A web-based support platform for parents of children with suspected or confirmed developmental delay: a pre-post quasi-experiment

Intervention group: Participants in the intervention group will receive usual care, along with access to a web-based intervention (KidAid) for eight weeks. The KidAid was designed, from 2023 to 2025, for all caregivers of children with developmental concerns and includes eight components: a) Introductions to typical developmental milestones in children: It provides age-related developmental information to help parents understand expected developmental progress. b) Introductions to developmental delays in children: It provides basic information on developmental delay and common developmental concerns. c) Neurodevelopment screening tools: It introduces developmental screening questions that may help parents identify developmental concerns requiring further evaluation. d) Therapeutic strategies for children with developmental delays: It provides concrete home-based strategies and activity suggestions for caregivers. e) Medical consultation guidance: It provides information on when and how to seek professional consultation regarding their child's development. f) Early intervention resources: It provides information on available early intervention services and support resources. g) Parent self-care and stress management: It provides content related to caregiver well-being, including PHQ-9 screening questions, self-care and stress management strategies, and meditation videos. h) Parents’ stories: It provides caregivers with other parents' experiences to enhance support and relatability. During this trial, KidAid will serve as the core content of the intervention. All components of KidAid are available to participants from the beginning of the 8-week intervention period. Following the initial orientation and website registration at National Cheng Kung University Hospital, participants can freely access KidAid using their own devices from home or any other location with internet access throughout the intervention period. Parents are encouraged to explore the website flexibly based on their interests and needs during the study period. The estimated total time required to review the KidAid website content is approximately 3-4 hours. Based on parents' interests and needs, they could read the information provided (e.g., introductions to children with developmental delays, medical consultation guidance, early intervention resources, parents' stories), complete screening tools, or watch videos (e.g., therapeutic strategies for children with developmental delays). Procedures: 1) The research assistants with occupational therapy licenses will invite parents who attend Pediatric Neurology clinics at National Cheng Kung University Hospital (Taiwan) during the study period to participate in this study. 2) After receiving parents' written consent forms, the research assistants will provide an orientation to KidAid and support parents in completing website registration and subscribing to the study’s official LINE account. During the 8-week intervention period, participants will receive two reminder messages per week through the LINE account, for a total of 16 messages, to remind them about and introduce relevant content available on KidAid. After the initial orientation and registration, participants can access KidAid remotely using their own devices at any time and from any location with internet access. 3) Parents will fill out the Parents' Perceived Parenting Skills Questionnaire (PPPSQ) and the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5) as a pre-test. 4) At two and four weeks after the pre-test, research assistants will conduct follow-up phone calls (5-10 minutes per call) with parents to collect their frequency of website use and check if they encounter any difficulties while using the KidAid. 5) Eight weeks after completing the pre-test, parents will receive a link to fill out the post-test questionnaires, including PPPSQ and WHO-5, via the study’s official LINE account. 6) During the 8-week intervention period, participants’ adherence to the intervention will be monitored using web-based analytics. Specifically, participants’ website usage records will be continuously tracked through log files developed by the web engineer. These log files will capture users’ engagement with the eight intervention components, including the number of page views and the duration of time spent viewing each component.