Tasks performed by parents to enable telepractice for children with communication disorders: an interview study with clinicians and parents

Abstract

Purpose

Current service models in childhood rehabilitation promote the active participation of parents/caregivers in their children’s therapies. The existing literature provides a limited understanding of the tasks and responsibilities parents undertake in their children’s therapies, especially over telepractice. This study describes the tasks undertaken by parents in their children’s speech therapy delivered virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

A qualitative descriptive study was conducted with parents and speech-language pathologists, using open-ended interviews. Interviews were analyzed using a combination qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis.

Results

Parents performed many tasks to enable telepractice. These tasks happened before (e.g., setting up both physical and virtual space for therapy), during (e.g., managing child’s behavior), and after the virtual therapy session (e.g., carrying out home practice). While parents were willing to perform these tasks in order to help their children, some expressed the toll that it can take on them.

Conclusions

Compared to what is known from in-person visits, some of these tasks were novel and unique to telepractice. We recommend that clinicians and parents collaboratively decide on tasks and responsibilities to avoid burdening parents, and that they weigh the costs associated with performing these tasks against the benefits of teletherapy.

IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION

• Parents perform many tasks to support their children’s therapies, both during and outside of therapy sessions

• Therapies delivered virtually require parents to assume additional tasks to support their children

• For services to be Family-Centered, tasks and responsibilities need to be decided collaboratively between parents and clinicians

Keywords:

• Parent roles
• teletherapy
• speech therapy
• family-centred service
• COVID-19

Acknowledgements

The authors thank clinicians and families who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, are declared by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author KP. The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Additional information

Funding

Funding was received from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (1008-2020-1034).