TULSA -- A local speech pathologist is combining therapy with the digital age by providing access to therapy for kids in rural Oklahoma areas.
Katie Aday noticed a need for access to speech therapy for kids living in more rural areas of Oklahoma after she moved to Tulsa less than two years ago.
"There’s a lot of towns where there’s absolutely no clinics," said Katie Aday, a bilingual speech and language pathologist at Aday of Speech Therapy.
Aday opened Aday of Speech Therapy in Tulsa last year, and 70 percent of her business is done through online video chat.
"These kids are up to date with technology, it’s us that needs to catch up with them," said Aday.
She has clients from Colgate, to Ada, to Cushing.
"I would’ve had to come into work, drive the 30 minutes, turn around drive back to Cushing to pick up my son and then drive back here in order to get him into the therapy," said Shawnae, mother of one of Katie's clients.
Shawnae's four-year-old son recently started his lessons with Katie, and she says they're already seeing improvements.
"He would say something and we would guess something as to what it was but then he would get extremely frustrated, start balling his fist and growling at us because he was trying so hard to say it and he knew exactly what he was talking about," said Shawnae.
Shawnae says it fits his homeschooling schedule, and he thinks of it more as play time, than learning.
"Did you do your speech therapy with Miss Katie? He goes yeah and it was so much fun. Yes, learning is fun!" said Shawnae.
Being a more hands on teacher, Katie was skeptical at first about how effective online teaching would be but the results speak for themselves.
"This kid had never spoken before and so to be able to say mama to their mom and they’re four, five years old and be able to say it for the first time, it’s really a wonderful thing," said Aday.
Aday of Speech Therapy is located at 55th and Peoria and is open for kids ages one to 18. To learn more about the business you can visit their Facebook page.
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