To better serve a portion of the district’s special needs student population, Groton Public Schools has partnered with PresenceLearning, provider of online speech therapy services for K-12 students. Through this adoption, students in grades 1-5 receive web-based speech-language therapy services from a certified speech-language pathologist (SLP).
“As digital natives, students are very adept at – and comfortable with – using computers for online learning,” said Denise Doolittle, director of pupil personnel services and special education at Groton Public Schools. “PresenceLearning leverages this by providing our district with a creative, online solution to offer speech-language services that help maximize student outcomes.”
Groton Public Schools, located on the southeast coastline of Connecticut, consists of 11 schools – including Mary Morrison Elementary where PresenceLearning is being used – and serves more than 5,000 preK-12 students. Using PresenceLearning, students work individually or in groups with their assigned SLP via an online video-conferencing platform that uses games and evidence-based activities to engage students in the therapy sessions.
“Our SLP from PresenceLearning has been terrific in providing effective instruction while also working collaboratively with parents and our on-site SLP,” said Doolittle. “As a result of this positive implementation, we hope to extend the usage and delivery of online speech therapy with more of our students throughout the school year.”
