Adaptations to Early Intervention Service Delivery During COVID-19

Abstract

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.