Speech Delays & Speech Therapists
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Speech Delays & Speech Therapists
April 2004
Looking for speech therapist who can also do
diagnosis/evaluation. I've checked the archives, but there's
not much there. Thanks!
Recommended:
Robin Sperry
the Alameda County has many options: here are a few-
- Children's Hospital in Oakland
- Faltz Associates on Piedmont Ave. in Oakland
- Alta Bates Medical Center, Herrick Campus on Dwight
in Berkeley
If the child is age three or above, evaluations can
also be done through the local school system. Call
the office of special services/special education and
request an appointment for an evaluation.
If the child is below age three, ask your pediatrician
for a referral (perhaps to one of the centers listed
above). If your concerns are speech/lang. related and
another concern (example, movement, social skills,
eating) you may want to look into Early Start or
Regional Center of the East Bay. Discuss these with
your child's doctor.
March 2004
Hello all -- this is a follow-up request for a recommendation
for a speech therapist who works well with teens. I may have
missed it, but I don't think I saw any referrals for a
speech, voice, or diction coach -- or even some advice about
where to look for such a person -- who has success helping
teens with a speech articulation disorder. We are past the
games and sticker rewards that are used with younger
children. Thanks for the help!
Recommended:
Rhoda Agin
Jan. 2004
I'd love to hear updated recommendations for speech therapists specializing in
dysfluency (stuttering). The website listings are a little old and tend to pertain
to younger children -- I'm looking on behalf of a nine-year-old.
We had a visit with Kris Baines in Walnut Creek and liked her very much, but
couldn't mesh our schedules (we're on her wait-list, though). We're looking for
someone who is pragmatically oriented, as she seems to be.
Mary Gage Herman's name keeps coming up -- do people still like her, and/or
is it impossible to get on her schedule? Does she work outside the Children's
Hospital environment (private practice)? I think that our health insurance won't
work with Children's.
Also, several years back I heard that the then-departing speech therapist at
Easter Seals in Oakland was really great -- any leads on that person, or the
current speech therapist at Easter Seals? We were pleased with the OT we got
there at that time.
Finally, any more thoughts/recommendations for the Scottish Rite program
that is mentioned on the website?
Thanks in advance --
We worked with Kris Baines for a year or so when my son was
younger, then with Sara Thompson at Faltz Associates. Both were
excellent. There is also a fabulous private practitioner, Martha
Wagele. My son's concerns were not with stuttering but rather
with pragmatic language and general delays, but I would go to
Martha again in a New York minute.
Good luck.
Nancy
Nov. 2003
I'm looking for a speech therapist near Kensington for my 6 y.o.
He's been stuck on the ''r'' for several years now, and it's time
to get him some help. The website lists Oakland area folks -
anyone nearer? We'll probably have to self-pay, so affordable
would help too. Thanks
Valerie
Recommended:
Faltz Associates
Louise Fender
April 2003
Looking for a speech therapist to deal with a lisp and foreign
accent reduction in an adult.
Thanks
Lisa
I am an active member of the Voice and Speech Trainers
Association, not a ''speech therapist,'' but I have specialized in
accent reduction for many years, as do many voice teachers.
Also, true that a ''lisp'' is most often the territory of
a ''therapist,'' but in the context of working with the voice in
general I have incidentally had good luck in correcting a lisp.
Let me know if you'd like to brainstorm a bit about how you
might proceed. The Voice and Speech Trainers Association is at
http://www.vasta.org/ and my website is at www.interarts-training.org. Good luck.
Lissa Tyler Renaud acttrainproj AT earthlink.net
Recommendations
Re: Speech therapist for teen (March 2004)
for the person looking for teen speech (voice) therapist. My
daughter (16) has been seeing Dr. Rhoda Agin on Solano Ave.
in Albany. Dr. Agin does not work on pragmatic speech, but
on voice, articulation, prosody, etc. She deals nicely with
teens. She meets with my daughter once a week and gives her
daily exercises to do at home. My daughter progressed very
nicely. Dr. Agin's numcer is 510-549-1359. She'll be away in
April.
Varda
Faltz Associates
Re: Speech therapy for apraxic 4-year-old (July 2004)
My son saw both Sarah Thompson and Martha Wagele at Faltz
Associates from age 5 till about 7. (From 4-5 he worked with
Kris Baines at Children's, but he hit the wall with her so we
needed to change.) He worked better with both of them than he
did with Patricia, who did his assessment.
Martha left Faltz and was in private practice last I knew. The
contact number I have for her is 510 525 6649.
- Nancy
I'd like to share our experience with Patricia with just a few
disclaimers at the end. We actually used Patricia Dodd at Faltz
for a few months this past spring. Our daughter was 3.5 at the
time and had/has severe speech and language delays. We actually
stopped the speech therapy sessions for a few different reasons.
Although Patricia is an extremely sweet person (my daughter
liked her a lot) as a parent I didn't find her to be very
personable at all. Extremely formal, not really into chatting
about or learning about how our daughter behaved outside the
office walls. To me this is good information for the therapist.
It didn't seem like she felt a strong need to collaborate so I
didn't feel like it was a joint effort. Also, to me she seemed
very ''by the book''...very straight forward, not too much
innovation or creativity. And given all this, very expensive (I
know all private practices will be).
