​Progressive Speech Therapy
Speech-Language and Feeding Services for Northern Virginia
Call Us 571-252-8833
Testimonials
Here are what some of our clients are saying about our services...
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"Finding Progressive Speech Therapy was the best thing I could've done for my kids. My oldest suffers from oral and profound verbal apraxia, our geneticist told me he would never communicate verbally. With PST, my oldest took his first bite of food (and eventually got off of a feeding tube) and by using DTTC (the only evidenced-based therapy for apraxia) my son is speaking verbally! He still has a long ways to go and I know we will be in therapy for another decade but he's built so much confidence in using his voice in just a few years where strangers can even understand some of what he is saying. But not only are they helping him find his voice, they are helping him to read and write (another difficult task with apraxia), and helping him to learn how to manage his feelings and frustration that can affect his behaviors when he has a communication break down. We spend so much time here but the fact they are constantly updating and tailoring their goals specifically for my son is worth all of the time and energy we put into this, and I know my son has a chance of full verbal communication one day."
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"Our family is so grateful to have found Progressive Speech Therapy for our son. After being told that our son had suspected Childhood Apraxia of Speech, I made it a point to find a pathologist who specialized in this. Pooja and her team are the experts in Apraxia and for the first time my son was able to receive the proper treatment with motor speech therapy. After almost two years, my son has come leaps and bounds with his speech and is now able to fully communicate with everyone around him. We cannot thank Pooja, Megan, and Maddie more, we love them so much!"
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"What a blessing it has been to find Progressive Speech Therapy! My non verbal 3.3 year old has been in therapy since he was 23 months old. We recently switched to PST and within a month of service he is communicating! It’s been such an exciting (and emotional) time watching my son find his voice. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for him. I highly recommend Progressive Speech Therapy to any parent seeking speech therapy. Pooja and her incredible team (yay, Ms. Emma!) have been amazing to work with. It truly is a team effort! We couldn’t be happier with the service provided."
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"Progressive Speech Therapy has changed our son’s life. The Director, Pooja, has created a warm, friendly, supportive environment and built a staff of remarkable therapists who go above and beyond for our child. The level of care and data- driven strategies they use has helped our son thrive. We are provided thorough and meticulous progress notes each session, that help us understand his goals and how they are assessing his progress. We have been so lucky to find this therapy center as they have become like a second family to us."
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"My son was diagnosed with autism at 2 years old. We have used different providers over the past year and a half but we were able to receive services from Pooja and her team for the past several months. For the first time in awhile I am optimistic about the future. My son is now almost 4 years old and I finally feel like I'm starting to understand him. Pooja, Emily, and Maddie have come up with lesson plans tailored to his strength and weaknesses, and constantly re-evauluate as he progresses. I would recommend Progressive Speech Therapy to any parent seeking speech therapy for their child. While it is still too early to tell what my son's life will ultimately be like, I have peace of mind knowing I am giving him the best chance possible to navigate the challenges that come with autism."
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"My son has been working with Alex for the past two years and she has done such amazing work with him. She is so fun and positive, and the love that she has for him and the joy that she takes from seeing him succeed is incredible. She has helped him with his reading comprehension, his conversation skills, and his ability to verbalize his thoughts more clearly. She tailors her lessons to his needs and his favorite things, using Minecraft and Super Mario timers and videos for short breaks to incentivize him. Alex and Pooja are brilliant and caring; I can't recommend them enough."
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"We have been working with Pooja and her team for many years. We have used other speech language providers - both private and through school - and honestly can say the progress made at PST has been remarkably noticed. My child enjoys her time at “speech school” and I greatly value the collaborative approach to her therapy."
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"My 7 yo son, Beckett, was diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) a year ago. He had been in regular speech therapy since the age of 2 - by 6, we still hadn't seen much of a result. He was still unintelligible to almost everyone around him. Thankfully, someone referred us to the team at PST. Since he started a year ago, we have seen such amazing improvement. In ONE YEAR, he is intelligible to everyone, even strangers. The communication from his therapists is TOP notch. I am always in the know of what is going on with him as well as his progress. He has worked with Pooja, Katie, Megan, Alex, Maddie, and Emily. When I tell you I owe each of them more than words can express, I mean it. PST is worth every dollar spent, every mile driven, and every minute passed.
