Speech Disorders/Expert Profile

Expertise

Questions concerning special education: IEP, assessments, Due Process, mediation, resolution conference, federal law, CA state law, qualifying for services, residential treatment, special day classes, resource specialists, procedures, having your child assessed, adaptive PE, speech & language, non-public school, FAPE.

Experience in the area

I have been an education advocate representing students and parents for five years. My experience includes: representing my clients in IEPs, SSTs, Due Process, review assessment results for my clients and for other advocates, and mediations. I have represented clients with learning disabilities, autism, Downs Syndrome, cognitively challenged, emotional problems, learning disabilities, ADD/ADHD, and physical disabilities. I have also represented clients to County Mental Health Departments and Regional Centers. My clients range from pre-school to college students in California and various other states.

Education/Credentials

I have a degree in Mathematics from the University of California with minors in Psychology and Physics. I also studied applied statistics in the field of psychology at both the undergraduate and graduate level. I have taught college classes, conducted seminars, written articles for various publications, and testified as an expert witness.

What do you like about this subject?

Successful communication is critical in all aspects of our lives. Students needing help in this field can benefit so much from proper services. The potential to help students is so great!

What do you still hope to achieve/learn in this field?

Every day I learn more about this exciting field. There are so many ways to help students to overcome speech and language disabilities. Technology is going to play a big part in this in the future. But there will always be a need for dedicated, hard working speech therapists.

Something interesting about this subject that others may not know:

There are many services available to help students. But many don't know about overcoming sensory issues (OT), pragmatics (learning how to read others), and social skills (learning how to interact socially with others). Even counseling is available for students with emotional challenges.

Something controversial or provocative about this subject

Some school districts do a great job of identifying and serving special education students others do not. Under the law, schools are supposed to seek out and identify students potentially needing special education help. They are supposed to assess these students and provide then with the services they need based on the results of these assessments. This even applies to students in private schools.