SLP Teletherapy Pro Bono Clinic – University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences
Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) graduate students at the USAHS provide free teletherapy to children and adults through the university’s pro bono clinic. The experience allows students to work with real clients while learning how to deliver effective speech and language services in a virtual setting.
Students work closely with licensed clinical educators before and after each session, giving them a supportive environment to ask questions, receive feedback, and build confidence. Over the course of an eight-week rotation, students learn how to adapt techniques they would normally use in person to a teletherapy setting.
For families like the Romeros, the clinic provides access to consistent speech-language services at no cost. Their teenage son gained confidence in self-correcting his speech both during sessions and in everyday life.
The clinic provides meaningful experiences for both students and clients, combining hands-on clinical education with free services for families who may otherwise have limited access to care.
Transcript
SLP Teletherapy Pro Bono Clinic – University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences
[00:00:00] Sade M. (SLP Student): Learning about teletherapy while in school is definitely an advantage. [00:00:06] Robyn Martin (SLP Faculty): It’s a great opportunity for our students to learn a different type of a service delivery model. We provide speech and language therapy and assessments to children and adults. Our goal is to provide these services to those that cannot get these services in their community, and so we’re able to reach a lot of different people in a lot of different areas. [00:00:26] Leanne M (SLP Student): We get to learn how to apply techniques that we’re learning that may traditionally be used in person, but give them to the clients over a virtual platform. [00:00:36] Robyn Martin (SLP Faculty): It’s an amazing opportunity for our students to get the experience, and then also to be able to service people who otherwise would have no services. [00:00:46] Mara W. (SLP Student): I was able to work with patients with Parkinson’s disease and helping them to regain their ability to have volume in their voice again. [00:00:54] Robyn Martin (SLP Faculty): We have full-time clinical educators who are licensed speech language pathologists who see these clients and work with our graduate students. [00:01:02] Sade M. (SLP Student): They are involved the entire time, and us as the graduate students, we’re the clinicians who care for the patient. [00:01:08] Sade M. (SLP Student): We collaborate every day after the sessions, brief on what’s happened in the session, what we’re gonna do the next session, what worked well and what didn’t work well. [00:01:15] Robyn Martin (SLP Faculty): It’s a great opportunity for our students to take what they’re learning in the classroom and being able to apply those clinical skills. [00:01:22] Sade M. (SLP Student): You’re able to bounce ideas off of them. You’re able to ask questions during the sessions. They’ll answer them in real time, and then at the end of the session, they’ll even go over it again and reiterate what they’ve taught you. [00:01:32] Mara W. (SLP Student): It gives me a lot of comfort to feel like this is a safe space for me to learn and grow, and that I don’t need to have achieved perfection yet, but that I can still, with guidance and support, actually give something to someone that’s meaningful and helpful to them. [00:01:47] Sade M. (SLP Student): To see the clients progress, that’s the feeling that I can’t even express. It’s something that’s super special. [00:01:52] Marie Romero (Client): My older son that’s 14 caught on really fast, and I felt like even outside of the lessons, he started self-correcting really easily. He would catch himself and then correct it and say the word again. [00:02:04] Marie Romero (Client): So then by the time he got back to the sessions, he was already applying it in real-life situations. And I’ve watched him just become more confident in talking about things and answering questions in class. And even at home, he’s talking a lot more. To have a program like this that’s at the quality that it is, I mean, obviously, it works so well for our family, and then to be free, it’s just a blessing. [00:02:26] Sade M. (SLP Student): It’s a good opportunity to learn. It’s a good opportunity to grow. You know, at the end of it, you do a self-reflection, and to be able to look back on where you started it in the beginning of the eight weeks and where you ended, it’s something that’s super special as well. It definitely affirms that I’m on the path of what I should be doing.