They are truly miracle workers and have changed our lives in ways bigger than we can repay."
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"Progressive Speech Therapy has changed my son's life. After being told by other speech therapists and doctors that he was fine, they diagnosed him with Social Pragmatic Disorder, meaning that his speech in play and in conversation was very low. After four months of working with Emily, I can have a conversation with my son now. He plays better with his peers, engages in pretend play, shares his thoughts and ideas, is so much more articulate, and advocates for himself more. I am amazed every day at the difference I see in him, and thankful beyond words that we have been lucky enough to get to work with these remarkable therapists."
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"My son has been receiving ST services at Progressive Speech Therapy since June 2018 and he has made unbelievable progress! Our pediatrician referred us to this practice and I am forever thankful. Not only were we matched with an outstanding therapist for my son, the team has been a huge support system for me and my husband. They go way above and beyond a typical therapy center. They have been instrumental in the successful growth of our son and an invaluable resource to our family. Highly Recommend!!!"
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"Progressive Speech Therapy has literally been an answer to prayer. They are absolutely amazing! I can’t say enough about them! My son has been attending speech therapy for about a month now, and he has made more progress with his speech problems in the past month than he has in the two years prior, while attending a county speech program. My son’s areas of concern are a phonological disorder, language disorder, and motor planning issues/borderline childhood apraxia. Pooja and Katie are outstanding...they are extremely knowledgeable, passionate about what they do, and are extremely gifted with kids. If you are on the fence about whether to pursue private speech therapy at Progressive, PLEASE do it! I promise you will not be disappointed!!"
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"My son started at Progressive Speech Therapy a year and a half ago and as we head into the new year I'm so pleased with the tremendous progress he's made and continues to make. We tried other speech therapists that could not engage my son in a way that produced meaningful results. It''s different at Progressive Speech Therapy. The SLP's work well with my son and find ways to keep his interest. Because they are highly qualified and effective, I don't have to question if he's getting good speech therapy, I know that he is. One of the things I appreciate most is that for every session my son attends, we get daily session notes detailing what he worked on, what he needs to do at home and ways we as parents can help him to communicate. The goal for me is meaningful communication with my son. We started with an AAC device and have advanced to spoken language. I am grateful to Pooja and the rest of her team for the dedication made to helping my son with speech."
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"Thank you all so much! We are incredibly thankful for you all and the incredible, amazing, exceptional care that Huxley receives in your hands. It is like no other. I can say that with confidence because I have worked with many other clinicians in the 4 years that we have been on this journey."
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"We have been extremely pleased with our son, Omar’s progress since he started speech therapy with Ellen at Progressive Speech Therapy. She has done a phenomenal job working with him for the past 5 months. We saw a lot of changes in his communication in just few months since he started Speech Therapy at Pooja Aggarwal's practice. I can not say enough great things about Ellen's skill set in providing my son Speech therapy. My son loves seeing her and he stays engaged throughout the entire session cooperating so well with her during therapy. She has a wonderful way with children. The entire team in this practice is amazing and they are extremely kind to children as I have observed other parents bringing their children. I think my son has done great, thank you Ellen for all your hard work and efforts. Thank you Pooja for all that you do for Omar and having an amazing team!"
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"Madeline always loved knowing she was going to see 'Miss Katie' and we are so appreciative for all you've done for her. You have such an obvious knack doing what you do and working with children. Thank you, thank you! Progressive Speech Therapy has a great reputation and I'm so glad that we were able to experience why. Madeline's progress has been so nice to see and it's reassuring to witness her ability to improve. Thank you again. We'll be sure to let you know if we have any questions down the line!"
