What is telepractice?  

 

Telepractice is the provision of therapy (speech-language pathology and audiology) based remotely through telecommunication technology.  Telepractice allows the delivery of speech-language pathology and professional audiology services at a distance by linking clinician to client or clinician to clinician for assessment, intervention, and consultation. Telepractice venues include schools, medical centers, rehabilitation hospitals, community health centers, outpatient clinics, universities, clients’ homes, residential health care facilities, childcare centers, and corporate settings. 

 

Who can benefit from teletherapy services?  

Many clients in rural or underserved communities can have greater access to therapy services. Some children respond better to technology and can have more significant progress toward goals. Online therapy services can also help decrease missed appointments and improve consistent attendance.  Therapists and clients can avoid weather issues and missed appointments due to illness. Teletherapy has been proven to be as effective and sometimes more effective than traditional face to face therapy service provision.

 

How does telepractice work?  

The therapist and the client participate in a two-way teleconference through webcam technology.  It resembles a video chat much like skype or facetime. The therapist and the client each have personal technology devices, either a tablet, computer, or smart-phone that they use to interact to share audio, video, data, and images. Therapy is conducted face to face in real-time with the use of webcam and audio technology.