Online Speech Therapy: Everything You Need to Know

Online speech therapy has been a fast growing way of delivering speech and language therapy. Offering families peace of mind, to access sessions from the comfort of their own home. Here, you can find key points on everything you need to know about online speech therapy and how noala can support your family’s communication journey.

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What is online speech therapy

Online speech therapy is best described as collaboration between speech professionals and families via telecommunication services, remotely. You're sessions with your speech and language professional will mostly be delivered via online live video calls. You may wonder if online speech therapy is as effective as traditional. So is speech therapy online good? Online speech therapy "is an effective means of increasing access to high-quality services that meet children’s unique needs and is a viable mechanism to deliver speech–language services for multiple purposes" studies shows.

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Everything you need to know about online speech therapy

• It works: Evidence gathered from a number of research papers found that children made similar progress toward their communication goals regardless of how speech therapy was delivered.
• It is convenient: Not having to wait in for a speech professional who is stuck in traffic, not having to reschedule all your child’s nursery/school timetable.
• It is accessible: If you live in a rural location, the city centre or you don’t drive these could be physical barriers to you accessing in-person therapy. Distance is no longer a barrier, because with Noala you will have your own assigned registered professional who would be waiting for you.

Furthermore, you can also take advantage of shorter sessions and live messenger therapy options that are just as effective and more affordable.

• It is time effective: Online speech therapy can fit around your schedule. Squeezing in a quick therapy session after dinner or during your morning commute or around your child’s nap time has never been so easy.

As parents are the primary educators / caregivers and interventionists you can practice the skills modelled by the therapist multiple times which will help with making progress with the targets created.

• It provides more privacy: For some, online therapy offers a comforting sense of privacy, and not having to bump into others in a waiting room.
• It allows a professional to have greater insight: Online speech therapy gives you the chance to show your speech professional your home environment – which may provide useful clues for your therapy and treatment. You can create a balance of sharing ideas of what you can do at home with your child. It has been proven that if you share ideas you will be more successful in following it through.

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How much does speech therapy cost?

• Speech therapy generally costs anywhere from $100 to $250 (£85 to £220) a session. You can also be charged extra one-off costs, such as a fee for an evaluation (typically a few hundred dollars), or penalties for cancelled and rescheduled appointments.
• At noala, we’re on a mission to make Speech and Language Therapy mainstream. That’s why our sessions costs only $35 (£30).
• Private insurance can sometimes cover Speech Therapy costs.

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Are there apps to help with speech?

At noala, we’re on a mission to make speech and language therapy mainstream. Our platform offers online speech therapy thanks to parent-led therapy plans. After setting up a baseline during an assessment, families are able to access their personalised program, including interactive clinically-backed digital exercises and coaching videos from our Clinical Director.

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What can you expect from our noala programs?

• An initial assessment of your child’s needs: This is typical to the start of working with a speech professional. In order to start therapy, we need to know what to work on and create a bespoke plan for your child which follows a developmental pattern. Prior to the assessment you will be asked to get a few toys ready for the speech professional to use with your child. The speech professional will have range of resources to share with you and your child at the assessment. The speech professional will be assessing areas of speech, language and social communication and attention and listening skills. Usually there would be 3-4 activities shared with your child over the course of a 45 minute assessment session.
• Don’t worry if your child doesn’t engage in the assessment, the speech professional will talk to you about developmental ages and stages. And talk to you about supporting your child working on speech and language targets and incorporate them into your daily life.
• For each age, communication and milestones have been defined. The speech professional will guide you with ages and stages and create joint goals for you to work on with your child.
• Following the assessment, a range of 3-5 targets will be created for you to complete with your child. The speech professional will guide you and provide strategies to help you practice at home. Feel free to share the targets with grandparents, nursery/teaching staff and childminders.
• Noala currently offers a video teaching program for speech and language. Each video is accompanied by a series of tasks and activities for you to carry out online and offline with your child.
• Throughout your engagement with the Noala program, you will be assigned a specific speech professional who will guide you through your program. After you have completed a video and the tasks a number of times, you can arrange a virtual meeting with your designated speech professional who will troubleshoot any problems you have with the tasks and support you with moving you on to the next training video. Together with the speech professional, you and your child will have a bespoke speech therapy program with regular input.

Read more about how we can support your family on our website.