The Families Moving Forward Connect Teacher Companion website: Development and initial pilot randomized trial of an FASD-informed resource for teachers.

BACKGROUND

Students with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are at risk of poor academic performance and school disruption given teachers' limited opportunity to learn about how to support them. The Families Moving Forward (FMF) Program and its derivative mobile health intervention, FMF Connect, provide an ideal framework to inform a scalable intervention for teachers. The current study aimed to develop and test the FMF Connect Teacher Companion website using the ADAPT-ITT framework, including teacher input.

METHODS

With teacher input, materials from the FMF Program and FMF Connect were adapted to be relevant to teachers' needs and the classroom setting. Next, 37 teachers participated in a fully remote, nonblinded, randomized two-group parallel design pilot trial of the website. Eligible teachers had direct contact with a student with FASD aged 5-12 in an educational setting. The pilot trial was preregistered and publicly available on ClinicalTrials.gov (study no.: NCT05986565) prior to recruitment commencement. Descriptive statistical analysis aimed to understand technological functionality and study design acceptability.

RESULTS

Findings of both website (n = 21) and control (n = 16) groups demonstrated the website was satisfactory and functional. Participants had positive impressions of all content but reported some negative impressions around aesthetics and the large amount of information.

CONCLUSIONS

The FMF Connect Teacher Companion website is a feasible, acceptable FASD-informed resource for teachers.