| The present study was designed to investigate the use of internet-based telepractice in speech language pathology by assessing the general language abilities of children using the CELF4 Screening Test. Telepractice is using communication technology to provide alternative speech language pathology services via the internet, videoconferencing, telephones etc. Researchers have found that telepractice and face to face assessments or therapy are similar and suggest telepractice can be used in the field of speech pathology. The present study consisted of two groups, the experimental group containing ten participants assessed via the telepractice system and the control group containing ten participants assessed via the traditional face to face manner. The participants were all normal developing and their age ranged from 5 to 6 years old. The custom built telepractice system provided real–time videoconferencing using the communication media, Skype. The statistical analyses performed on the scores of the language screenings were an independent t test and a mixed analysis of variance. The results of the analyses found there was no significant difference between the telepractice and face to face testing environments. More specifically, the screener's subtests containing different stimuli responses (e.g. verbal, pointing, repeating) elicited the same responses in the telepractice environment as the face to face environment, the results indicated that all test questions in both environments gave a similar response. These results further add to the research which support that telepractice is a viable means of giving speech language pathology services at a distance. |