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"My 11-year old son, Tyler, has been seeing the wonderful therapists at Progressive Speech Therapy since he was 4 years old. When he started 7 years ago, he had almost no speech at all, both receptive and expressive. We really did not know what do expect for him and his progress, but Pooja and her team of experts continually assured us that they would do everything in their power to see Tyler succeed. They have delivered on their promise and so much more. Tyler's receptive language is almost at 100%, unbelievable. His expressive language has improved dramatically where we know exactly what he wants and what he wants to do. He is able to communicate with us, but also with his teachers and his peers. He is even making friends!!!! Over the years, we have seen a few therapists with the practice, and every one has been top notch. Pooja knows exactly how to match her kids with the right therapist to get the most results for the child. They care for Tyler like he is their own and we could not be feel more blessed and thankful for all they do - for Tyler and for us as a family. THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEART!!!"
"Progressive Speech Therapy has been a hero on the scale of "Knight in Shining Armor" for my family. Time after time and without question Pooja has given me as much of her time, guidance, and counsel as I've needed- both before and after we joined the practice. My son's SLP Katie is also truly a treasure! My son loves going to see her, She loves seeing my son, and there is no doubt that she is amongst the most capable and talented professionals around. Our family feels beyond blessed to to be working with Katie and the other members of this practice not only because of their high levels of professional skill but also for the genuine loving touch we have been fortunate to experience at Progressive Speech Therapy. We know that our son's needs are their highest priority and truly can not recommend this practice highly enough!"
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“We began seeing Katie about 2 months ago with our 2.5 year old daughter. She is a twin, born premature, and has conquered many many medical mountains in her short life. We sought out speech therapy to help her communicate better and hopefully reduce the amount of behavior outbursts she was having due to lack of communication. In these last two months, we have made some wonderful gains. Although Katie has challenged Adalynn in her abilities, she sees the potential Addy has, and helps her reach it. We have begun working on some schedules and charts and Addy seems to be doing well with those also. Pooja, Katie, and Trinity all together have been an invaluable resource to our family and I have recommended them to many friends. They are all amazing at what they do, and hero’s in our family.”
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“I can’t believe how lucky we were to find Pooja. Right from the start she created a special rapport with my son. She brings a high level of excitement to every session, adapting to the ever changing moods and temperament of a two year old. Every session is fun, yet productive. She clearly knows her field well and is great at passing that knowledge on to parents so we can continue therapy in our daily lives.”
“I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about how extraordinary it was that Riley DID IT!!! In the middle of a game he ran over to his IPAD and made a sentence- OH MY GOSH!!!! Look where you have brought him. It is oh SO appropriate that I get the chance to tell you just HOW THANKFUL we are for you and your EXRAORDINARY work! You are SUCH a MAGNIFICENT speech pathologist and God was really really really looking out for Riley when he put us in the same country-state-town-neighborhood-LIFETIME with you. What are the odds....it is too perfect to be chance. We are CLEARLY the MOST thankful for YOU Pooja Aggarwal, this Thanksgiving! Thank you for every single thing you do and have done for our little boy-words truly can not express. I can not even put it all into one thought in my head...there is soooo much! We love you!”
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“I know you love my guy and know to expect the best from him and for him! I do not know what we have ever done had our paths not crossed....”


“At 15 months of age, Ben was found eligible to receive early intervention services due to communication & language delays. Ben had EI services through the county for almost a year before he started Speech therapy sessions with Pooja. There was truly minimal progress after 10 months of weekly sessions with an infant educator. Almost immediately after starting weekly one hour sessions with Pooja, he began to increase his language skills. Pooja used a variety of research based methods to help Ben properly form the words and hear what he was saying. He began using language spontaneously and now after 20 months of speech therapy with Pooja, he is communicating and conversing. He is working on mastering following three step directions. I was not sure if and when this would happen. But, it has! Pooja is incredibly professional and uses clinically based proven methods to guide her practice. She is an exceptional Speech pathologist who pulls out the best in Ben and raises the bar with each therapy session. She is our angel. Ben adores her and we do not know what would have happened had it not been for her intervention with our sweet, loving boy!”

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“Pooja Aggarwal is an exceptional therapist who puts the best interest of her patients and their families first. She is not only a therapist to my son, but a friend. He lights up every time he sees her or we talk about her. She is flexible with scheduling, and it helped us tremendously that she was able to come to our home to work with our son.

