. Upon initiation of the CST groups, facilitators will receive 1 hour of supervision per week, either in person or via TEAMS. Supervision will extend over the 9 group sessions and 3 home visits per family (fall 2023). These supervision sessions will allow the facilitators to ask questions, obtain feedback, and troubleshoot any challenges. The investigators will also collect pre and post measures (baseline and week 12) from the parents participating in the CST groups to determine if the type of training provided to the facilitators (face-to-face versus remote) impacted parent progress. We have also added an additional research question in which we compare face-to-face CST sessions with remote CST sessions.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 35
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2024
• Est. primary completion date: December 31, 2024
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

Parents who

• Have a child ages 2-9 with a developmental disability and/or autism
• Able to be served by one of the three UPMC sites
• Able to attend 12 sessions. Group sessions are at the clinic site and the individual sessions may be done virtually or in person.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Parent()s does not speak / understand English. Given the nature of this study, we are unable to provide translation services.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Parenting

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Caregiver Skills Training (CST)
The investigators are comparing the relative efficacy of CST between a CST group led by clinicians trained and supervised remotely versus a group led by clinicians trained an supervised face-to-face.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	UPMC Altoona	Altoona	Pennsylvania
United States	UPMC Mon Yough	McKeesport	Pennsylvania

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Pittsburgh	Autism Speaks

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

References & Publications (5)

Holly LE, Fenley AR, Kritikos TK, Merson RA, Abidin RR, Langer DA. Evidence-Base Update for Parenting Stress Measures in Clinical Samples. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2019 Sep-Oct;48(5):685-705. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2019.1639515. Epub 2019 Aug 8. — View Citation

Kasari C, Lawton K, Shih W, Barker TV, Landa R, Lord C, Orlich F, King B, Wetherby A, Senturk D. Caregiver-mediated intervention for low-resourced preschoolers with autism: an RCT. Pediatrics. 2014 Jul;134(1):e72-9. doi: 10.1542/peds.2013-3229. — View Citation

Ludwig NN, Suskauer SJ, Rodgin S, Chen J, Borda A, Jones K, Lahey S, Slomine BS. Outcome Measurement in Children With a History of Disorders of Consciousness After Severe Brain Injury: Telephone Administration of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Thi — View Citation

Sengupta K, Shah H, Ghosh S, Sanghvi D, Mahadik S, Dani A, Deshmukh O, Pacione L, Dixon P, Salomone E; WHO-CST team; Servili C. World Health Organisation-Caregiver Skills Training (WHO-CST) Program: Feasibility of Delivery by Non-Specialist Providers in R — View Citation

Wainer AL, Berger NI, Ingersoll BR. Brief Report: The Preliminary Psychometric Properties of the Social Communication Checklist. J Autism Dev Disord. 2017 Apr;47(4):1231-1238. doi: 10.1007/s10803-016-3026-8. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Change from week 1 (baseline) to week 12 on the Caregivers Skills and Knowledge Measure	eEvaluates change in caregiver skills and knowledge related to session content as well as caregiver confidence. There are 28 skills questions (scored on a scale of 1-5) with a score range fomr 28-140 (with higher scores indicating greater skills). The Confidence scale consists of 9 items (scored 1-5) with scores ranging from 9-45. Higher scores indicate greater confidence.	Week 1 (baseline) versus week 12 (final visit)
Secondary	Change from week 1 (baseline) to week 12 on the Parenting Stress Index.	To assess parental distress, parent-child dysfunctional interaction, and child challenges. There are 36 items and 3 subscales (12 items per subscale). Subscales include Parent Distress, Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction, and Difficult Child. There is also a Total Stress Score. Each item is scored on a 1-5 scale. Range for each subscale is 12-60 points; Total Score is 36-180 points. Scores are converted to percentiles. Percentiles of 15-80 are "typical stress;" 81-89 are "high stress;" and >89 are "clinically significant stress." Higher percentiles indicate higher levels of stress.	Week 1 (baseline) versus week 12 (final visit)
Secondary	Change from week 1 (baseline) to week 12 on the Social Communication Checklist (SCC)	To assess social communication abilities, specifically social engagement (15 items), expressive language form (15 items), expressive language function (15 items), receptive language (8 items) imitation (6 items, and pla (11 items). Items are scored on a 3-point scale ("usually," = 3 points; "sometimes," = 2 points; or "rarely" = 1 point). The range for all 70 items is 70-210 points. The higher the score, the greater the child's abilities.	Week 1 (baseline) versus week 12 (final visit)