What to expect from your first teletherapy session with a speech language pathologist
Speech therapy at home is an effective and convenient option. However, the first telehealth speech therapy session with a new speech language pathologist (SLP) can be a little daunting. Will the child or teen like the SLP? Will the technology work or be too overwhelming? Will it be too challenging? Too boring?
Our SLPs are aware of these concerns and plan accordingly. Here are a few things we focus on during the first session:
Rapport: Building rapport with children and teens is of utmost importance. We like to start off with an easy conversation and learn about their likes and dislikes. Learning about their favorite hobbies, sports, TV shows, movies and books helps us choose the most engaging activities that the child will enjoy. This ensures that chosen activities are going to be fun and motivating for them. With children and adolescents, we commonly engage in a “get to know you” activity that lets the SLP and child learn fun things about each other, along with good information to help us choose activities. We want them to feel comfortable with the SLP and to like the activities in therapy. This is the foundation for progress in speech therapy!
Platform Practice: First, the SLP ensures that the audio and video are working well, with no lags, or background noise. Establishing a proper environment and technology for an optimal telehealth speech therapy session is typically completed prior to the first session with client or caregiver. It is also important to ensure the technology is working well at the beginning of the first and subsequent sessions as well.
With younger children, we also practice using the different capabilities on the therapy platform to build comfort level with teletherapy. While most everyone is pretty experienced with virtual learning platforms at this point in the pandemic, it is still beneficial to ensure that everyone understands how to use the mouse, annotate, type, draw, color, etc.
Gentle Speech Activity: The first speech activity is usually on the easier side for the child/teen and exploratory for the SLP. The SLP starts off with an activity that gently challenges them and probes their skill level. This gives the SLP information on where the child is at regarding specific skills. If the child is willing and able, the SLP may increase the challenge level. Ultimately, the SLP allows the child to lead for the first session. This helps establish the rapport.
These are the primary factors that go into a successful initial telehealth speech therapy session. However, each child is unique and with proper communication with the caregiver prior to the first session, other accommodations may be established. At Seagull Speech, our clients’ unique needs are of top priority!