Teletherapy: What I've Learned Thus Far
I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy at home! New York is an absolute ghost town amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Never did I think I’d wake up to the sounds of birds chirping in the city that never sleeps. We are now entering week four of quarantine and remote learning. While we are in an unprecedented era, I’m challenging myself to take advantage of the extra time and invest in learning the ins and outs of a new skillset: teletherapy.
While theletherapy has been around for quite some time, I never utilized an online platform for therapy prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Initially, I was skeptical yet curious. With so many questions, I decided to look into teletherapy resources accessible to speech-language pathologists online and also register for a 2-day teletherapy webinar, the SLP Telecon. This conference was the perfect way to familiarize myself with the teletherapy platform and springboard into giving teletherapy the good old college try.
Here we are three weeks later. I’ve learned so much and am feeling more motivated than ever to continue my learning. In fact, I’ve completed 19 hours of continuing education thus far! I included some of my takeaways and reflections below, which undoubtedly will evolve and change as I continue this teletherapy journey.
Every child is a candidate for teletherapy: You may hear that a child must be able to attend to a computer screen or use a mouse in order to participate in teletherapy. There is no reason to believe that this is the case! Teletherapy is not a one sizes fits all model. While directly working with a child may be an option for one client, a parent coaching model may work best for the next. Regardless, teletherapy can work for every child! More than ever, speech-language pathologists need to be creative to address the unique needs of every client.
Evidence base: There is a strong evidence base for the efficacy of teletherapy. In fact, research shows that it is equally as effective as traditional therapy for a variety of domains, including articulation, receptive and expressive language, fluency, dysarthria, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), deaf/hard of hearing, voice, dysphagia, and autism spectrum disorder.
Parent and family involvement: Teletherapy allows you to include parents, siblings, and other family members in therapy in a unique way. The past three weeks have allowed me to connect with parents on another level. With some of the younger kids I work with, I feel as though I’m an earpiece for parents as they are playing or talking with their child. They learn how to use strategies (e.g., asking less questions, providing more comments, etc.) to support their child’s language development in the most hands-on way possible. I’ve never felt so connected to the parents I’m working with - it’s really a team effort! We’re able to work together to identify times throughout their day to integrate activities to address their child’s speech and language development. Parents have an increased understanding of the how and why of therapeutic activities.
Zoom: Zoom is the platform I’ve been using for all of my teletherapy sessions. It has a variety of features that make it the perfect tool for therapy:
Share your screen: Many of the families I work with do not own a printer and therefore, they are unable to print materials. No printer, no problem has been my mantra throughout this whole process! With Zoom, I’m able to share my screen as I work with my kiddos. I’ve found that many of my clients attend better to materials presented on a screen rather than printed materials I typically use for in-person sessions.
Annotate: In addition to sharing your screen, Zoom allows you to interact with materials using a virtual pen. Underline, highlight, stamp, or circle pictures and text you want to draw attention to within therapy. This tool is so motivating, as kids often want to choose the color of your pen or the shape of the stamp you use. The annotate feature is a useful tool to draw attention to specific aspects of materials and also motivate your kids!
Remote control: If your clients are using a laptop, you can give them remote control of your screen so they can use their mouse to interact with materials (e.g., Boom cards, games, etc.). Use “CTRL + SHIFT + G” to resume control over your screen when you need it! Unfortunately this feature is not available if your clients are using an iPad.
Sharing your iPad: In addition to sharing your computer screen, you can share your iPad screen with your clients. This feature is especially valuable when modeling on an AAC system. While your clients are not able to access or control your iPad to interact with it themselves, I often open motivating apps and encourage kids to use their language to direct my actions as I use the app.
While I thankfully have not been Zoom bombed, I make sure to include passwords for all of my sessions and “enable the waiting room” (available in the advanced options). This way clients not only need a password, but also have to be admitted by me to enter the session.
Updating my therapy toolbox: As I learn about ways to adapt my therapy materials so they can be utilized on an online platform, I’ve had the opportunity to comb through a variety of online therapy materials. There are so many online resources out there! Many of which are free or offering discounts during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been so refreshing to have the time to discover new materials and tools to utilize! Be sure to check out my blog post for a list of the online resources I’m currently using!