Tele-Visits at Puddingstone Place™
The Puddingstone Place™ team realized that the need to stay at home order could disrupt clinical services, for which our patients have the utmost need. A disruption in services could lead to a slowdown in progress, and there is enough to worry about in today’s world without adding this to the list. Fortunately, Puddingstone was able to transition immediately to a tele-health model, allowing families to receive all three of our services through remote connections. With some team ingenuity combined with our ongoing and extensive use of technology, this transition for the Puddingstone Place™ staff was efficient and easy.
In addition to continuing to serve families already affiliated with Puddingstone Place™, we have immediate availability for children ages 18 months to 6 years old in our ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis), Center-Based Program. This can include remote speech and occupational therapy services that are accessed remotely through a computer, tablet, or even your smartphone. If this is all new to you, know that Office Coordinators will walk you through the process, helping make your connection to our therapists as seamless as possible.
Testimonials:
“I was surprised how effective this virtual visit turned out to be. He was really engaged and willing to participate.”
From one of our families.
“Kara is the best SLP we have ever worked with! She has made the transition to online sessions totally seamless. She manages to hold our son’s attention for the entire session, and she is able to guide us effortlessly with program training. Puddingstone has made sure we have not missed a beat during this quarantine.”
Christina S.
Our Telehealth Services are Covered by Insurance
Prior to beginning treatment, intake paperwork needs to be obtained for insurance coverage. Our Office Coordinators will assist you in completing all of this necessary paperwork in order to obtain coverage for your visits, and our Insurance Specialist will assist you in getting the necessary authorization in place to begin our Program.
Virtual Therapy Compared to Traditional Therapy
Our teletherapy is evidence based, including research conducted in past years by our own staff. Current research shows that treatment conducted through virtual visits can be as effective and sometimes more effective than face to face treatment. Some of our research, in fact, has shown media and screens are powerful ways to instruct and engage children during treatment sessions. In a virtual visit with a Puddingstone treatment specialist, we strive to do three things:
- Offer parent training
- Offer direct treatment to your child
- Assist with changes to your child’s technology (if they use a tablet or device for communication or learning)
If you have any questions and wish to speak with one of our Office Coordinators or one of our clinical staff about a virtual visit, please call us at 774-213-1032 or email us at info@puddingstoneplace.com.
Telehealth Research:
Heitzman-Powell, L. S., Buzhardt, J., Rusinko, L. C., & Miller, T. M. (2014). Formative evaluation of an ABA outreach training program for parents of children with autism in remote areas. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 29(1), 23-38.
Pickard, K. E., Wainer, A. L., Bailey, K. M., & Ingersoll, B. R. (2016). A mixed-method evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of a telehealth-based parent-mediated intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism, 20(7), 845-855.
Parmanto, B., Pulantara, I. W., Schutte, J. L., Saptono, A., & McCue, M. P. (2013). An integrated telehealth system for remote administration of an adult autism assessment. Telemedicine and e-Health, 19(2), 88-94.
McDuffie, A., Machalicek, W., Oakes, A., Haebig, E., Weismer, S. E., & Abbeduto, L. (2013). Distance video-teleconferencing in early intervention: Pilot study of a naturalistic parent-implemented language intervention. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 33(3), 172-185.
Schutte, J. L., McCue, M. P., Parmanto, B., McGonigle, J., Handen, B., Lewis, A., … & Saptono, A. (2015). Usability and reliability of a remotely administered adult autism assessment, the autism diagnostic observation schedule (ADOS) module 4. Telemedicine and e-Health, 21(3), 176-184.
Screen/media:
Allen, A. A., & Shane, H. C. (2014). Autism spectrum disorders in the era of mobile technologies: Impact on caregivers. Developmental neurorehabilitation, 17(2), 110-114.
Shane, H. C., & Albert, P. D. (2008). Electronic screen media for persons with autism spectrum disorders: Results of a survey. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 38(8), 1499-1508.