Designing for Transactional Moments: Features of Tools for Child-centred Speech Language Teletherapy

Teletherapy for speech-language therapy (SLT) has become essential for many families. Early intervention for young children is important to ensure that developmental milestones are met. In this study, from a corpus of 10 videos, we present three cases of online and in-person therapy sessions with children between the ages of 3 and 6. Our analysis shows how online and in-person SLT sessions use tools, how they are conscripted into social and transactional moments, and identifies features of tools that support or hinder therapists’ goals (see Figure 1). From our findings, we discuss in detail four overarching features of tools and implications for design. These features support engagement, space usage, child-centred play, and adaptability in therapy sessions. The paper outlines how these features are present in the tools used in SLT, and describes how they impact SLT activities, therapists’ and children's goals, and the environment for social transactional activities.