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"Our son barely knew 3 words when Pooja first started working with him, and few social skills to engage other kids in play. After less than a year he is now very social and talks non-stop with high intelligibility. He has caught up to his peers thanks to diligent work with Pooja. She is willing to do whatever it takes to help each child individually, whether it is home visits, visits to playgroups to help with interactions, or just outings to increase exposure to different social settings. She truly cares about her patients (and doesn't treat them like patients) and is very hands on in her therapy."

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"Pooja is wonderful with children. She engages them in play, and uses play to focus in on the therapy. She makes it fun for the kids to work on their speech! My son absolutely loves when Pooja comes over to 'play'!"

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"Any child would be lucky to have Pooja in their life. She is an amazing therapist, and I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a loving, caring, highly-talented therapist."

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"Pooja is the best SLP that we have encountered in either private practice or the school system. She is very knowledgable about her field. She has helped us greatly with vocal quality, language processing, inferencing, pragmatics, and social skills. Pooja has been eager to talk to our other therapists to share ideas and coordinate treatments. She has helped with our IEPs by not only suggesting goals, but also attending IEP meetings and speaking with school personnel. I value her opinions and trust her judgment."
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"Trinity is a wonderful therapist and greatly helped with the development of our son. He had verylimited speech (less than 10 words) when we first started to visit Trinity March last year. It always amazes us how much he has progressed since he has started the sessions with Trinity."
"Trinity is very creative, knowledgeable and highly passionate about her work. The amount of patience and understanding that she exhibits during each session is really commendable. She built on the sessions progressively with a clear plan and achieved solid results with the speech sessions. The great thing about her is she not only focuses on his speech but also his behaviors. The weekly notes about the session are precise and very helpful. We incorporate the ideas and suggestions from the notes in our daily activites which helped improve his speech immensely. We cannot say or write enough about Trinity's dedication towards her job."
“Trinity has been a wonderful addition to my daughter’s therapy team. She is very knowledgeableand a great speech therapist! My daughter warmed up to Trinity Costic immediately. She iswarm and makes the sessions fun! She was very quick to hone in on my daughter’s speech andlanguage issues, and is quickly addressing them in a fun and interactive manner. My daughter looks forward to coming to see Trinity and has even cheered when I tell her – today’s the day wego to see Trinity now that says A LOT! "
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“I could never say enough wonderful things about Gillian and what she has done for my daughter Catherine. Gillian took the time to really get to know my daughter on a personal level and she has creatively adapted her therapy techniques to what works best specifically for Catherine. We have seen incredible verbal and behavioral gains in a short period of time and Catherine is benefitting tremendously from Gillian’s expertise and innovative approach. We are so pleased that Catherineand Gillian found eachother!"
"My son started with Progressive Speech Therapy a few years ago with significant expressive and receptive language delays. He started off by seeing Pooja. Pooja has been such an incredible resource for our son(and for our whole family as well). Our son made such incredible progress with Pooja and we have been incredibly grateful for all that she has done. She truly cares for all of her "kiddos". She puts a lot of thought into everything she does and it shows. Our commute from Oakton to Ashburn is not a short one so that tells you how much we value what Progressive Speech Therapy has to offer. Once our son started Kindergarten, our schedule become much more inflexible and we were unable to get a spot with Pooja. This obviously made us nervous as the the thought of starting with someone "new" was somewhat scary (especially since we loved Pooja). However, we saw, first hand, how hard Pooja worked to find top notch therapists. Her standards and expectations are very high so we thought to give it a go. The great news is that we feel like we hit the jackpot twice! Our son started to see Trinity and it felt like we had known her forever. The transition between Pooja and Trinity was seamless (they put a lot of effort into ensuring that this is the case) and our son responded very well to the change. Trinity has been great and we continue to see the same type of improvement under her care. Trinity is very thoughtful and engaging and works very hard to make sure that we continue to move the ball forward with our son. I would highly recommend Trinity to anyone! I would like to end this by saying something about what I think has been truly exceptional about our experience with Progressive Speech Therapy. They do not view or treat kids by their "labels". They see the uniqueness of every child and they have high expectations for them. My son has flourished there because they believed in him and, in turn, he believed in himself."
