PresenceLearning “Lightyear” Online Therapy Solution Represents a Quantum Leap Forward in User Experience
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (PRWEB) May 05, 2016 -- PresenceLearning, the leading provider of live, online therapy services, announces the release of Lightyear, their newly designed therapy environment that delivers high fidelity, live telehealth sessions while putting significantly less demand on school network bandwidth. Now, even more schools—especially schools in areas with limited access to high-speed Internet—can gain access to PresenceLearning’s large network of highly qualified clinicians to help students with special needs succeed.
These dramatic performance improvements offer special education administrators around the U.S. a new way to provide students with consistent, high-quality speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, and behavioral and mental health services.
PresenceLearning is actively transitioning its entire community of providers and clients to Lightyear. Each ultra-secure therapy session offers crisp, clear video and sound at lower bandwidth requirements. In addition, PresenceLearning has added dozens of newly designed activities and games that online clinicians use to create individualized therapy sessions for each student. Lightyear enables the live, online therapy experience to feel even more natural for therapists and students alike.
“The video quality is so amazing! It’s as though you are sitting directly across from the student,” said Karen McBride, a PresenceLearning online speech-language pathologist. “With the new enlarged view option, it is much easier to zoom in and see the student’s mouth and important structures clearly. I love using this view while working with students on the autism spectrum because we can maintain excellent eye contact. It also makes group sessions more ‘real.’ The high-quality video makes conversations fluid and allows the entire group to interpret overall communication and micro-expressions.”
McBride has been using Lightyear since the beta version launched in August, 2015. In her experience with Lightyear, McBride said older students especially love the new reward system since it mimics the emojis many students have on their smartphones and devices. With younger students, McBride has seen tremendous success with the new text reward box function, which she uses to introduce a vocabulary word of the day in each student session.
Another enhancement is a new handwriting font called “Print Practice” for occupational therapy handwriting sessions. Students can choose their own font style, color, and line thickness, and can then mark and annotate their texts using the underlining and highlighting tools, all of which enable students to take pride in—and ownership of—their work.
Clinical providers have also been delighted with Lightyear’s new, often-requested advanced features: a PDF rotation tool, a flashcard editor so clinicians can upload their own images to flashcards, documentation tools for group sessions, and many improved assessments. Clinicians can also use a new suite of built-in flashcard-based activities and custom animations.
“I look forward to being able to develop story-building and articulation activities with animation and interactions,” said McBride. “Lightyear’s expanded tools have already made an impact on my students. A therapist only needs to try Lightyear once to see its benefits, and they won't want to go back to any other environment.”
For more information about Lightyear, visit the Frequently Asked Questions page here.
About PresenceLearning
PresenceLearning (http://www.presencelearning.com) is the leading provider of online speech-language and occupational therapy, behavioral and mental health services, and assessments for K-12 districts. PresenceLearning’s nationwide network of online professionals and telehealth providers includes hundreds of highly qualified speech language pathologists (SLPs), occupational therapists (OTs), and behavioral and mental health professionals. Sessions are delivered “anytime anywhere” via live videoconferencing using the latest in evidence-based practices combined with powerful progress reporting.
By partnering with PresenceLearning, education agencies can fill service gaps related to acute and chronic shortages of special education and related services personnel, reduce high caseloads for onsite personnel, reduce their backlog of assessments, improve student outcomes, and improve efficiency. Since 2009, PresenceLearning has delivered more than 1 million live, online therapy sessions to students in public, charter, and virtual schools across the U.S. and globally, proving that online delivery of special education related services is practical, convenient, and effective.
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Kati Elliott, KEH Communications, +1 (410) 975-9638, [email protected]
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