Using Telepractice to Deliver Pediatric Voice Care in a Changing World: Breaking down Challenges and Learning from Successes

Children's communication repair strategies: Online versus face-to-face interaction

INTRODUCTION

One's ability to repair communication breakdown is an important pragmatic language skill. The present study examined children's communication repair strategies between online and face-to-face interactions using a reading comprehension task designed to probe for persistent clarification requests.

METHODS

4-6-year-old typically developing children (Age: M = 5.5years) completed a communication repair task. Online group (n = 17) completed the task online, face-to-face group(n = 22) met researchers in person. Children's responses were then categorized into verbal strategies, supplementary strategies, and nonresponses.

RESULTS

Our results showed that children can effectively employ repair strategies when a communication breakdown occurs, regardless of the communication setting in response to a series of clarification requests. However, types and patterns of communication repair strategies varied between online and face-to-face interactions. Children in online interaction showed higher use of repetition and suprasegmental strategies than did their face-to-face peers. In contrast, children in face-to-face interaction demonstrated more frequent use of revision and addition. Also, we examined the relationship between repair strategy and children's language skills. The results showed that children with better language skills used more addition, which is a more complex strategy than suprasegmental and nonresponse, and tried to use repair strategies effectively in an attempt to repair their statements as clarification requests proceeded.

CONCLUSION

It is important to understand different trends of pragmatic skills of children across online and face-to-face interaction. Guidance on the effective strategy to repair communication breakdowns depending on the different contexts needs to be considered for the successful use of online learning and telepractice.

Challenges and opportunities of tele-speech therapy: Before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

In 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the treatment and rehabilitation process faced problems and challenges. One of the most efficient therapy approaches in this period was telerehabilitation. Telepractice in speech therapy presents many challenges and opportunities. In this article, we review published articles up to June 2023 and summarize the challenges and opportunities of the COVID-19 pandemic for speech therapy. Researchers and clinicians have found that tele-speech therapy is an effective tool for improving access to high-quality services and a viable mechanism for delivering speech and language interventions. The results of teletherapy or telepractice during the COVID-19 pandemic were divided into opportunities and challenges. Speech therapy has moved toward telerehabilitation to improve treatment competence during the pandemic. Finally, teletherapy methods were more suitable for speech and language pathology.

Factors Related to Treatment Attendance for Patients Seeking Gender-Affirming Voice Therapy

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors related to treatment attendance for patients seeking gender-affirming voice therapy (GAVT).

METHOD

We completed retrospective chart reviews of 50 patients (43 transgender women, three transgender men, four nonbinary patients; aged 18-67 years, M = 34.92 years, SD = 12.32 years) referred for GAVT at a Midwest outpatient center from 2016 to 2021. Data extraction included patient demographics, therapy visit specifics (e.g., number of sessions attended, treatment completion status, and in-person vs. virtual visits) and treatment timing (in relation to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic), and psychosocial and socioeconomic information.

RESULTS

There was no impact of treatment-timing relative to the onset of the pandemic on any attendance measure; however, patients were 1.9 times more likely to complete therapy with each virtual telehealth session attended. Individual factors of outside social support and hormone replacement therapy were positively related to the number of therapy sessions attended, whereas insurance provider and employment status were related to therapy completion.

CONCLUSIONS

Telehealth attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic was positively associated with GAVT completion. Future research should investigate psychosocial and socioeconomic factors to understand how to identify patients at risk for poor treatment adherence and facilitate access to clinical care.