Telehealth Evaluation of Development of Infants (TEDI Study)

The goals of this project are to use telehealth to learn more about the development and outcomes of infants with early developmental concerns, and to identify different factors that support families’ participation and satisfaction with telehealth-based assessments.

Infants 6 months 0 days to 12 months 30 days old who:

• May be showing differences in their social interaction or their communication, language or play skills
• Can sit upright with help and hold toys
• Caregivers may or may not have concerns about specific diagnoses like autism or developmental delay.

Caregivers and their baby will meet with a member of our study team over Zoom for about 1 hour. We will walk them through different play activities (for example peek-a-boo, tickles, songs, playing with blocks) and ask them questions to learn more about their child’s skills. The study takes place entirely over telehealth in the family’s home and no travel to the MIND Institute is required. Caregivers will also complete several questionnaires about their child’s development and family’s needs. There will be 4 initial visits every 3 months, and then a final follow-up visit when the child is 3 years old.

We know that many families have concerns about their babies’ development or wonder if they are developing differently than their peers. Right now, we don’t have very good tools to tell whether these differences might be related to autism, developmental delays, or are likely to resolve on their own. This means that many families are told to ‘wait and see.’ Often families wait months or even years for specialized evaluations and services. We hope that by closely following many infants with these kinds of early concerns we can help identify when early behavioral differences indicate a child may be more or less likely to have particular outcomes. This will help us develop better supports for families during this early period before they may have received a specific formal diagnosis.