“We absolutely think the world of Gillian. She has an upbeat, fun personality that children are drawn to. Our ten year old son has achieved immense, immediate results through working with Gillian. She has a wonderful sense of where the child is and what their struggles are. Not only is she extremely competent and one of the best in her field, she is a caring and genuine person.”
"We are so happy we found Progressive Speech Therapy, LLC for our daughter. We knew in our hearts that our current speech therapist was not right for our daughter. We needed to find a speech therapist that understood our daughter’s speech disability, apraxia and who would also work closely with us and the schools. We were referred to Progessive Speech Therapy and our daughter’s speech therapist, Trinity, is excellent. We have seen improvements since we started a few months ago with Trinity. Trinity explains our daughter’s speech issues to us, gives us homework each week, and provides us with goals that we can examine every six months. We highly recommend Trinity and Progressive Speech!"
"I have nothing but positive things to say about Miss Trinity. She has helped my son make tremendous progress. Miss Trinity goes beyond just improving speech production. She focuses on practical communication skills that have helped improve my son's conversational abilities and social interactions withothers. Furthermore, Miss Trinity takes the time to discuss observations, provide feedback, and suggest recommendations for us to work on at home. She communicates regularly with my son's teacher and other providers, sharing her observations as well as asking them how she can contribute to his success at school. I have been very pleased and appreciative of her commitment, team approach, and creativity in working with my son."
"When Tyler started seeing Pooja around the age 5, he hardly had any expressive language at all. He was less"present" with little ability for imaginitive play. We had been seeing another therapist for 3 years with very little improvement and were unsure as to how much progress Tyler could make. After working with him a little while,Pooja assured us that Tyler would get better and with the right level of commitment his potential would be limitless. Pooja understood Tyler and his needs and could see how smart he was and how much he could grow. Tyler is now 8 years old and in third grade. His comprehensive and expressive language have grown exponentially. He is able tocommunicate his wants and needs, has lots of imaginitive play, and is always "present" and aware. He is initiating play and communication, which is remarkable. He is also doing well academically, receiving a 4.0 GPA last quarter!!! While Pooja is on maternity leave, Trinity has transitioned as Tyler's therapist in the interim and doing a wonderful job. The transition has been seamless and Tyler is continuing to improve. Tyler still has a long road ahead of him, but we know that we are in great hands with Progressive Speech Therapy and cannot thank Pooja and her wonderful staff enough for all the commitment and energy they have put behind Tyler. They have never given up on him and we are so appreciative!"
"In only 2 sessions with Trinity my son’s communication skills have improved dramatically! She opened up a new world to him in a very brief period of time. He is excited to communicate with family and peers, and we all look forward to Trinity’s positive updates! She has been extraordinarily patient and thorough with Isaac each time she meets with him. We are excited to see how he will progress as he has more sessions with her."
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"Progressive Speech Therapy has been a wonderful experience for my daughter. We have been with themfor over 2 years. We started when my daughter only spoke a few words and now she is able to connect a few conversation exchanges! She is currently working on her social skills with Cheri, who is doing a greatjob. Cheri understands what my daughter needs to work on and she makes the sessions fun. It is a greatjoy for us as parents to see our daughter progress and we are very thankful for the therapists at ProgressiveSpeech Therapy. I highly recommend them!"
"Amy Guthrie is an amazing therapist, with the perfect combination of warmth, energy and talent. My son will frequently leave therapy saying "that was fun"! Furthermore, we have seen tremendous improvements and great strides in all his speech and communication needs. As a parent, I could not be more pleased."
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"Trinity is doing such a fantastic job with Johnathan and we have seen such improvement in many aspects of his life since she started working with him. We have seen huge changes in him at home and his teachers are amazed with how well he is doing at school. Trinity really understands Johnathan and his needs and he responds well to her. And, she has the patience of a saint… bless her! We are so happy that he is working with her!"
