Parental Demand, Learning, and Satisfaction With Virtual Parent Coaching of Music Interventions

Virtual music therapy services became common during the COVID-19 pandemic and have remained a viable option for communities with access barriers. Parent coaching is a specific intervention where primary caregivers learn evidence-based strategies to support their children's development. Virtual music parent coaching has initial evidence of feasibility for families of autistic children. In this study, we used quantitative and qualitative measures to evaluate an 8-week parent coaching program. Feasibility aspects included parental demand, retention, learning, and satisfaction, interventionist's fidelity to the coaching program, and primary caregiver perspectives of outcomes, challenges, and benefits. Results indicated that caregivers learned about the research opportunity mainly through social media, with much lower response to email invitations. Eleven participants enrolled in the study, but 7 completed the program, for a 64% retention rate. Main reasons to drop out were time constraints and other responsibilities. Parents reported a high level of satisfaction and appropriate learning, as well as meaningful changes in their child's communication, understanding their child better, and valuing the accessibility and flexibility of the virtual modality. An interventionist with limited specialized training in autism but appropriate clinical experience achieved fidelity in the parent coaching model quickly. Caregivers' recommendations for improvement included providing recorded examples of the music and tailoring the written materials to each family. Suggestions for future research and practice include prioritizing social media as recruiting medium, evaluating parental disposition and time availability before initiating the program, considering siblings' needs, investigating cost effectiveness, and emphasizing the interventionist's collaborative approach with the parent.