Parent engagement and therapeutic alliance in allied health teletherapy programs.

Teletherapy services are being increasingly provided by allied health professionals to address major inequities of access. While clinical outcomes and stakeholder satisfaction are crucial for paediatric teletherapy's continued viability, processes for increasing parent/caregiver satisfaction, and for modifying aspects of caregiver engagement to improve outcomes, are under-researched. Studies of in-person therapy have shown that engagement, satisfaction and outcomes are influenced by the development of therapeutic alliance.

Speech-language pathology telehealth in rural and remote schools: the experience of school executive and therapy assistants.

Introduction: Difficulties in accessing allied health services, especially in rural and remote areas, appear to be driving the use of telehealth services to children in schools. The objectives of this study were to investigate the experiences and views of school executive staff and therapy assistants regarding the feasibility and acceptability of a speech-language pathology telehealth program for children attending schools in rural and remote New South Wales, Australia. The program, called Come N See, provided therapy interventions remotely via low-bandwidth videoconferencing, with email follow-up.

Speech-language pathology teletherapy in rural and remote educational settings: Decreasing service inequities.

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to investigate the efficacy of a speech-language pathology teletherapy program for children attending schools and early childcare settings in rural New South Wales, Australia, and their parents' views on the program's feasibility and acceptability.

Method: Nineteen children received speech-language pathology sessions delivered via Adobe Connect®, Facetime or Skype web-conferencing software. During semi-structured interviews, parents (n = 5) described factors that promoted or threatened the program's feasibility and acceptability.