Private Air New York Magazine
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www.privateairny.com Private Air | Summer 2020 53 BUSINESS help family members or themselves. Web-based speech teletherapy offers these and other well-suited patients the opportunity to readily access the on-going care they need to improve their lives, also giving them control over date and time-of-day scheduling and other concerns. Indeed, kids work one-on-one with teletherapists in-between their activities and busy schedules, whether the sessions are conducted after school, at night or on the weekends. Teletherapy also allows these individuals to start and continue therapy without any interruptions, which can optimize results. Removes stigma and fear. For many children, visiting a speech therapist at school heightens their anxiety and makes them even more self-conscious about getting the help needed to improve their speech. ese kids are often bullied by their peers, who belittle the speech issue as well as the therapy sessions that make the patient's schedule "different" from other students. What Azulay is seeing in schools that have embraced teletherapy is how they proffer a quiet location— in an office or a study room in the library—for these students to easily log on to a teletherapy platform via computer or tablets and readily access the expert-level help needed. In effect, these students are more willing to get the help they need because treatment can be rendered with more privacy and at a date and time that better suits. "As far as their other classmates know, they're just coming up to do some work on the computer," said one therapist in a recent study. In some rural communities, parents and therapists confirm that teletherapy affords them greater privacy, allowing their loved ones to access the help they need without other family members or other members of the community knowing. Even when other students observe that speech teletherapy is underway via a computer or tablet, it can actually draw curious, positive attention from these peers. Fosters access to top therapists. Federal and state law requires all therapists to be licensed in the state they practice in, regardless of how their services are rendered. What