Conducting Oral and Written Language Adapted Tele-assessments for Early Elementary Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder - Volume 7 - 1-15

Oct 15, 2026

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Tele-health expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing interest in delivering assessments to children with disabilities and collecting standardized language data remotely. This manuscript describes procedures for obtaining oral language, reading, and writing tele-assessment measures with early elementary children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), along with preliminary findings on child and parent engagement and technology-related barriers. Data come from Zoom-based pretest assessments in an intervention efficacy study, using an offline behavioral codebook of parent involvement, child disengagement, and technology issues. Parent involvement accounted for the most codes, child disengagement occurred more across participants, and technology issues were minimal, informing practical implications for successful adapted tele-assessments.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background and aims

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Implications

Keywords

Conducting oral and written language adapted tele-assessments with early elementary-age children with autism spectrum disorder Carlin Conner , Alyssa R Henry\# and Emily J Solari University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA Matthew C Zajic Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA Autism & Developmental Language Impairments Volume 7: 1–15 © The Author(s) 2022 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/23969415221133268](DOI: 10.1177/23969415221133268)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/23969415221133268)[journals.sagepub.com/home/dli](journals.sagepub.com/home/dli) Abstract Background and aims: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, tele-health has gained popularity for both providing services and delivering assessments to children with disabilities. In this manuscript, we discuss the process of collecting standardized oral language, reading, and writing tele-assessment data with early elementary children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and offer preliminary ﬁndings related to child and parent engagement and technology issues. Methods: The data presented are from pretest assessments during an efﬁcacy study examining the electronic delivery of a listening comprehension intervention for children with ASD. Pretest sessions included a battery of standardized language, reading, and writing assessments, conducted over Zoom. The authors operationalized and developed a behavioral codebook of three overarching behavioral categories (parent involvement, child disengagement, and technology issues). Researchers coded videos ofﬂine to record frequencies of indicated behaviors across participants and assessment subtests. Results: Involvement from parents accounted for the highest number of codes. Children showed some disengagement during assessment sessions. Technology issues were minimal. Behavioral categories appeared overall limited but varied across participants and assessments. Conclusions: Parent involvement behaviors made up approximately two-thirds of the coded behaviors. Child disengagement behaviors made up approximately one-fourth of the coded behaviors, and these behaviors occurred more frequently across many different participants (with lower frequencies but greater coverage across children). Technology problems speciﬁc to responding to assessment items were relatively uncommon. Implications: Clear guidelines including assessment preparation, modiﬁcation of directions, and guidelines for parents who remain present are among the implications discussed. We also provide practical implications for continued successful adapted tele-assessments for children with ASD. Keywords Autism spectrum disorder, tele-assessment, standardized assessment, oral language, reading, writing In recent years, tele-health has gained popularity as a reli- 2017, 2019; Waite et al., 2010) . However, the popularity able tool through which services and assessments for chil- of tele-health services grew dramatically in March of dren with disabilities can be delivered (Sutherland et al., 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as many professions \#Dr. Henry is currently at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. Corresponding author: Carlin Conner, Department of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA. Email: [clc6wc@virginia.edu](clc6wc@virginia.edu) Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as speciﬁed on the SAGE and Open Access page ([https://us](https://us). [sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-acc

FAQs

What is the main goal of the adapted tele-assessment approach described?

To collect standardized oral language, reading, and writing assessment data remotely for early elementary children with ASD, while examining engagement and technology concerns.

How were the pretest sessions and data collected?

Pretest sessions used a battery of standardized language, reading, and writing assessments delivered over Zoom, and researchers coded video recordings offline using a behavioral codebook.

What did the findings show about parent involvement, child disengagement, and technology issues?

Parent involvement produced the highest number of codes, child disengagement occurred in about one-fourth of codes with broader coverage across children, and technology problems related to responding to assessment items were relatively uncommon.

Oct 15, 2026

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