Training in telepractice is very limited at the current time. Up until recently, most clinicians learned on their own, attending seminars, reading current literature, receiving limited training through video-conferencing websites and practicing on their own. In May of this year, I attended a two-day, ATA Accredited program at Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast, Maine. In all my years of attending numerous courses in our field, this was one of the best programs I have ever been to, by far.
At Waldo County you are introduced to Zoom, the video-conferencing platform that the SLPs use for their telepractice session. Each aspect of the platform ( screenshare, whiteboard, etc.) is introduced, then participants are given time to practice with tool. In addition, an incredible amount of information is shared over the two days on everything you need to know about telepractice. One of the best parts is the time spent learning how to use powerpoint slide animation to engage students via telepractice. Nathan Curtis is one of the presenters on this topic and seeing him engage with young children is almost magical. The videos he shared of him working with a young student (around 4 or 5 years old) was amazing; and, it was amazing because of the activity that Nathan used to hold this young child’s attention!
Coming next spring, I will be offering a two-day telepractice training on the west coast! Keep checking for the announcement about the date and time.