In my practice as Language Consultant I sometimes work as mediator between parents and schools when there are some misunderstandings concerning the speech and language development of the child.
Speech therapists usually help the child either during school hours or after school with the school language. They usually work closely with the teachers in order to provide the best support to the child.
What many parents of bi- or multilingual children don't know is that their children should get this support it in all the languages they speak!
As not every parent is a linguist or a speech therapist, who can provide this support themselves or at least bridge between the languages.
Also, finding a speech therapist who is expert in the school and the home languages is very difficult.
The online service offered by TinyEYE can be a solution for some.
I'm very thankful that Mila Rozema, TinyEYE British-Dutch speech and language pathologist, agreed on answering a few questions about the services TinyEYE can offer to bi- or multilingual families.
-
What age group are you targeting with TinyEYE?
TinyEYE is an online speech therapy company that has been helping clients of all ages for many years now. From children with speech and language disorders to teenagers who stutter and adults who have had a stroke.
-
How does this work?
To be able to know whether a person needs speech therapy, one of our TinyEYE speech therapists plans in an intake interview with you. During this interview you can elaborate on the problem and the speech therapist will ask questions about the medical history. The speech therapist will then give advice and discuss starting up speech therapy or not.
-
What kind of information do you need from parents and schools in order to know if you can help the child (or adult)?
Our TinyEYE speech therapists find it important to get in contact with others involved in the client’s daily life. Think of teachers or doctors.
-
Is the speech therapy you're offering at TinyEYE covered by the health insurance?
Our online speech therapy is fully covered by the Dutch health insurances.
-
What about multilingual children: can your speech therapists provide the service in more than one language?
Our speech therapists are also specialized in working with multilingualism and different cultures. We can test and treat in different languages.
-
What are the languages do your speech therapists cover at the moment?
The languages we provide are: Turkish, Dutch, British, German, French and Malayalam.
-
Is this service available worldwide or do you only serve specific time-zones?
Our services are world wide. Flexible hours, so time difference isn’t an issue at TinyEYE!
-
Can parents assist the online sessions together with their children?
The good thing about online speech therapy, is it can take place from the client’s home environment. This means parents can be present during the speech therapy of their child for example. We also work with international schools. In some cases the equipment is set up at a school and we see children online, during school time.
-
Do you use online games when working with the children or do you also give homework they can do offline?
When working with children, we use our TinyEYE speech and language games. We then place these games, with personal instructional video’s in their homework so they can practice whenever they please. When working with adults, we use a large screen, writing or photo material. All therapy materiaal is integrated in our software programme.
-
How long does a session last?
The duration of a TinyEYE session is 20 minutes. Short but effective. We tend to plan in two or three sessions a week.
-
Some families who live in remote areas where they don't have the appropriate speech therapy for their children, also struggle with internet connection problems. What system do you use when working with the clients online and is it safe for children to use?
We use our own TinyEYE software programme for the live audio-visual sessions. Client and speech therapist login via the website. This programma doesn’t need a strong internet connection so families living in remote areas or in the mountains can also receive online help.
To see a brief introduction of the bilingual speech therapists, please click on the following link: https://tinyeye.eu/en/about/ and https://tinyeye.eu/wie-zijn-wij/
Please don't hesitate to contact TinyEYE if you are interested in online speech therapy for yourself or someone you know.
Mila Rozema, British-Dutch speech and language pathologist at TinyEYE
Ute Limacher-Riebold
Ute Limacher-Riebold, PhD, is the founder of Multilingual-Families.com and Owner of Ute’s International Lounge & Academy.
She empowers internationals to maintain their languages and cultures effectively while embracing new ones whilst living “abroad”.
She grew up with multiple languages, holds a PhD in Romance Studies and has worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of Zurich (Department of Italian Historical Linguistics). She taught Italian historical linguistics, researched Italian dialects and minority languages, and contributed to and led various academic projects.
Driven by her passion for successful language development and maintenance, and personal experiences with language shifts, Ute supports multilingual families worldwide in nurturing their languages and cultural identities in the most effective and healthy way.
