Why Telehealth?

Ruby’s Room – Online Speech Therapy is a telehealth speech pathology service, aiming to address the needs of children with communication difficulties in the community.
 

Why have we chosen this form of service delivery?

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• Accessibility for clients who are more comfortable or empowered in their home environment.

• Greater flexibility for schedules of busy families.

• Eliminates the cost of travel for clients.

• Eliminates time spent waiting.

• Reduces cancellation fees for children who are frequently sick.

• Activities more easily individualised to client interests.

Who have been shown to benefit from speech therapy via telehealth?
 

• Children with autism (Boisvert et al, 2012).

• Children with speech-sound difficulties (Grogan-Johnson et al, 2011).

• Children with neurodevelopmental disorders (Valentine et al, 2021).

• Children who stutter (Johnson et al, 2024).

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Why else?

Telehealth, or teletherapy is the provision of assessments, therapy sessions, and parent training through technology and online channels, such as Zoom. It must integrate evidence based practice, account for client values and circumstances, and incorporate professional expertise (SPA 2021).

There is an increasing need of speech pathology intervention for children. (Commonwealth of Australia, 2014; Dew et al., 2013; McGill et al., 2020). This is both for children who are experiencing typical communication difficulties and for those with more complex difficulties who may also be NDIS participants.  

Telehealth services have increased as a feasible and reliable way for children to receive speech therapy, rather than being disadvantaged by their location or by being placed on long waitlists.

Telehealth allows for therapists to offer more sessions with greater flexibility of time and place for clients. Sessions can be conducted with families located anywhere in Australia, or even overseas.

Telehealth has been shown to produce the same results as face-to-face sessions when offered and attended with the same frequency as clinic sessions (SPA, 2021). Clinicians can observe parents delivering treatment in their own environment and with their own resources/toys. This means evaluation is more individualised and advice is more relevant to the client (Johnson et al 2024).

When treatment has been more convenient and personalised, greater engagement and completion of therapy targets has been observed (Valentine et al 2021).

References and further reading
 

Boisvert, M., Hall, N., Andrianopoulos, M., & Chaclas, J. (2012). The Multi-faceted Implementation of Telepractice to Service Individuals with Autism. International Journal of Telerehabilitation, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2012.6104

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Commonwealth of Australia. (2014). Prevalence of different types of speech, language and communication disorders and speech pathology services in Australia. Senate Community Affairs References Committee. Canberra, Australia. https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Speech_Pat hology/Report

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Dew, A., Bulkeley, K., Veitch, C., Bundy, A., Gallego, G., Lincoln, M., Brentnall, J., & Griffiths, S. (2013). Addressing the barriers to accessing therapy services in rural and remote areas. Disability and Rehabilitation, 35(18), 1564-1570. https://doi.org/10.3109/09638288.2012.720346

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Grogan-Johnson, S., Gabel, R. M., Taylor, J., Rowan, L. E., Alvares, R., & Schenker, J. (2011). A Pilot Investigation of Speech Sound Disorder Intervention Delivered by Telehealth to School-Age Children. International Journal of Telerehabilitation, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.5195/ijt.2011.6064

Johnson, G., Onslow, M., Carey,B., Jones, M., Kefalianos, E. (2024). Lidcombe Program telehealth treatment for children 6–12 years of age: A Phase II trial. Journal of Fluency Disorders, Volume 80, 106057. ISSN 0094-730X. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfludis.2024.106057.

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McGill, N., Crowe, K., & McLeod, S. (2020). “Many wasted months”: Stakeholders’ perspectives about waiting for speech-language pathology services. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 22(3), 313-326. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549507.2020.1747541

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Speech Pathology Australia. (2021). Evidence-based practice for speech pathology in Australia. Author. https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/Members/Position_Statements/SPAweb/Memb ers/Position_Statements/Position_Statements.aspx?hkey=b1a46941-246c-4609-bacc-1c1b5c52d19d