Going to speech therapy should be an enjoyable experience. However for many it is a frustrating one. Many people experience long waiting lists or long drives to visit their speech pathologist. Once they finally get to therapy they must sit in the waiting room until their session time and possibly fight traffic on the way home.
Online Speech Therapy offers an alternative choice when seeking therapy. All speech pathologists are nationally and state certified thus they offer the same level of expertise and experience as found in a clinic. The sessions are designed similar to traditional therapy in that the speech pathologist plans the session based on the patient’s specific goals and chooses activities they think will be engaging and motivating.
However, there are many benefits to online speech therapy. The activities are highly interactive and designed by speech pathologists to target a particular goal. Each activity is then adapted to meet the specific needs of the patient. The interactive nature of the activities help engage the patient while they are learning new skills and behaviors. Each therapy session is held in real time video and audio over a secure internet site which allows for that connection between the speech pathologist and the patient. They are able to interact as they would during a traditional therapy session.
In addition, there is no drive time, no time spent in the waiting room and no fighting traffic. Because therapy is provided online a patient can login to their therapy session anywhere there is an internet connection. Thus they can have therapy at home, at work, virtually anywhere. Online therapy also offers more flexibility when scheduling the session because there is no driving to consider.
Another benefit is the availability of practice activities. After a therapy session, practice activities that relate to the activities completed during the session are placed in the patient’s online folder. They have 24 hour access to this folder and can complete the activities at any time and as many times as they would like between therapy sessions. Also included in this online folder is a progress report which is updated following each therapy session which allows the patient and speech pathologist to continually monitor progress.
All these benefits add up to an exciting alternative to traditional speech therapy. While it removes some of the frustrations it keeps the integrity of a traditional therapy session. Many have seen great progress and highly recommend the use of online speech therapy. So, if you or someone you know is searching for speech therapy, consider choosing online speech therapy.
Tags: speech and language teaching, speech therapy