With that said, we have never had a formal diagnosis for our
daughter so we aren't quite sure ourselves if the way, for
instance, to tackle the speech delay is speech therapy. My point
is, I may not have been completely convinced it was the right
route in the first place, so opinions could be tainted. I guess
I would like to pass on the information but give ALL the
information so that I'm being fair about it as well.
anonymous
My son, who is now 6 yrs old, has been seeing Patricia Dodd for
about 2 years. My Son's diagnosis is PDD/language delay. He
also receives speach from his school. We continue with the
private speach therapy because we feel that she challenges him
more than the school therapist does. She has a good
relationship with him and is able to keep him focused. If you
have any other questions please feel free to contact me at my e-
mail.
Sandy
Re: Speech therapist for 6-year-old (Nov 2003)
Try Faltz and Associates for speech therapy. They have an
office on Solano, I believe.
The number here is for their main office in Oakland.
510-654-3381
S A
11/99
Kaiser Oakland referred us to Faltz Associates on Piedmont Avenue for
our then 4 year old son who needed work on his articulation. They did
not have speech therapists on staff for his level of problems (or
possibly any at all-sorry I don't remember.) At Faltz Associates we
dealt with Martha Wagele whom we all really liked. My son was sorry to
'graduate' this summer. Dealing with the speech problem has done
wonders for his self esteem and was well worth it. Faltz 510-654-3381
From: Susan (4/99)
Faltz Associates on Piedmont Ave. in Oakland, specifically Martha Wagele.
My developmentally disabled daughter sees her twice a week and Martha is
excellent. She is a private speech therapist.
If you want the school district to pay for it, you will need to contact
the school district so your daughter can be evaluated. If the evaluation
determines she should receive speech therapy, you will have an IEP meeting
(Individual Education Plan) with Oakland to setup services. The speech
would be provided by a speech therapist contracted by the school district.
I hope this helps.
April 2003
Has anyone enrolled their child in the Fast Forward program? Was
it worth the cost? Did your child improve their reading skills?
Thanks.
A.M.
Years ago I considered Fast Forward for my child who has
auditory processing/expressive language problems. The reason I
did not pursue this program was that there was very little
specific data to show how effective the program was for
remediating specific language issues. In contrast, the Linda-
Mood Bell programs give a lot of data supporting the
effectiveness of their (expensive) programs. Another factor
that we considered was how well our child could sit at the
computer each day. The years when we considered the program
were when my child was young: preschool and beginning
elementary, when the necessary 90 minutes per day seemed too
long for his attention span. Good luck.
Kathy
Louise Fender
Re: Speech therapist for 6-year-old (Nov 2003)
Louise Fender, who comes to your home, is FABULOUS! her # is
655-2175. She has a different activity suited to your child's
interests for every week, and has helped my 6-year-old son make
great progress with his r's.
From: Stephanie (4/99)
Our daughter needed speech therapy, she was 4 at the time, and she had
terrific results with Louise Fender. Louise works out of Le Conte school in
Berkeley, but also sees kids privately who are out of district (our case).
She is absolutely wonderful with little ones, our daughter loves her and has
responded wonderfully with her. Her number is (510)644-8836.
Gage Herman
From: Kathy (4/99)
Gage Herman is a genius, a wonderful person, and extremely supportive to
me when I brought my daughter in for speech therapy. I cannot say
enough about her.
From: Jean (4/98)
We used Gage Herman at Children's Hospital. I highly recommend her.
Jane Johnson
April 1999
My daughter (now 6) was part of the early intervention speech therapy
program at SFUSD when she was 4 & 5. I don't know if Oakland Public
Schools has one but you should definately check into it. She saw 2
different speech therapists, the first was not a good match for her,
wanting her to sit still for long periods, not playful enough, she began
to dread going. I then went to the head of speech therapy for the
entire district and asked for a different referral and she saw a
fantastic pre-school speech therapist Jane Johnson, I cannot say enough
about Jane, my daughter was always excited to go to see her, they did
small art projects, played games, read books, etc. Be sure to find
someone good to work with your child and be your child's advocate
throughout the process. The testing was relatively simple word
questions and matching geared for the specific age level.
Tiffany Kaufman
kimberly (9/99)
By far the best Speech therapist I have had the pleasure of working
with
in my career as a special educator here in the bay area is Tiphany
Kaufman
of SPEECH in San francisco. I promise it is worth the drive.
From: Kimberly (4/98)
I am a local special educator, and i recommend hands dow. SPEECH in SF.
Tiffany Kaufman is by far the most competent, enjoyable, proffesional,
fun, skilled, therapist I have the opportunity to work with. Its worth the
drive. # 415-563-6541. Her
organization SPEECH is In SF on Vaness.
Scottish Rite Speech and Language Clinic
For speech therapy the Scottish Rite Speech and Language Clinic offers
testing and speech and language therapy, including language-related
reading problems. They are funded by the Masons and all services are free.
Call them at 839-1513 (510) The Director's name is Jane Gould-Caulfield.
11/99
Re: Speech therapist for diagnosis/evaluation (April 2004)
I took my 5 year old son to Robin Sperry in Oakland. She did a
initial evaluation and discussed further tretment options. He
is not currently seeing her as a patient. We were able to go
through the school district which is a lot cheaper. I liked
that she suggested that over having to pay her a lot of $$$$.
I believe she is on Broadway. There is also a facility in
Hayward through the college that sounded interesting.
klyn
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