3 Things Your Child's Speech Language Pathologist Wants You to Know About Teletherapy
Over the course of the last two months, the transition from face-to-face to online therapy has been challenging. We miss our clients. We miss seeing their smiles, the rewarding high-fives, the excitement in their eyes when they receive stickers.
Oftentimes, I try putting myself in the client’s shoes. Doing so helps me to modify and implement sessions that are going to best suit their needs. I always aim for my clients to have fun and be engaged, while demonstrating that I’m a person they can trust and communicate with during these unknown and confusing times.
There will be ups and some downs throughout the teletherapy process, but I’d like to reassure you and your child of a few things:
1. We’ve adapted our approach to be more functional for your child.
During the last several weeks, I’ve thought a lot about how to structure my sessions and what the ultimate goal is for a session. My intention is to not place more stress on my clients than they may already be experiencing.
I’ve placed a greater emphasis on connecting with my clients, building the relationship and encouraging (rather than enforcing) some no-prep activities that can be completed within the household with family members. I have taken a step away from drill-based activities and transitioned to more functional, engaging activities to target goals. For example, when working on speech sounds, rather than have my client say each target word 10 times, I’ll work on high frequency words containing the sound.
My client and I may play an “I Spy” game where she/he locates objects around the house containing the target sound. Activities that have the children moving, engaged and using vocabulary found in their home seems more exciting. And more importantly, they are more functional, as opposed to having a child sit and say a word 10 times in a row.
2. Meltdowns may happen, and that’s okay.
We understand how confusing, frustrating or frightening this time may be for your children. During the last several months, many of my clients have told me about missing their friends, feeling sad about not having a birthday party or wishing to be at school again.
Their emotions may be heightened, and I’ve witnessed several melt-downs during teletherapy sessions. We want parents to know that this is okay. When meltdowns happen, we encourage the parents to be there for their child and to take a break for a few minutes.
Some of my clients find it helpful to take several deep breaths with me. Some find it helpful to tell me, “I’m frustrated right now.” And some find it helpful to receive a hug from parents or a sibling. We want to acknowledge how our little ones are feeling and provide coping strategies along the way.
3. Teletherapy IS effective.
It may take several sessions with some trial and error to determine which activities may be more successful than others to target goals. Some sessions, a child may need more breaks than usual because she/he is having a rough day. Some sessions will go so well that the child has a hard time saying goodbye and logging off.
Although there’s variability to each session, teletherapy is effective. We will continue targeting goals that are best suited for your child for effective communication.
You know your child best. We interact with your children for just a short period of time throughout each week. If new behaviors or speech concerns arise, please don’t hesitate to share that with us. We’d like to be there for you and your child in any way that we can.