"What a journey it has been these three years! I used to describe Nicole's speech as a consonant (a limited set at that)with a hint of a vowel. I think back to the hard work for the foundational words like Mom, Dad, her own name and twoword phrases. Then the numbers, colors and other basic language that would be common for preschoolers, as well asour special words like Dora. :) I review some of the videos from those sessions where she is working on the word "one"and see how far she has come. I remember our conversations that at first we will make the words more meaningful forunderstanding and the harder articulation pieces would come later once her system was more organized. And now wehave conquered final consonants and defeated the ending evil schwa. We are in the weeds of sblends, multiplesyllable words and prosody, while continuing to work on challenging conversational words as well. Nicole's work ethic and growth in reading and language have certainly been a part of her success. However, thepatience, constant support, creative ideas, and commitment to Nicole's success by all of you – Gillian, Pooja & Trinity,has been instrumental. Nicole has never had any complaint in going to her speech appointments even though sheknows its hard work (disguised slightly by a game.) She has enjoyed working with each of you tremendously. I have grown as well in understanding and appreciating the detailed mechanics of speech and language. Who knew itwas so complicated! I always take the opportunity to explain apraxia to others and give them an idea of the complexityof speech and the coordination required for accurate production, as I have learned over the years. It reminds me ofhow proud I am of what Nicole has already overcome, and not to underestimate what she has the ability to achieve inlife in general.Thank you all for all you do and I look forward to the growth and success of the future. :)"
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"We feel that our three year old daughter, Brooke, continues to improve in her speech patterns, articulation, fluency and attitude while working with her Speech Therapist, Ms.Cheri Holdridge. Brooke's weekly sessions at the office are positive components of her weekly educational plan and routine. Ms. Cheri’s smiles, and welcoming upbeat attitude, encourage Brooke to cheerfully begin, and continue along the path of well planned, sequential and specifically targeted lesson/activities for her progress level and growth continuity. Brooke really enjoys her time with Cherie and is happy to "elevator up" to see her. We are very pleased with Brooke's consistent improvement and wonderful working relationship with Ms.Cheri.
"My son’s speech and language has improved thanks to the planned lessons approach by Ms. Cheri. She plans her therapy sessions based on situations my son encounters on a daily basis and encourageshim to connect situations with words and respond with speech, this is one area in which he has had significant improvement. We have been very pleased with Ms. Cheri's therapy sessions."
"Amy Guthrie has been such a great addition to Progressive Speech Therapy. She is extremely knowledgeable and intuitive. She keeps the sessions fun and engaging for the kids and provides insightful feedback. We are very happy to have her working with our son."
"I have nothing but positives to say about our speech therapist, Cheri. Slater immediately felt comfortable around her. She has a beautiful smile and although has rules, and structure, she reinforces them in a positive, kind way. You definitely get farther with honey than vinegar when it comes to motivating my son. He feels so proud of himself, having an opportunity to play with another peer. He feels like it is play, because they play and talk the whole time, without him realizing she is teaching him something!! He never wants to miss, and I do not have to drag him there. We have been going to therapy for years, and were in a speech social group for 2 years. It was hard to get him enthusiastic to see the other therapists. I am a pretty sensitive person, and my son is too, it is just the way were made up. So we definitely are aware of other people's feelings towards us. Plus, my son is vulnerable, so I can be pretty protective of him. If you work with kids and their parents, it works wonders to alleviate everyone's fears and apprehensions by smiling. Well, I had several friends tell me to see Pooja and I thought I need to give this a try. I am so happy I did! We are out of network, and on a fixed income, and essentially pay out of pocket. But it is still worth it. I can not say enough good things. And I really like Cheri, she is always positive, and gives us homework for the week. Most importantly, she is always happy to see Slater. It is exciting to see Slater's progress each week. I highly recommend her!"
"We were so blessed to have Cheri as the feeding therapist for our Son. Ms Cheri is so creative, knowledgeable and have high understanding of kid's needs and moods. My son is 3yr old and until we started the feeding session he never ate any food by himself, extremely sensitive to touch any kind of food. I cannot find the words to thank Ms Cheri for what she has done for my son with his feeding habits. My son likes her so much that he talks about her at least once every meal time. We thank pooja for introducing us to Ms Chery based on couple of conversations and keeping a constant communication to know the progress my son was making. Thank you both of you."
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