Maryville’s two speech and language clinics harnessed technology to continue offering their services throughout the pandemic. The virtual sessions helped them meet their clients’ needs in new ways, so telepractice is now here to stay.

BY NANCY FOWLER

At the onset of the pandemic, Maryville’s speech-language clinicians began grappling with how to translate their often hands-on work to a virtual world.

Speech pathologists at the university’s Walker Scottish Rite Clinic for children had a leg up. Only a few weeks earlier, they’d test-driven their new Zoom accounts for a meeting bringing together the clinic’s seven locations. Within a month, clinicians working from home on their laptops were seeing 100 of the 130 enrolled children, according to director Jacob Gutshall.

“The most difficult thing with telepractice was trying to keep them engaged long enough to work on their goals,” Gutshall said.

But new scenarios began to emerge. Before COVID-19, clinicians engaged children through activities such as playing with toy vehicles or a game of Hungry Hungry Hippos. Parents and other caregivers, who once watched from another room, are now rolling the cars and the dice.

“Now the parent is highly involved and they can take those tools and keep it going for the rest of the week,” Gutshall said. “Parents say it feels like the therapist is right there even though it’s through a computer screen.”

Maryville’s on-campus Speech and Language Clinic, which serves children and adults across the lifespan, was also soon up and running with telepractice. Like the Walker clinic, it quickly established security protocols for Zoom and expanded the knowledge of its speech-language pathologists and graduate clinicians through continuing education.

Recently, the clinic used Zoom to connect a 73-year-old client with limited language after a stroke with his daughter and grandchildren in Algeria. Graduate clinician Nabilah Furqan assisted him with script training and support for an enjoyable family visit, according to clinical coordinator Michelle Vomund. “The client’s daughter wrote a glowing letter about how fantastic the visit was,” Vomund said.

In mid-August, pathologists at both the Speech and Language Clinic and Walker Scottish Rite Clinic began seeing some clients in person again, utilizing social distancing measures to ensure safety.

But Vomund and Gutshall say that for other clients — like those with time or transportation issues, or those living in rural communities — telepractice is here to stay. “Telepractice is innovative,” Vomund said. “It’s been very successful.”