Recent reports show that telemedicine remains popular, even as many clinic locations have returned to offering a full range of in-person services.
1. First, understand your options for virtual speech therapy
The first step to starting virtual speech therapy is to decide if virtual sessions are the route you’d like to take! When deciding if virtual speech is right for your family, it helps to know what options you’re deciding between. Speech therapists, officially called speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in the United States, treat a wide range of communication impairments, as well as feeding and swallowing challenges. SLPs work in a broad range of settings, including schools, hospitals, private clinics, client homes, and nursing homes. Teletherapy, or virtual therapy, takes place in any of these locations, and, most often, means that the therapist and client are communicating by video conference despite being in different locations.
2. Second, check with your health insurance to see if virtual speech therapy is covered and set your budget for speech
To help you get started with virtual speech therapy, it’s good to understand what your options for payment will be. Some health insurance carriers provide coverage for speech therapy services regardless of medical diagnosis, while others only provide coverage for services that follow certain medical events, like surgery or a stroke. The best way to understand your coverage is by calling your health insurance company and asking if speech therapy is covered. Teletherapy services are becoming more widely covered across the country, as COVID-19 required virtual options for continuing services during the pandemic, and more and more research is becoming available regarding the success that clients and patients have with teletherapy.
3. Third, check out specific options for virtual speech therapy and sign up!
The third step to get started with virtual speech therapy is to pick a company to try! There are lots of companies who provide virtual speech therapy services. The similarity across these different providers is that they offer speech therapy sessions via video conferencing. Families typically pay per session and see a therapist for a 30 minute session for a specific length of time.
Conclusion
Several companies offer a free initial consultation (Verboso does!) so you can get a feel for the services before signing up. We’re here to answer any questions you may have about virtual therapy and the therapy process, so don’t hesitate to reach out!