This Scribble was penciled by Amy Strohman, Speech and Language Therapist, and Nicole Reynolds, Founder and Managing Director of The Children’s Place.
PRIORITIES
At The Children’s Place, our biggest priority has always been the health and safety of our TCP families and our team. It is important we are all staying home to protect our loved ones and community, but we know this is difficult for families in many ways, especially families who have little ones that are in need of extra support with their development.
During this time our lives have changed significantly and many things have been put on hold, the fact remains: our little ones’ learning cannot stop. This is why we continue to support our families in ways you may only have recently become more aware of…. Teletherapy!
TELETHERAPY
Teletherapy has been successfully used since the late 1990’s but became more popular throughout the early 2000’s. It is a tool that The Children’s Place has been utilising since our early years. Many of our families that live full-time in other countries or travel frequently find it difficult to make it into the clinic but would like to continue progressing on their little one’s speech, language, behaviour, and occupational therapy targets. Through Teletherapy, we have been able to support little ones no matter where they are in the world.
Now more than ever, Teletherapy has become an important part of supporting many more little ones’ developmental journeys.
You may be unsure about what this process looks like, wonder how it would work for your family or may feel your little one is too young for Teletherapy. We understand each family and child is different; therefore, we ensure the support set up for your child is tailor-made to their specific needs and interests. Our personalised distance support—whether it is through direct online sessions, parent support, parent coaching, online social groups, home therapy programmes, or daily support through an app created specifically for linking families to their child’s learning—is successful for all ages, difficulties and families.
ONLINE SESSIONS
One option for families is direct therapy services via Skype or Zoom. These platforms offer a video meeting space for therapists, parents and little ones to continue to work one-to-one. With screen share and video motivators, our therapists have found this support to be an excellent tool.
The online therapy support is tailor-made to the little one and their family. The online sessions could be directly with the little one or can be with a caregiver who would be working with the child on the therapy activities.
These options can also be helpful for our therapists—particularly ABA—to conduct parent training, as our team can facilitate incorporating skills into the families’ current routines.
Our families that currently utilise these supports find that they are easily incorporating online therapy into their routines.
HOME THERAPY PROGRAMMES
TCP is also happy to develop a Home Therapy Programme that meets the specific goals of your little one. Our two-week Home Therapy Programmes includes a home therapy programme pack that will include an overview of the targets for your little ones, have individually tailored activity to conduct each day with your little one, game ideas, worksheets as well as general strategies and tips to incorporate into your daily routines.
For the Home Therapy Programme, an initial call will be set up in order for the therapist to review the home therapy programme pack and answer any questions you might have. Throughout the two weeks, if you have any questions you can reach out to your therapist. At the end of the two weeks, a call will be set up to discuss how the two weeks went and to plan ahead for continued support.
DAILY SUPPORT VIA ONLINE APP
Another option for distance support is through an online app that can be accessed on your phone, computer, iPad or tablet. With this tool, each little one is assigned a personal TCP notebook that includes short videos, pictures, or written posts directly from the therapists including tasks, suggestions, encouragement, and materials. The therapist can video-model an activity, and parents can send their own recording of the child completing a task to be reviewed by his or her therapist. Families can make comments, ask questions and our therapists can respond in real-time. It is an incredibly easy and efficient way for families, children, and therapists to connect.
“Seesaw is an amazing interactive platform that allows therapists and parents to work together to engage children in their therapy activities. The children I use it with have so much fun watching the videos and seeing the pictures and especially love having their own personalized page. It allows for your children to have activities that are individualized to them and demonstrate how well they are doing by creating their own videos and documenting their work. This is a great way for therapists to collaborate to ensure each child is engaged, generalising skills, and reaching their highest potential.” — Lisa (TCP Occupational Therapist)
The Children’s Place has always considered our little ones and their caregivers to be a part of our family. We are thrilled we have many options to continue to support each and every child on their developmental journey especially during these times. We are here for you.
Our team hopes that your family is healthy and safe, and we look forward to seeing you soon!
