Parental and Practitioner Views of Telepractice for Pediatric Auditory Verbal Habilitation at a Time of Global Pandemic

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore parents' and therapists' views of the benefits and challenges of telepractice for early intervention for children who are deaf or hard of hearing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Surveys probed the views of (a) parents and (b) Listening and Spoken Language Specialist (LSLS) Certified Auditory Verbal Therapists (AVTs) in using telepractice to deliver auditory verbal (AV) sessions. The survey for parents covered technology, coaching, communication, learnings for the parent, learnings for the child, and parental preference. The survey for the therapists examined therapy style, technology, relationships with families, and coaching style. Using a convenience sample of 65 families and nine LSLS Certified AVTs, data were collected using Google Forms. Results: A response rate of 42% was achieved for the parents' survey. Families were overwhelmingly confident in the subjective effectiveness of AV sessions delivered by telepractice with modal ratings of 8 and 9 on a 10-point rating scale for telepractice sessions and in-person sessions, respectively. On average, however, parents rated in-person sessions at a significantly higher level. Eighty-five percent opted to continue with either AV delivered solely via telepractice or a blend of telepractice and in-person sessions. Changes in therapists' style included (a) increased interactions with the parent rather than the child and (b) an improvement in coaching techniques. Eight of nine therapists (89%) felt that sessions delivered via telepractice were equally effective as or more effective than in-person sessions. Discussion: The necessary transfer of all AV sessions to telepractice from in-person sessions during the global pandemic of COVID-19 was enacted successfully for the majority of families. Both parents and therapists described benefits and challenges of telepractice for AV intervention. Going forward, the high proportion of families requested either a blended service delivery of telepractice and in-person sessions or therapy via telepractice alone, demonstrating the families' satisfaction with this approach.

INTERNET CONSULTING AND COACHING AS A DIRECTION OF PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY OF SPECIALISTS IN SOCIAL WORK

Охарактеризованы интернет-консультирование и коучинг как помогающие технологии, применяемые в практике социальной работы. Обоснована идея интеграции, место и роль помогающей технологии коучинг в интернет-консультировании клиентов социальной работы, приведены определения коучинга, история возникновения и развития. Internet consulting and coaching are characterized as helping technologies used in the practice of social work. The idea of integration, the place and role of the assisting technology coaching in the Internet consulting of clients of social work is grounded, the definitions of coaching, the history of origin and development are given.

Scaling Up Classroom Coaching for Impactful Technology Use

Research findings from the second year of the Dynamic Learning Project suggest that technology coaching leads to an increase in impactful use of technology in the classroom. In the 2018-19 school year, we worked with coaches in 100 schools across seven states, doubling in size from the pilot year. Our data shows that teachers who received coaching as part of the Dynamic Learning Project reported greater skills in leveraging technology in their teaching, which resulted in increased student engagement and learning.

Fostering Powerful Use of Technology Through Instructional Coaching

Research findings suggest that instructional technology coaching may be a critical lever in closing the gap in the usage of technology, sometimes referred to as the digital use divide. In the 2017-2018 school year, we provided 50 schools in 20 school districts across five states, with a grant to support an onsite, full-time instructional technology coach (called a DLP coach). Our data shows that after one year of working with their DLP coach, teachers are using technology more frequently and in more powerful ways. DLP teachers report significant increases in using technology for both teaching content and pedagogy—in other words, teachers are using technology to support what they are teaching, as well as how they are teaching it.