Esperienza logopedica e teleriabilitazione: uno studio qualitativo

The contribution presents the experience of Italian speech therapists in telerehabilitation (henceforth TR) and identifies their views regarding applicability and functionality, both in clinical terms and in terms of their relationship with the patient. In particular, the contribution aims to understand whether and how the distance approach, which drastically modifies the therapeutic relationship with regard to proxemics and interpersonal space, is comparable to the in-presence approach, as found in the literature. The qualitative research is char- acterized by semi-structured interviews, conducted by video call and targeting 18 speech therapists recruited through “snowball” sampling. The sampling method and the use of video calling by which the interviews were conducted may be limitations to the study, as they may have affected the nature of the data collected by reducing their diversity. The experience in TR turned out to be an opportunity to reflect on clinical practice and to under- stand that one can also rehabilitate by changing the type of therapeutic relationship. In addition, some themes were identified that might be useful for speech therapists who plan to apply TR in order to make this practice perceptually effective for those involved.