Providing private speech therapy and parent coaching for families across the City of Pittsburgh, the North Hills, South Hills, and Northeast communities.
Pediatric Speech Therapy & Evaluation Services
The DIRFloortime® Approach to Speech Therapy
My approach is rooted in DIRFloortime®, which means I follow your child’s lead to build the social-emotional foundation necessary for communication growth. By engaging, respecting, and attuning to your child’s unique world, we encourage them to expand their ideas through gestures, words, and play. This lens is not based on compliance or a checklist of tasks. Instead, we focus on the whole child in a safe space where they feel truly seen and understood.
This relationship-based lens means speech therapy focuses on:
Developmental Foundations: We move beyond isolated skills to support the back-and-forth social engagement that fuels all learning.
Individual Differences: We honor your child’s unique sensory profile, strengths, and interests to create a supportive environment.
Relationship-Based Growth: We use joyful, shared interactions to encourage your child to elaborate on their ideas, deepen their engagement, and build communication.
Together, let's support your child in becoming their most authentic, communicative self during speech therapy.
Speech & Language Evaluations
Comprehensive Evaluation
This path is for families who want an in-depth speech and language evaluation of their child, want to get started with services, and/or need a formal document for insurance, school, or a pediatrician.
Clinical Review: A parent interview and questionnaires, alongside a review of past assessments, IEPs, or treatment plans.
Assessment Session: A one-hour visit involving language sample collection and analysis, and informal or formal measures (standardized assessments are only used if appropriate for your child’s specific profile).
Home Video Review: You are welcome to provide home videos to help me see your child’s communication in their most comfortable, natural moments.
Written Evaluation Report and Treatment Plan: I provide a written evaluation report and treatment plan. We will review these together to collaborate on a plan for possible services.
Informal Speech & Language Evaluation
This path is for families who may already have a recent report (within the past 6 months) and just want to get started with services.
Instead of an evaluation report, this process focuses only on the creation of a written treatment plan to begin services.
AAC Evaluations
Self-Purchase Evaluation
This path is for families who plan to purchase their own AAC device and software (e.g., an iPad with a communication app) and want a professional evaluation and recommendation.
Insurance Funding Evaluation
This path is for families seeking a device funded through their medical insurance. The evaluation is private-pay, but the resulting report is designed to meet the requirements to secure coverage for the device. Superbill is available upon request.
Specialty Speech Therapy Services
Speech Therapy for Late Talkers
Is your toddler a "late talker"? It’s common to feel uncertain whether they are simply on their own timeline or need extra support. By focusing on the essential foundations of engagement and early communication skills, we create a path for your toddler to talk.
Speech therapy will support your child to:
Develop the back-and-forth of social interaction
Build language through meaningful, daily play and routines
Use words and gestures to communicate their wants and needs to reduce frustration and meltdowns
Form the foundational skills needed for first words and phrases
Help you feel confident in supporting your child’s communication growth
Echolalia & Gestalt Language Processing
Does your child communicate through echolalia, scripts, movie lines, or songs? This is a natural, valid way of developing language. Using the Natural Language Acquisition (NLA) framework, I help your child move toward spontaneous, original, and flexible communication.
This therapy approach will support your child to:
Build a strong foundation for natural grammar development
Move from echolalia and scripting to original, spontaneous sentences
Express their own unique thoughts, needs, protests, and questions
Communicate more clearly to be better understood by others
Gain the confidence to use their own words in any environment
Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)
Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) provides a robust language system for children who find spoken words difficult or frustrating. My goal is to find the right communication tools that honor your child’s autonomy, ensuring they are heard and understood by their family, teachers, and friends in every environment.
Therapy for AAC will support your child to:
Communicate more clearly to reduce frustration
Build independence and self-advocacy skills
Connect with others through social sharing
Ask questions and explore the world
Use their AAC device confidently throughout the day
I assist you in selecting an AAC device and software, getting funding for the device through an AAC evaluation, and using it throughout your child’s day.
Parent Coaching
Parent coaching is part of every session, and I also offer dedicated coaching sessions where we connect, strategize, and make sure you feel confident supporting your child at home.
The Coaching Approach
Collaborative Sessions: You work directly with me to understand your child’s communication style and respond in ways that strengthen their development.
Flexible Support: Unlike clinic-based schedules, we meet at a frequency and time that works best for your family’s life.
Strengths-Based Guidance: This is a particularly supportive space for parents of autistic children who want tools rooted in neurodiversity-affirming care.
Skills We Build Together
Through our coaching sessions, you will gain the tools to become your child’s most effective communication partner. We focus on:
Reading the Cues: Identifying your child’s unique sensory and emotional signals to prevent burnout and support regulation.
Following the Lead: Learning how to join your child’s play and interests to create naturally motivating interactions.
Expanding Engagement: Practical techniques to deepen social interaction and support communication development.
Environmental Set-up: Adjusting your home or daily routines to better support your child’s sensory needs.
Modeling Communication: Learning how to use specialized strategies within the flow of everyday life.
Problem-Solving in Real-Time: Navigating specific challenges as they arise in your daily schedule, from mealtime to transitions.
