Read what Teresa's clients have to share:

 

“Being autistic is difficult.  It is hard because people don’t understand me.  However, some people do understand me as well as my family.  One of these people is Ms. K.

I met Ms. K when I was in 2nd grade.  I was nervous.  She was excited to meet me and was very nice to me.  We worked on body language, eye contact, and conversations. 

Now I am in high school and we still work together.  We work on what I have learned out in the community.  I trust Ms. K with anything.  I know that she understands me.  I’m never embarrassed to tell her things or have her help me understand a situation.

Ms. K has taught me how to make friends, how my actions put thoughts in other peoples’ brains, how to pay attention to my surroundings, and to focus on other people by listening, watching, and talking.  I have also learned how to do small talk, follow a conversation, and solve problems.  Recently, I have learned about flexible thinking, which is learning how to think differently.

What is great about working with Ms. K is it makes me feel happy, trustful, and I feel good about myself because my communication skills have improved.  She is helping me to become an adult.”

---Chris, age 18   February, 2011

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"When our son was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at age 4, his communication skills were lackluster at best with us and virtually absent with his peers.  We met Teresa during an evaluation process in May 2009 and immediately knew that we wanted her on our "team."  We started off with monthly home visits, but quickly became so excited about his progress that we changed to a twice-monthly schedule.  We are consistently amazed at her knowledge, patience, and enthusiasm.

It is obvious that Teresa has worked hard to gain not just our trust, but our son's.  Even when he doesn't think he can complete the tasks she presents to him, she somehow always works through the situation with him and helps him to exceed his own expectations.   It's been exciting to see him not only learn how to say the words, but how to use the words in meaningful ways to express emotion, participate in conversation, and relate to other people.  She's not just giving him the tools to applyduring their sessions, but helping him understand how to utilize his new communication skills in every day life so he can gain confidence when faced with social situations at school and in extra-curricular activities.  She has assisted us in creating a vision for our son, along with the steps to make that vision a reality.  

Teresa has redefined our understanding and expectations for what speech and language therapy can do for our child and our family and given us hope for our son's future.  We are so glad to have her on our "team"!  " 
             ---John & Juli, January 2011