Are you wondering how online speech therapy actually works? Our Pop Speech Pathologists have broken down some common FAQs about telehealth speech therapy, also known as telepractice speech pathology, to easily understand how it works for children and adults.
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How Does Telehealth Speech Therapy Manage Engagement?
Here are four of many ways that online speech therapists maintain engagement:
- Build trust through child-led play, and offering activity choices
- Planning short activities and lots of movement breaks
- Incorporating parent or carer coaching – building a carer’s toolkit with strategies to use at home to build speech therapy skills. This could include strategies to use in routines (like mealtimes), book sharing, or in play.
- Using visual supports – increasing use of visual tools, picture based communication, other gesture or visual schedules.
At Pop, our speech pathologists are regularly trained in keeping children engaged during telehealth speech therapy sessions. This includes having the guidance and resources from our internal Clinical Lead for Engagement in Therapy.
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How Does Telehealth Speech Therapy Manage Sensory and Physical Needs?
Every speech therapy session should be tailored to meet the needs of the client, regardless of whether they are over a screen or in-person. Strategies used in telehealth include identifying the client’s preferences and providing a list of items to support the sessions (or mailing them to the client in preparation for the next session).
Another unique example is preparing sessions for clients with hearing loss, where a speech therapist would be able to share computer settings and equipment that will maximise the client’s experience and support them using visual supports and AAC – increasing use of visual tools, picture based communication, other gesture or visual schedules.
All Pop speech therapists receive training and support from our experienced neurodiversity clinical team to ensure every client requiring an augmentative and alternative communication method is shown a range to explore and use. Sessions are then adapted to use the client’s preferred communication model.
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How Does Telehealth Speech Therapy Manage Complex Swallowing or Feeding Difficulties?
It’s a simple but well-planned process (especially when you have been providing online speech therapy services since 2016). Here are a few techniques used for a swallowing assessment or treatment over telehealth:
- A strong light source is used to see the person clearly (without strong shadows)
- The family/carers are informed beforehand of the process, including the list of foods and fluids required and what to do in case of an emergency
- A carer is involved in the session to support the client
Pop’s dysphagia-trained speech pathologists have a wealth of knowledge in face-to-face speech therapy services and have adapted their skills to an online environment. They are onboarded through Pop’s telehealth way of doing swallow therapy and overseen by our Clinical Lead for Adult Services.
Telehealth vs In Person Speech Therapy: What’s the Difference?
We’ve dedicated a whole blog to comparing in person speech pathology and online speech pathology sessions. You can read it here.
Do you have a question about how telehealth speech therapy might work for you?
Book a free discovery call with an experienced Pop Speech Pathologist to find out the answers you need.
