Therapy in a time of covid

Wow, it has actually been almost two months since I last posted. My apologies! As everyone knows, it has been a busy time navigating the new "normal" of living and working during a pandemic. It has been quite a learning curve, at first figuring out tele-therapy and now all of the new safety measures as we begin to slowly reopen for in-person sessions. Luckily for me, one of the other SLPs at Grow wrote this blog post that summed up our thoughts on the matter quite nicely! We have been fortunate to be able to use the self-regulation and "flexible thinking" tools we so often teach to our kids as we go through this transition time of learning so many new things! So, without further ado, I'll let Ashley take it away:

As for so many people and businesses during this uncertain time, things have not been running “business as usual” for Grow over the last few months. Amanda, Catherine, and I have been doing our best to adapt, and learn new skills in order to be better prepared to support our clients and families during this era of social distancing. We are so fortunate to be working together as a team (Zoom team-building, anyone?), and consider ourselves blessed to be able to work with all of our amazing clients and their families right now! Therapy has looked different over the last few months (zoom, vooks, boom cards, oh my!), but the underlying goal of connecting with our clients in meaningful, and growth-centred ways has remained the same. No matter the platform, helping our clients reach their potential has always been our top priority.Being apart from our clients only reinforced for us how important human connection is, and that though we weren't able to be together in-person with all of our clients for some time, we found new and creative ways to connect in other means. As we SLPs like to say, it's physical distancing, but we can still maintain social closeness! I wanted to take some time to share what I have learned with you.
     
Here’s a look at a few of the new activities we discovered during the era of teletherapy (for more online resources, check out Amanda's blog post here):  

• Vooks – Amanda has written about this before, but it begs another mention! Looks is a service that provides subscribers with an interactive book reading experience! It allows readers to watch their favorite books online in a short film format with text and audio playing simultaneously. We have really enjoyed using Vooks, because not only is it important to target literacy and language skills, but it has also allowed us to continue to engage in shared reading activities with our clients, despite not always having physical books on hand.  (My favourite book has been Unicorn and Horse) 
• Animated short films - another favourite of ours! One thing I love about animated short films is their ability to convey so much emotion through the non-verbal communication of the characters. We have discovered these are great tools for helping children learn the connection between emotions and events that happen to us, as well as how emotions are shown on our face and in our bodies. On top of that, they are also super engaging, and entertaining for kids and adults alike! My favourite so far has been Snack Attack, but we also love Soar, Coin Operated, and Hair Love. 
• Zoom backgrounds - In my opinion, this is the best discovery I have made for therapy during this time. I love zoom backgrounds, and my clients love it too! The possibilities are endless, and there are so many different goals we can target using backgrounds and props. I love being able to go on adventures with my clients and see the joy on their faces when they discover they can create stories with me on the fly. ​

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Here’s a look at a session I put together targeting three-word utterances with a child, while we were on a pirate ship

And another behind the scenes shot of an ice-cream shop story that all three of us have been using over the last few months

As we hope you can see, teletherapy (though admittedly daunting and scary at first) has been a new and exciting change for us. It has allowed us to expand the repertoire of activities in our toolbox while continuing to develop our skill-set as child-centered therapists. The shift to teletherapy has been an adventure into flexible and forward thinking, which is something I often teach my clients but have learned I needed a reminder of as well. It hasn’t always been easy, because sometimes technology doesn't work how I want it to, but it has been such a great growth opportunity for me! This experience has showed us at Grow that we are much stronger, and more resilient than we once thought, and that anything is possible when we work together. We hope you at home have been able to see the silver linings during this uncertain time as well.   
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If your child is seeing one of us for teletherapy, you may be wondering how much longer until we can get together at the clinic for in-person sessions now that restrictions are being lifted across BC. We are thrilled to announce our clinic is reopened, and we are now seeing some patients for in-person appointments again! As per our College’s guidelines, we are still continuing teletherapy for many families if it is working and we feel goals are still being met. But, if teletherapy hasn’t been a viable option or is becoming difficult, we are now able to bring some families into the clinic. However, things may look differently than they did before! We have put some new policies in place to ensure everyone remains as safe as possible. Some of these policies include:  

• Family must complete a covid-19 screening checklist before each appointment  
• If you, or your child is exhibiting any signs/symptoms, we ask that you stay home, and talk to us about either rescheduling, or completing your session via teletherapy that day.  
• Children will be required to wash their hands before and after each session  
• We will now be offering shorter, 45-minute sessions to allow for increased cleaning/sanitizing procedures completed after each session.  
• Reduced capacity of individuals in the clinic at one time (I.e., only clients with appointments are allowed in the building for right now; waiting room is closed; families are asked to wait outside until session is completed, unless an alternative has been discussed ahead of time with your therapist).   

If you are interested in receiving in-person appointments at the clinic again, please talk to your therapist, or contact Amanda directly to set up an appointment. We are committed to making an individual plan for each child and family so that they feel supported and safe. 

We are so happy to take everything we learned during the time of teletherapy, and continue to apply it in our sessions with our clients. If you have any questions about the resources you read in this post, or would like more information on our Covid-19 health and safety measures, please contact Amanda directly. 
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And, as always, happy talking! 
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