Speech therapy - online resources?

[Porridge]

Hello, Does anyone know of any speech therapists that will conduct sessions online? DS was discharged from speech therapy through out local children's hospital network, but he still has difficulty with the /s/ phoneme, despite me working with him every school day. I kind of need a break for myself, and I think he might benefit from working with someone else.  Resuming in-person professional therapy is not a good option for our area (COVID related restrictions) - plus, they already discharged him so I'm not confident they'll take him again.  I'm wondering if there are speech therapists who will do online sessions with kids. I'd also appreciate feedback as to whether that might be a good or bad idea :), and whether it could be economical.  My ideal would be to find an SLP student.  Thank you!

[PeterPan]

Any therapist who wants to work is pursuing telehealth. You might want to start locally so you can continue in person later. Why would you want a student?? Seems like you need a more experienced therapist, since the first round wasn't satisfactory. I've never done therapy through a hospital, but there are definitely more fish in the sea. What does your insurance cover? that will be the question. You could see who is in network or covered by your insurance. 

Fwiw, we've done an obscene amount of speech therapy. They all just vary. We're doing teletherapy and it's a mixed bag. Therapists right now are trying to keep kids engaged, so you're seeing a lot of other really snazzy therapy (boom cards, use of split screens, etc.) or just lack of coherent plans and not getting much done. I've been seeing it all. The more experienced therapists are able to make therapy happen on top of employing the new technology. The more experienced they are overall, the better they're doing with this curve ball thrown at them. My *favorite* therapists are the wizened ones. But, you know, they all bring something usually. We were doing 6 hours a week (3 SLPs X 2 hours each) but now we're down to 4 hours a week. It's good, but if your dc has behavior or compliance issues you can also blow sessions. It's a lot easier to prevent that when you have environmental control.

Have you thought about doing some phonological processing work? He might be a good candidate for LIPS. You could do a screener and see if he passes. https://bartonreading.com/students/#ss  For my ds, working on phonological processing got a certain amount of bump for speech. You also have software like Earobics or Hearbuilder.

[J-rap]

My dh does speech online (has for several years now) after a devastating stroke which took away his language.  They are excellent therapists who are trained in working online.  Many more therapists are learning to do this now, even before the pandemic, because it's just the way medicine is heading.  Now, more and more major health insurance companies cover it if it's in-state (even without a pandemic).  In our situation, speech therapy online has been really wonderful.  I'm so grateful for it.   

Does your health insurance cover in-clinic therapy, generally?  Then you'd probably want to call your local clinics to see if this is something they're doing now since the pandemic.   And many health insurance companies that didn't cover this before, are doing so now because of the pandemic.

Another thought is to call your local university (or state university) and ask them if they have any graduate students who might consider some online sessions with your ds.  Since they're not able to be in-class right now, they might welcome the opportunity to work with someone online, and who knows -- they might not charge anything.

Edited May 24, 2020 by J-rap