Kaite Smith, Kimberlee Lewis, Kathleen Siren, Ph.D.

The Efficacy of Teletherapy Services for 2nd-3rd Graders with Articulation Disorders

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Abstract:

Purpose: The need for social distancing to reduce the prevalence of COVID-19 resulted in the need to prioritize the protection of students and school service providers. This led to the use of telehealth for speech and language therapy. Tambyraja et al. (2021) surveyed school-based speech-language pathologists regarding telehealth provision, technology used to deliver telehealth services, types of support offered by schools, and challenges that arose in providing consistent speech therapy. Based on the surveys completed, results indicated poor attendance and an increase in maladaptive behaviors (Tambyraja et al., 2021). It would follow that poor attendance and maladaptive behaviors may impact the effectiveness of telehealth interventions. 

Hypothesis: Our hypothesis is that in-person speech-language therapy will decrease articulation errors in participants more efficiently than teletherapy. 

Methods: This proposed study investigates the efficacy of speech services for articulation disorders delivered via telehealth as compared to in-person speech therapy for children in grades K-3. The study will implement a between-subject group design. Thirty students with moderate to severe articulation errors from grades K-3 will be randomly assigned to two groups. After ensuring groups have a relatively even distribution across articulation target types (remediation of /r/ or /l/ etc.), group one will receive in-person services and group two will receive telehealth services two times a week for thirty minutes. Articulation accuracy will be tracked during each session at the word, sentence, paragraph, reading, and conversation levels. At the end of six months, data from months 0-3 and 3-6 will be compared to analyze the efficacy and efficiency of teletherapy for articulation disorders. 

References 
Tambyraja, S. R., Farquharson, K., & Coleman, J. (2021). Speech-Language Teletherapy Services for School-Aged Children in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR), 26(2), 91–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/10824669.2021.1906249