Is there a need for online speech pathology services? How would I go about starting this?

[Carpe Diem]

Hi! I have been thinking about the idea of starting an online telepractice. Something that can supplement our income but keep me home to finish homeschooling our youngest. I have been researching this a bit. I will call my national organization to see what info they can share. Just wondering if anyone here has any input into the need and/or how I start off on this endeavor and advice. Thanks so much!!

[bettyandbob]

My ds uses a program called gemiini. It's targeted to persons with autism. DS is not autistic, but it has helped.

 

I guess you have to think about what you can target remotely and who can benefit from that focus.

[Crimson Wife]

If you're interested in doing auditory-verbal therapy for kids with hearing loss, teletherapy is a big part of the service delivery model. Since it is a "parent coaching" model, it lends itself well to teletherapy. My daughter is too old for the "Baby Talk" program but she is doing teletherapy with one of the SLP's who is part of BT. We FaceTime once per week and she coaches me as I work with my child. She emails me activity suggestions before each session and then written feedback after each session.

 

To become an AVT would require some additional training beyond what you did as part of your SLP master's. A lot of it you can do at home through online CEU's but some of it has to be mentoring by an experienced AVT. You can find out more information on the AG Bell website.

[Crimson Wife]

Elizabeth Rosenweig's blog has a lot of good posts on teletherapy for AVT.

[GoodGrief]

Oh man, that would have been such a wonderful option back when my daughter was small and needed services.

[maize]

My 11 year old does speech therapy via Skype with a therapist hired by our virtual charter school.

[ElizabethB]

I think it is a needed service that would be especially helpful for rural people and Americans overseas.

[Jaybee]

I think it is a needed service that would be especially helpful for rural people and Americans overseas.

:iagree: You could check with international schools overseas (both those related to Dept. of State as well as mission schools), military (those who deal with education issues), missions organizations (the part of the organization that deals with children's education), etc. There is often difficulty in finding OT and ST for people overseas. We didn't need it, but there were many families who could have benefited from these services if they had been accessible. There are organizations such as the Asia Education Resource Consortium https://www.asiaerc.org/aerc_alpha/ who help families like this. I would contact them, if I were you. It sounds like a wonderful idea, though the hours would have to be played with a bit.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

My 11 year old does speech therapy via Skype with a therapist hired by our virtual charter school.

Same here. 12 year old, system called Presence Learning.

[Carpe Diem]

nt

Edited March 6, 2017 by Carpe Diem

[Carpe Diem]

Thank you so very much to everyone who replied! 

 

Diana P-Gemiini looks like a fantastic program. 

Crimson Wife-Thank you for sharing the links about your child's therapist. I enjoyed looking at her blog/website. I wish I could see more of what a session looks like. 

Maize-You are happy with the services on Skype? My son does spanish on Skype and that is where I got the idea. I read where ASHA doesn't recommend Skype as it might not be secure. Has that been a concern or problem?

Jaybe-That is a great idea. I clicked on the link and didn't see where I could contact anyone but I will take a closer look at it. I am sure there are other similar places. I also thought of doing Accent Reduction which would be a different population. Although, I haven't done that service I think it is something I could figure out. I know of a few people who might let me practice on them! haha

Amo_Mia_Fillis-Does your child like Presence learning? I had looked at that along with TinyEye. It seems to me that Presence Learning looks like they have better graphics etc.

Thank you everyone!!!!

[mominco]

OP check this site out,they do speech therapy for stroke patients.

http://austinspeechlabs.org/

 

its a nonprofit and I know they offer skype for clients and I know they do hire.

Maybe you can email them and see if they are hiring.

I don't know much about this so if this is a wrong link or i am sending you something irrelevant I am sorry!

 

[amo_mea_filiis.]

Amo_Mia_Fillis-Does your child like Presence learning? I had looked at that along with TinyEye. It seems to me that Presence Learning looks like they have better graphics etc.

 

I don't like it a ton. There's always something not working well, whether it's videos, voice, lagging pictures, etc.

 

Presence Learning doesn't allow use of FaceTime or anything, but I wish there were a waiver I could sign! Sometimes the platform just doesn't want to work and I'd love to be able to switch to Skype or FaceTime.

 

My son loves the stamps. Lol. He's given typing/stamp rights at the end of good sessions, or once in a very blue at the beginning if he's having a hard time transitioning.

[Arctic Bunny]

My son used TinyEye at one of his school. I didn't really know what it was, or that he was doing it, so I can't comment much, only that I know it's out there. He thought it was neat that he was playing chequers and other games with someone in Chile. He still has a lisp though ;)

[J-rap]

Yes, there is a need.  This is all so new (tele therapy), that many insurance companies are only now figuring out how to do this, and it still isn't done well.  

 

The biggest issue is health insurance, from what I can tell.  In our situation, a family member requires speech therapy daily, going on six years now.  We do it in-person when we're home, but over the internet when we're not at home, which is about three months/year.  It is all with the same speech therapist who is in our town and who is fantastic.  Sometimes we are in another state, sometimes we're out of the country.  Our insurance covers it when we are actually in the clinic, in-person, but when we're out of our state (or the country), they'll only cover it if our speech therapist is registered in that state or country.  Sometimes it's an easy thing to do (just sending in credentials).  That was the case in several countries in Central America.  Other times it's more complicated, as when we were in South Africa and a personal interview was required before she could be approved and registered.  (So naturally our speech therapist couldn't do that!)  Next month we'll be in California for a month, and California requires online registration plus a small fee, which our local hospital has agreed to pay.  So you can see that in every state or country the requirements are different.

 

I do think how insurance companies handle this will change over time.

 

However, we also meet once/week with a specialist in Pennsylvania via tele therapy, apart from the above described therapy.  For that, we pay out-of-pocket.  They are a company that tries to get people from all over the U.S. and assumes health insurance probably won't cover it so lowers their prices (by about half) to make it more affordable.  

 

You can always PM me with additional questions!  I've gotten to know a lot about this given our situation.

 

 

Edited March 6, 2017 by J-rap

[Crimson Wife]

We are paying out-of-pocket for the teletherapy but that is because our insurance is already paying for 1 session/week with the in-person SLP. They won't cover 2 sessions per week and the teletherapy was added after the insurance had already gone through the authorization process for the in-person sessions.

 

The school where the teletherapist is based out of uses the FaceTime app.There might have been a waiver in the initial paperwork I filled out, I can't remember.

[ElizabethB]

I have found the schwa accent pattern of words in Webster's Speller to help with accent reduction for my ESL students.