It’s no secret that teletherapy speech/language therapy services soared during the pandemic.

Telepractice use among SLPs jumped from just 3.9% pre-pandemic to 88% by 2021. (source)

And while teletherapy services are not quite as prevalent now as they were at the height of the pandemic, we’re still seeing many turn to teletherapy for its convenience and accessibility.

And for good reason!

We’re also seeing a huge increase in the number of children needing services.

One analysis found a 110% increase in speech disorder diagnoses in children aged 0-12 years in 2022 compared to the pre-pandemic rates. (source)

When families and schools are struggling to find enough local SLPs to serve the needs, teletherapy is available to serve the gaps.

I’m speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and in today’s episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, we’re diving into exactly how to make the most of virtual speech sessions so we can work on closing these gaps, one child at a time.

You can listen to the full podcast episode below:

Seeing you once per week on a screen ain’t gonna cut it!

(Sorry, midwest roots coming out there)

The best therapy happens as part of a cohesive whole-team appraoch.

Meet with parents, caregivers, teachers, educators, other therapists and stay in communication about the child’s progress.

Your time during therapy sessions should be spent on figuring out which strategies work for that client.

If possible, spend your sessions coaching and training the adults on how to implement the strategies all day long.

If not, make sure you communicate!

Therapy will be more effective if you’re following a systematic approach instead of just finding cutesy one-off activities that work well on teletherapy.

Teletherapists using The Speech and Language Kids Framework use our pathways (larger plans for specific challenges) and our therapy plans (step-by-step workbooks for each skill).

Share the workbooks with the “screenshare” tool and some platforms will even let you write on the worksheets.

This forms the “drill” portion of your session where you can find the right strategies.

Ok that one fell apart a bit, but you get what I’m saying.

Keep your sessions fun and fresh by switching up your reinforcers (NOT your therapy materials).

After you’ve introduced the skill, you can make the practice more fun by introducing reinforcers that are related to each client’s interests:

Keeping teletherapy fun and fresh doesn’t have to mean loads of time planning and prepping for you!

Our therapy plans and the step-by-step workbooks are perfect for teletherapy!

Available with the Full, Paid Hub Membership here

The post The Teletherapy Playbook: Proven Strategies for Faster Progress in Virtual Speech Sessions appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.