What is ‘Screenless’?

If you’ve been following me for a little bit, you know that I’ve been developing a new way of guiding parents of Emerging/Late Talkers. (These are kiddos who are just learning to speak, either because they’re young or because they have a developmental delay or disability.) We’re calling it “Screenless Teletherapy” or “Screenless Coaching”  (even though it happens online) because the child doesn’t have to engage with the screen.

Here’s how it works:

Using Zoom, a device is positioned for maximum viewing in a playroom (think: Nanny Cam). This allows the therapist or coach to see what’s happening in the room without you having to move the camera all the time.

Using wireless headphones, the coach and you are connected via audio-only. The coach talks to you while you’re interacting with your child on the floor. (If you only have wired headphones, that’s ok – you call in to the same Zoom and use the audio channel on your phone.)

Then, over the course of several weeks, the coach guides you through playing with your kiddo. You practice exactly what to say and exactly what to do because the coach is there with you. You learn new ways to communicate with your child; and they learn new ways to communicate with you. 

And then we all watch the magic unfold!

Here are some things that I’ve seen happen during Screenless sessions:

1. Kids say ‘mama’ for the first time

2. Kids read books with their parent for the first time

3. Kids recover from meltdowns in record time

4. Parents feel more empowered and in control 

5. Parents feel like they know how to play with their child

6. Parents feel like they understand new things about their child

Here’s what’s amazing about Screenless and why it works so well.

1. All the glory goes to you. 

Let me explain. Usually what happens when you work with an early intervention professional is that your child is interacting directly with that person, and you (if you’re even in the room) are watching. Supposedly, the caregiver is learning by watching, and the coach/therapist is teaching through modeling. 

But here’s what usually happens: you watch the nice person playing with your child and think, “It’s so nice that other people know how to play with kids and teach them to communicate”.  

NO NO NO! 

We want you IN ON THE ACTION so that you can learn what to do at home! Therapy and coaching is NOT about what happens during the appointment. It’s about how the skills learned during the appointment transfer to Real Life. 

During a Screenless session, we teach you EXACTLY what to say and EXACTLY what to do in order to help your child communicate better.

1. No travel time for anyone

You don’t have to go anywhere! And your kiddo gets to spend time in the place where they feel most comfortable with the people they feel the most comfortable with.  We also get to tweak the schedule if we need to do shorter sessions, or more sessions or sessions at different times of day.

1. Appointments can happen anytime 

Literally any activity has opportunities for communication, engagement and connection. So, if your child needs a diaper change, we can build that into our Screenless session. If your child needs a snack, we can build that into a Screenless session. We can even do a Screenless session outdoors at the park!

1. No screen time for your kiddo. 

We know that very young children (and all kids during the pandemic) are getting more and more screen time overall. And we also know that screen time isn’t great for developing brains. It turns out that brains need actual people to learn from. “Active” screen time is better than “passive” screen time, but it’s still a tough road to navigate sometimes. Screenless means that you can take that “screentime guilt” off your plate a little bit.

1. Germ proof

Covid vaccines are on the rise and cases are on the decline, but our youngest kiddos are walking petri dishes of germs accumulated from all over. Screenless sessions allow you to get services without exposing your child and yourself to extra people.

If you’re intrigued about how Screenless might work for you and your emerging talker; if you’ve read this and thought that a coach in your ear sounds amazing, give us a shout at info@speechkids.com. We’re happy to schedule a 15-minute call.

All my best- Gabriele