The Five W's Meet the Three R's: The Who, What, When, Where, and Why of Telepractice Service Delivery for School-Based Speech-Language Therapy Services.

School-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are implementing telecommunication technologies for service provision. Telepractice is one among an array of service delivery models that can be successfully implemented in the public-school setting. While many school-based SLPs have been plunged into telepractice with the recent pandemic, this temporary shift to emergency instruction is not the same as fully implementing a telepractice service delivery model. SLPs who recognize the potential application of telecommunications would profit from additional training and experience to take advantage of the benefits of this service delivery model. The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of telepractice as a service delivery model, and to answer the who, what, when, where, and why questions of school-based telepractice. Telepractice is one of several service delivery models that school-based SLPs can confidently utilize to provide effective speech and language therapy services to school-age students.

A pilot study comparing the effectiveness of speech language therapy provided by telemedicine with conventional on-site therapy.

We compared the progress made by school children in speech language therapy provided through videoconferencing and conventional face-to-face speech language therapy. The children were treated in two groups. In the first group, 17 children received telemedicine treatment for 4 months, and then subsequently conventional therapy for 4 months. In the second group, 17 children received conventional treatment for 4 months and then subsequently telemedicine treatment for 4 months. The outcome measures were student progress, participant satisfaction and any interruptions to service delivery. Student progress reports indicated that the children made similar progress during the study whichever treatment method was used. There was no significant difference in GFTA-2 scores (Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation) between students in the two treatment groups. Satisfaction surveys indicated that the students and parents overwhelmingly supported the telemedicine service delivery model. During the study, a total of 148 of the 704 possible therapy sessions was not completed (21%); the pattern of cancellations was similar to cancellations in US public schools generally. Videoconferencing appears to be a promising method of delivering speech language therapy services to school children.