What You Need for Online Speech Therapy

What internet speed do I need for online speech therapy?

Aim for at least 1 Mbps both ways. Australian public health video services set the minimum at between 0.35 and 0.5 Mbps in each direction, and Zoom lists 1.2 Mbps up and down for a high definition one-to-one call. A clearer picture helps Dr Lauren see your child's mouth and lips, so the closer to 1 Mbps or above, the better.

How to check, in two minutes:

1. Run a free speed test on the device your child will use, in the room they will use it in.
2. Look at the upload figure as well as download. Upload carries your child's picture and voice to Dr Lauren, and on most home plans it is the lower number.
3. Check the ping or latency. Healthdirect's video call guidance says it should not be more than 100 milliseconds.

If the numbers are low, sit closer to the modem, plug the laptop in with a cable if you can, and ask the rest of the household to pause streaming and downloads during the session.

Satellite and mobile data

Satellite connections can work for online speech therapy, but Healthdirect warns that satellite services, including Sky Muster, may run into low bandwidth during video calls. Run the speed test at the time of day your sessions will be, because satellite and mobile networks slow down at busy times.

On mobile data, a video call uses roughly 900 MB an hour at 1 Mbps, using Healthdirect's own formula , and more in high definition. Check your plan's allowance and whether your speed drops once it is used up. Families on a farm, a station or the road will find more on speech therapy for rural, remote and travelling families .

Where should my child sit for an online session?

Your child should sit facing a window or lamp, not with it behind them, with the camera at eye height and close enough that their face fills about a third of the screen. HealthyWA's telehealth advice warns that bright light behind you makes you hard to see, and for speech sound work Dr Lauren needs to see the lips, teeth and tongue clearly.

• Light in front. Face the window or put a lamp behind the screen.
• Camera at eye height. Stack books under a laptop. For a toddler, prop the tablet at floor level where the play happens.
• Mouth visible. No hands, cups or toys in front of the face during speech work.
• Quiet room, door closed. A television, a dishwasher or siblings in the background make speech sounds harder to hear. Speech Pathology Australia lists background noise among the things to fix in the room.
• Headphones. Headphones or a headset with a built-in microphone help a school-age child or teenager hear clearly and keep the session private. Many toddlers will not keep them on, so a parent-and-toddler session usually runs on the device's speaker.

What should we have within reach?

Have everything your child needs within arm's reach before the call starts, so nobody leaves the camera to hunt for a pencil.

Child's age	Within reach	Also useful
Toddler	Three or four favourite toys, a picture book, a snack for afterwards	A parent on the floor beside them for the whole session
School-age child	Paper, a pencil and an eraser, a glass of water	Anything Dr Lauren has asked you to have ready
Teenager	Paper and a pen, headphones, school work if it is part of the goal	A room with the door closed

Toilet, food and a drink before the session make a bigger difference than any equipment. The guide will my child sit still for online speech therapy? covers attention and screen time in full. The same set-up serves the first appointment too, which is an assessment by video.

Is online speech therapy private and safe for children?

Online speech therapy is private when the platform is secure, the link is not shared, and the family controls who is in the room. Speech Pathology Australia's telepractice position statement requires speech pathologists to meet Australian privacy law on the platform they choose, and ASHA's telepractice guidance recommends encrypted platforms and confirming who is present at both ends at the start of each session.

What this means at home:

• The link. Sessions run on a private video link from Online Speech Therapy. Do not forward it.
• Who is in the room. Tell Dr Lauren if anyone else is in the room or listening. With a teenager, agree beforehand whether a parent will be present.
• Recording. Please do not record a session yourself without asking first.
• Your information. How personal information is handled is in the privacy policy.

What problems do families have with online speech therapy, and how are they handled?

The problems the research on online speech therapy for children names are dropouts and freezing, missing devices, and doubt about whether a child will engage.

An Australian systematic review by Claire Grant, Anne Jones and Helen Land (James Cook University), published in the Australian Journal of Rural Health in 2022, gathered 14 studies of telehealth for children with developmental delays. A survey of 259 children's speech pathologists by Campbell and Goldstein, published in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology in 2022, found that some barriers reported before the pandemic, connectivity among them, persisted once services moved online. The review's authors rated its evidence as low quality, so treat these as the problems to plan for, not as measures of how often they happen.

Problem reported	How it is handled at home
Internet dropping out, lag and frozen screens	Test the connection the day before, pause other users, use a cable or sit near the modem, and rejoin from the same link if it drops. How online speech therapy works covers what to do if the call drops.
No suitable device or connection	A borrowed laptop or a relative's connection for the session time is a common fix; HealthyWA suggests the same. Mention it in your application if access is a concern.
Doubt that families can manage the technology	In the review, the families did not share clinicians' doubt about their computer skills, and the two minute test below covers the rest.
Doubt that a child will engage through a screen	Dr Lauren adapts the tasks to the child, and a parent sits beside a younger child. The engagement guide covers what helps.