Online kinesiotherapy in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

The period marked by the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to switch to digitalisation, and their adaptation to the new reality has led to the constant use of online technology in all instructive-educational and therapeutic activities. Numerous posts and articles on the Internet provided useful information and advice aimed to teach parents how to work with their children at home, how to team up with the therapist. Physical therapists, children and the parents of children included in the physiotherapy programme had to adapt to the situation, learn new things and get used to online technological means. Therapists had to analyse each case with the patient’s family and identify the best remote therapeutic intervention for the child. Naturally, the sudden transition to online activity creates difficulties in performing the distance activities proposed during this period. The purpose of the current research was to find out to what extent online physical therapy was implemented and what communication channels were used during the suspension of classes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was carried out in October 2020. This questionnaire-based quantitative research was conducted on a convenience sample (n = 45). The research included the parents whose children participated in the physiotherapy programme. Statistical data analysis was performed using the SPSS software. The conclusion drawn from this research is that the most used communication channel between parents and physiotherapist regarding the implementation of online physical therapy was video communication (Google Meet, Zoom, WebEx, Skype).