Adaptations to Early Intervention Service Delivery During COVID-19

Background: Early Intervention (EI) systems made a rapid shift to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the limited preparation of EI providers in the telehealth service delivery model, it is unclear how providers implemented adaptations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the factor...

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Main Authors: Lauren M. Little, Ashley Stoffel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Western Michigan University 2021-07-01
Series:Open Journal of Occupational Therapy
Online Access:https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/ojot/vol9/iss3/5/
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spelling doaj-3c2d155f5b624371872c92caf38baef62021-07-20T18:33:30ZengWestern Michigan University Open Journal of Occupational Therapy 2168-64082021-07-019319https://doi.org/10.15453/2168-6408.1845 Adaptations to Early Intervention Service Delivery During COVID-19Lauren M. LittleAshley StoffelBackground: Early Intervention (EI) systems made a rapid shift to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the limited preparation of EI providers in the telehealth service delivery model, it is unclear how providers implemented adaptations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the factor structure of the Service Delivery Adaptations Questionnaire and examine the influence of provider type, years of EI experience, and willingness to return to in-person services on the questionnaire’s subscales. Method: We used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to examine the structure of the Service Delivery Adaptations Questionnaire among n = 704 EI providers. We used multivariate linear regression (subsample of n = 595 EI providers) to understand the influence of person factors on the subscales of the measure. Results: EFA results showed a four-factor solution that accounted for 57.33% of the variance. Willingness to return to in-person services had a significant influence on scores; provider type showed significant differences on the intervention adaptations subscale, and the effects were moderated by years of experience in EI. Conclusion: The ways that occupational therapists rated practice changes, particularly intervention adaptations as a result of using telehealth during COVID-19, was highly influenced by their willingness to return to in-person services and years in practice.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/ojot/vol9/iss3/5/
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Lauren M. Little
Ashley Stoffel
spellingShingle Lauren M. Little
Ashley Stoffel
Adaptations to Early Intervention Service Delivery During COVID-19
Open Journal of Occupational Therapy
author_facet Lauren M. Little
Ashley Stoffel
author_sort Lauren M. Little
title Adaptations to Early Intervention Service Delivery During COVID-19
title_short Adaptations to Early Intervention Service Delivery During COVID-19
title_full Adaptations to Early Intervention Service Delivery During COVID-19
title_fullStr Adaptations to Early Intervention Service Delivery During COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed Adaptations to Early Intervention Service Delivery During COVID-19
title_sort adaptations to early intervention service delivery during covid-19
publisher Western Michigan University
series Open Journal of Occupational Therapy
issn 2168-6408
publishDate 2021-07-01
description Background: Early Intervention (EI) systems made a rapid shift to telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the limited preparation of EI providers in the telehealth service delivery model, it is unclear how providers implemented adaptations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the factor structure of the Service Delivery Adaptations Questionnaire and examine the influence of provider type, years of EI experience, and willingness to return to in-person services on the questionnaire’s subscales. Method: We used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to examine the structure of the Service Delivery Adaptations Questionnaire among n = 704 EI providers. We used multivariate linear regression (subsample of n = 595 EI providers) to understand the influence of person factors on the subscales of the measure. Results: EFA results showed a four-factor solution that accounted for 57.33% of the variance. Willingness to return to in-person services had a significant influence on scores; provider type showed significant differences on the intervention adaptations subscale, and the effects were moderated by years of experience in EI. Conclusion: The ways that occupational therapists rated practice changes, particularly intervention adaptations as a result of using telehealth during COVID-19, was highly influenced by their willingness to return to in-person services and years in practice.
url https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/ojot/vol9/iss3/5/
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