The whole world has had to shift our way of working and learning during this challenging time. We are quickly becoming accustomed to virtual meetings, virtual school, virtual play dates, even hanging out with friends and family. Virtual speech and occupational therapy, commonly known as teletherapy, has been around for years. The American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) and American Occuptaional Therapy Association (ATOA) acknowledge teletherapy as an appropriate means of providing therapy.
We have offered teletherapy in our office for several years. While this method of therapy may not be suitable for every client, most clients can make significant progress through teletherapy. We do miss our face to face, in-person visits but we are thankful for our virtual therapy sessions that are helpful in filling the gap of time that we are apart.
Some families have found that teletherapy sessions have been helpful in reducing travel for therapy. Our clients are loving their virtual face time with our creative therapists. Therapists are challenged to think outside the box and create new engaging therapy ideas. We can still use therapy materials that we use in the clinic. We can also play online games that fit into our clients goals. We have even become very creative with using virtual backgrounds to meet specific goals.
Your therapists may see a big mess in their home but your child sees a magical wall of learning.
We can’t wait to get back to in-person therapy but in the meantime, we are having fun with teletherapy!
Contributed by one of our former speech-language pathologists, Noelle McNeil who is now learning the excitement of teletherapy in Alabama.
Capital Area Speech and Occupational Therapy Blog 