Teletherapy and COVID-19: A Pediatric Therapist's Adaptive Response: How Tools To Grow Can Help
06.12.2020
The entire world has undergone radical changes in the past few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Obviously, each one of us has needed to adjust our home and professional lives to help prevent the spread of the virus. We have all made many adaptations at this time, yet some of our responses may benefit from a little help from others.
This blog will focus on our part of the world, the therapists that treat children with developmental delays, medical diagnoses, or other disabling conditions that challenge their performance at school, home, and in community settings. How has our community of pediatric clinicians responded to the restrictions imposed upon our profession? As a therapist, how adaptive has your response been to the need to terminate direct, face to face therapy sessions? Therapists are all familiar with the term adaptive response as it relates to the child in the therapeutic process, but how can therapists respond successfully to the current environmental demands?
Here is some information about how Tools To Grow can help you respond adaptively to the “new normal”.
Tools To Grow Inc. has a sister company called Tools To Grow Occupational, Physical, and Speech Therapy PLLC. We provide clinic-based services at our Hamburg, New York location. We also have contracts for school-based services at area public and specialized schools. Additionally, we also provide preschool related services in the community through our contracts with local counties.
In mid-March, all New York schools were closed by emergency order. Direct, one on one therapy services were no longer possible. Of course, we took several days to catch our breath and re-examine how we could do our best to fulfill our mission. That is, provide valuable tools to therapists, educators, special needs teachers, and parents/caregivers to help with the most important job there is … helping children grow!
Well, at Tools To Grow our adaptive response was to create resources to help therapists with teletherapy. These tools were not only necessary for our colleagues at Tools To Grow OT, PT and ST, but for others throughout the world wide therapy community.
In some geographic areas, direct face to face therapy services are still not allowed. Summer school may be cancelled and the status of school re-opening for the Fall of 2020 is still in question for some areas. With all of this in mind, teletherapy will remain an important treatment option for many.
Tools To Grow Has Many Teletherapy Options
1. Interactive Digital Games
- Included in our annual membership-based website!
- From the Home Page:
- Click --> Interactive Digital Teletherapy Technology
- Sort by category --> Interactive Digital Games
- These interactive Games are to be downloaded and opened on Adobe PDF
- Includes the following Versions:
- Find, Click & Do- Fine Motor:
- Search and find the pictured items in your house. Once items are collected, click on the Image to “DO” that task. Complete that Fine Motor Task and click “Return to Choice Board” when Fine Motor task is complete.
- Includes 10 Fine Motor Challenges with household items! NO PRINT required!!
- Find it here!
Find, Click & Do- Gross Motor:
- Find pictured items in your house. Once items are collected, click to check that the items were assembled. Click on the Image to “DO” that Gross Motor task. Click “Return to Choice Board” when Gross Motor task is complete.
- Includes 10 Gross Motor Challenges with household items! NO PRINT required!!
- Find it here!
Find, Click & Say- Speech:
- Find pictured items in your house. Once items are collected, click to check that the items were assembled. Click on the Image to “SAY” and answer the “wh” questions. Click “Return to Choice Board” when that Speech task is complete.
- Includes 32 different "WH" questions!
- Find it here!
I Spy- Click & Movement Breaks = 2 Versions!
- Download and open PDF in Adobe.
- Look around your house.
- Find an object that is blue, orange, green, or red.
- Use the chart to select a movement break for that color.
- Once found, say “I Spy a ____ ____”.
- Click on that square/image to complete that movement break.
- Click “Return to Choice Board” when movement break is complete.
- Find it here!
Click & MOVE Yoga!
- Click on the Image to “DO” the desired Yoga pose.
- Follow the steps to complete that Yoga pose.
- Click “Return to Choice Board” when Yoga Pose is complete.
- Includes 6 different Yoga Poses.
- Find it here!
2. Interactive PDF Activities
- Included in our annual membership-based website!
- From the Home Page:
- Click --> Interactive Digital Teletherapy Technology
- Sort by category --> Digital Activities
- These ready-to-use activities were designed to be used as a PDF.
- Download and open these digital PDF tools in Adobe. Download FREE Adobe here!
3. Digital Google Slides
- Included in our membership-based website!
- From the Home Page:
- Click --> Interactive Digital Teletherapy Technology
- Sort by category --> Digital Google Slides
- These ready to use digital google slides are the perfect tools to use for distance learning!
- Designed to be used with Google Slides/Google Classroom.
- Assign in your student’s individual Google Classroom.
- Versions Include:
- Drag & Drop!
- Type into Slide
- Draw on Maze
- Fill Squares!
4. Digital Achievement Awards
- FREE Digital Awards are included in our membership-based website!
- From the Home Page:
- Click --> Interactive Digital Teletherapy Technology
- Sort by category --> Digital Achievement Awards
- OT, PT, and Speech Versions
- Student, Parent, and Family Versions!!
- Available in PDF (Adobe) and Google Slides
5. Boom Cards™
- You can only find these new Boom Cards in our Shop!
- Boom cards are not included with our annual membership based website
- Click “Shop” from the banner on our homepage
- These are digital resources that your students can use during a face to face session or during teletherapy
- These PDFs include special links that you click on to redeem your BOOM CARDS™ and create an account (or add to your account if you already have one)
- New to Boom cards? The first step is to create a FREE account at BoomLearning.com. After you create your account, click on the image in the PDF and these cards will be added to your library
- Watch this Video to learn how to download Boom Cards!
- Click here to watch our YouTube Video and learn more about how to download Tools to Grow Boom Cards.
6. Teletherapy Session Plans for Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy or Speech Therapy
- You can only find these Session Plans in our Shop!
- Session Plans are not included with our annual membership based website
- Click “Shop” from the banner on our homepage
- Includes treatment plans for use at a child’s home
- Written list of needed materials that can be found in child’s home
- Written therapy activity page that also includes resources for parents to download
- All resources have child-friendly images to encourage participation
- Targets needs common in pediatric therapy
OT Teletherapy Session Plans:
- Level 1 = Target Age Range= Pre-Kindergarten – Grade 2
- Sixteen (16) different treatment plans for use at a child’s home
- Eight (8) different child-friendly themes
- Find it here!
- Level 2 = Target Age Range= Grade 3 - Grade 5
- Sixteen (16) different treatment plans for use at a child’s home
- Eight (8) different child-friendly themes
- Find it here!
PT Teletherapy Session Plans:
- Level 1 = Target Age Range= Pre-Kindergarten – Grade 2
- Twelve (12) different treatment plans for use at a child’s home
- Six (6) different child-friendly themes
- Find it here!
Speech Teletherapy Session Plans:
- Level 1 = Target Age Range= Pre-Kindergarten – Grade 1
- Ten (10) different treatment plans for use at a child’s home
- Five (5) different child-friendly themes
- Find it here!
7. Teletherapy Tutorials
- Tools to Grow now has a YouTube Channel!
- You can find our NEW videos here!
- Please check back as new videos will be posted soon!
We hope these new digital and teletherapy resources help provide valuable tools to help with the most important job there is … helping children grow!
Related Topics: Distance Learning, Interactive Digital Technology, Teletherapy
