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Telepractice speech assistance gives hope to millions across the globe

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CIOL Writers
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CIOL Telepractice speech assistance gives hope to millions across the globe

One person can touch a million lives, and Judy Walker, an associate professor at UMaine is one such good Samaritan. Her inventive program that helps people with speech disabilities through telepractice, has been giving hope to people who have tried every other option and failed, since past five years.

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The program connects people who need speech therapy with professional therapists through online video conferencing technology. A therapist leads an individual or a group through a series of exercises and assesses their performance. The video interaction gives clients easier access to therapy and helps therapists see more people because they don’t have to travel for appointments.

In her former role as the chairperson of UMaine’s Department of Communication Sciences, Walker was regularly getting calls from schools asking for help with speech therapy. The schools had students with autism and other special needs that required specialized help. That's how Walker thought of starting the program.

We had to think about a way we could deliver speech therapy in a very efficient way," Walker said, noting that the program now has a waiting list of patients. Federal projections also indicate an increase in demand for speech pathologists and therapists. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects jobs in that field to grow 21 percent from 2014 to 2024, compared with the national average of 7 percent growth in jobs overall.

Walker spent years developing a pilot program, building a training manual and coming up with a business plan. The program got a critical $174,000 grant from Next Generation Foundation of Maine, paid over the course of three years, that has supported the nonprofit to this point.