Why Choose Online Speech Therapy?

At the beginning of the 2020 Pandemic, everyone of course experienced fear of the unknown while we learned how our new day to day would be conducted. For us at Pediaspeech and other Speech and Occupational therapists, this looked like a scramble to figure out how to keep providing our services to the children that needed them most, at a time that consistency and some sense of normalcy was also needed most. We worked diligently to figure out how we could continue to provide Speech and Occupational therapy services, that would be equally effective, while social distancing. Teletherapy, or virtual therapy was the answer!

Virtual speech therapy is proven to be equally as effective as in-person speech therapy according to the American Speech Language and Hearing Association (ASHA).

Benefits of Virtual Therapy:

• One of the main benefits for virtual speech therapy is of course convenience. Between work, school and afterschool activities, most families live a busy and hectic life so finding the time to make an in-person therapy session can be difficult. In addition, even if you are slightly under the weather, logging in from the comfort of your home will keep your germs to yourself! The cancellations rates for Virtual Therapy is significantly less than in-person sessions since you remove all the other extraneous factors (ie. Traffic, illness, etc.). This means, more therapy sessions which will result in quicker progress!!
• Virtual therapy also provides instant carryover into the home environment. This may be specifically helpful for feeding therapy where you are trying to increase foods in the natural environment. Additionally, some children may only want to ‘perform’ or ‘practice’ during the session. While being in their own home, this automatically enhances generalization!
• Virtual Therapy gets the parents involved! A parent is usually a facilitator of the virtual meeting which provides instant “homework” or “home program” that can be implemented every day. Home practice is exceptionally important to your child’s success and what better way than being involved in their sessions weekly!

In the past 3 years, we have developed a well-oiled machine when it comes to delivering Speech therapy through a virtual model. Clients are still able to build a great relationship with their therapist, while having fun with all the online materials there is to offer. A variety of diagnoses including expressive language disorders, articulation/phonological disorders, feeding disorders, Childhood Apraxia of Speech, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and myofunctional disorders have all been addressed within our practice virtually successfully. If you are looking for the convenience of therapy within your own home, with proven effectiveness, give us a call to set up an appointment with one of our awesome therapists!