JCPSLP vol 14 no 3 2012

Technology

Clinical insights Adapting speech pathology practice: Delivering parent education groups using technology Corinne Loomes and Alice Montgomery

This paper discusses parent education groups for families with children who have sensory disabilities. Families living in rural and remote areas participated in group sessions via videoconference. The technology required to provide parent groups for families located across Australia is discussed, with three different telepractice methods reported. The parent groups used The Hanen It Takes Two to Talk ® program as the structure of the parent groups, and the adaptations required to use this existing program in a telepractice format are described. M any families with children who have disabilities have limited or no access to support services (Senate Committee, 2002). Metropolitan areas offer some opportunities for these families to meet and support one another, for example, playgroups for children with disabilities, and parent education groups. Socialising with other families provides support and can have a powerful and positive impact (Crinc & Stormshak, 1997). Families in similar situations can provide each other with encouragement, understanding, and humour (Atkins, 2009). However, the reality for one-third of Australians is that they live in rural and remote areas (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009). Living outside of a metropolitan area can mean that these families miss out on meeting with others to share experiences. Considering the fact that approximately 2 in 1000 children have significant permanent hearing loss (Russ et al., 2003), it is easy to see how a specialised service for hearing impaired children in remote locations might be difficult to find. Where services are available, some of the established difficulties for professionals working in remote locations include: large and generalist caseloads; vast distances to cover; difficulties accessing some areas due to weather conditions; and high staff turnover (McCarthy, 2010). Telepractice can offer specialised services to be delivered from large metropolitan centres and accessed by all Australians. Developments in technology enable services to be provided using telepractice solutions previously not possible. Theodoros (2011) suggests speech pathologists need “to engage and embrace this change in order to

develop and diversify within the 21st century”. Speech pathologists are currently using telepractice for various individual clinical purposes, for example, to assess speech and language in children (Waite, Theodoros, Russell, & Cahill, 2010), stuttering intervention (O’Brian, Packman, & Onslow, 2008), and parent education (Baharav & Reiser, 2010). Other professionals are also utilising telepractice to connect families – for example, child health nurses facilitating a new mothers’ support group (Nyström & Öhrling, 2006). The telepractice solutions described in this paper illustrate how telepractice can be used to deliver parent education groups to families living distantly from one another. Technology: changing the service delivery options The Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children’s RIDBC Teleschool is based in Sydney, NSW, and is a dedicated team to support families with hearing and/or vision impairment across Australia. RIDBC Teleschool offers weekly telepractice sessions with a consultant via videoconference to enrolled families. This is supported by resources, lesson plans, phone calls, and emails as required. In 2009 RIDBC Teleschool began using a telepractice model to provide parent education groups to rural and remote families. The parent education groups were designed to create an environment for remotely located families to support each other while learning about communication. “It Takes Two to Talk ® : The Hanen Program ® for Parents” (Conklin, Pepper, Weitzman, & McDade, 2007) was chosen because it is a family-focused early language intervention program with a strong evidence base. The It Takes Two to Talk program is a comprehensive package providing detailed instructions for each group and individual session. It contains pre-prepared PowerPoint slides, as well as various videos to share with participants. Some group tasks suggest breaking the group into pairs or fours to complete activities. Participants also have individual sessions which are video-recorded so that they can be replayed during the session to comment on the interactions captured.There are two major issues to consider when delivering It Takes Two to Talk to families via telepractice: the availability of appropriate technology, and adapting the It Takes Two to Talk program to suit telepractice service delivery. Several options were trialled with three different groups of parents, and are discussed below.

Keywords EARLY INTERVENTION PARENT EDUCATION PARENT GROUPS TELEPRACTICE

Corinne Loomes (top) and Alice Montgomery

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JCPSLP Volume 14, Number 3 2012

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology