Teletherapy
Parents and professionals alike are searching for more availability and effective ways to educate and support their children within the autism spectrum. Also, many public schools are forced to open new autism programs without experienced autism professionals. There is a need for schools and families to have more immediate access to experts in autism that can help train, facilitate, and evaluate many children and their programs.
Teletherapy is a term used to describe the use of telecommunication technology – such as videoconferencing with additional computer abilities -- to offer specialty education, therapies and programming to individuals within the autism spectrum. To augment personal visits, a teacher/therapist can give more valuable information to experts to get advice for specific children or their program. It will also be used to add support in the home to families struggling to care for their autistic loved one. Having an auditory and visual connection on both ends gives the experts a better understanding of the problem while giving families, teachers and their students the highest level of learning available, while saving time and money.
Tools for teletherapy are available to give needed resources to schools that are willing to create an autism program but feel the need for a strong support system with a connection to the experts, for an optimum education. Princeton Autism Technology has helped attract the interest of organizations, clinicians and clinical researchers to explore teletherapy use in specific applications. PAT also has supported various programs with loaned videophones to pilot study the efficacy of these tools to increase services.
Examples (thanks to one industry partner C-Now)
- a. Mom with son in kitchen guided by teletherapist b. tele-specialist into group home
- Supervision in tele-work program
