Preliminary study of The Feelings Program for Adolescents with neurodevelopmental conditions delivered in a group clinic-based setting or parent home-based setting to explore feasibility, participant experience and the effect on social emotional domains, wellbeing and mental health concurrent with delivery of the digital version of this intervention.
- Conditions
- Cerebral PalsyMild Intellectual DisabilityAutism Spectrum DisorderNeurological - Other neurological disordersMental Health - Learning disabilitiesMental Health - Autistic spectrum disorders
- Registration Number
- ACTRN12623000873628
- Lead Sponsor
- The Children's Hospital at Westmead
- Brief Summary
Not available
- Detailed Description
Not available
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- ot yet recruiting
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 20
Adolescent participants:
•Aged 11-16 years old,
•Attending secondary school education in 2024,
•Have a diagnosis of CP and may also have co-occurring NDC (autism and/or Mild ID)
•Reported by parents and/or teachers to have social-emotional learning needs that would benefit from a targeted emotion development program.
•Be able to generate a three-word sentence on an A4-sized worksheet (with or without support, and by hand, text or scribe),
•Must speak English, and
•Must be willing and able to engage in TFP-A lesson at a time which is mutually agreed by TFP-A facilitators and to the consenting families.
Confirmation of diagnosis will be reviewed by a panel at CHW, and shall include recent medical or allied health reports submitted by parents, and through parent report assessment of current adaptive behaviour and social-emotional development and where required, a WISC-5 assessment conducted by CHW staff. Adolescent participants in the face to face clinic-based setting will attend lessons without their parent. If the co-facilitator is unable to provide the additional support required for the adolescent to attend the clinic sessions, enrolment in an alternative setting maybe considered (for example home-based program or telehealth).
Note: All parents / carers of students in the clinic-based intervention will be invited to consent for the research study, involving attending parent sessions, accessing online training and the collection of data relating to their child and TFP-A. Teachers of the participating adolescents in TFP-A sessions will also be invited to consent for the research study, involving accessing online training and the collection of data relating to their student and TFP-A.
In addition to the above, parents who are selected for the home-based program will also be required to speak English and be willing to attend additional TFP-A parent sessions in a clinical setting or via telehealth at a time which is mutually agreed by TFP-A facilitators and to the consenting families. They must also have the capacity and ability to support their child at home in learning TFP-A curriculum and practicing the new emotion-based skills at home and in community settings. Their child will not be attending TFP-A sessions as these will be completed at the family home facilitated by their parent.
The pre-treatment assessments are well-accepted, previously validated psychometric instruments that will be administered the initial assessment for diagnostic purposes and for establishing eligibility in relation to inclusion/exclusion criteria. Assessment of social-emotional difficulties, mental health and adaptive behaviour will be based on parent report using well-accepted, previously validated psychometric instruments.
Adolescent clinic-based participants:
•Non-English speaker (speaks a language/s other than English and requires an interpreter to translate the English language) and/or is rated by parent or teacher as an inconsistent communicator with familiar people (CFCS Level IV) or seldom effective communicator even with familiar people (CFCS Level V). Clinic-based group lessons and questionnaires contain content that is difficult for people to understand if they are non-English speakers or have difficulties effectively communicating with others.
•Intellectual disability in the moderate, profound of severe range.
•Major congenital anomaly as their experience of emotional development may be less reflective of the broader CP experience.
•Significantly high levels of reported challenging behaviour or attention difficulties,
•Moderate to severe mental health issues.
As the intervention is a mental health prevention program, if current mental health difficulties are too great it may limit the ability of the participant to participate in the program or benefit from the skill building elements of the program when delivered in a group format. It is likely that the mental health difficulties will first need to be addressed by the family and mental health services.
Parent home-based participants:
•Non-English speaker (speaks a language/s other than English and requires an interpreter to translate the English language)
•Parent’s self-reporting extreme levels of mental health difficulties or stress.
•Inability to access online platform with adequate internet connection, speaker and camera. As the parent material will include an online component, internet access is required.
Parent training program contains content including psychological concepts that are difficult for people to understand if they have difficulties with the English language. If current parent mental health difficulties are too great or too entrenched, it may limit the ability of the parent to engage in the parent training or engage their child in the home-based TFP-A curriculum. As the home-based program will require the parent to be able to engage with teaching and supporting of emotion development skills, high levels of parental mental health difficulty (including depression and anxiety), or extreme levels of stress, are likely to impact the parent’s ability to engage in the program. It is likely that the mental health difficulties will first need to be addressed by the family and mental health services.
Adolescent home-based participants:
•Significantly high levels of attention or behavioural difficulties
• Moderate to severe mental health issues.
• Intellectual disability in the moderate, profound of severe range.
TFP-A delivered in a home-based setting requires participants to be comfortable working alongside their parent to learn new skills. If there are significant behaviours of concern in the home environment it is unlikely that the parent will be able to sit down with their child to work through the content of the material. As the intervention is a mental health prevention program, if current mental health difficulties of the child are too great or too entrenched it may limit the ability of the participant to participate in the program or benefit from the skill building elements of the program when delivered in a group format. It is likely that the mental health difficulties will first need to be addressed by the family and mental health servi
Study & Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Study Design
- Not specified
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method