In the News:

My daughter and I had a great experience with our speech language pathologist, Christina Rooney, during our Virtual Early Intervention journey.

Christina took the time to get to know us as best she could before jumping in with specific directions. As our sessions continued we saw great progress for my daughter. She was able to start making choices through communicating sounds, picture cards and gestures. Christina always offered multiple suggestions and approaches for us during activities. I really appreciated how she valued the child/parent relationship and the kindness and patience she showed us as we were learning.

Thank you Christina, you are a incredible therapist!

- Savannah, Parent

We started speech therapy when our son was about 17 months old. He was definitely on the young end of the spectrum, but having an older child who was such a huge talker gave us concerns with him. We were able to meet with Meg and Liz quickly from when we were introduced and we were off from there!

Both Liz and Meg were amazing with our son. He quickly engaged with both of them and was never uncomfortable at any point. Liz became one of the first names of non-familial people he recognized and he truly enjoyed all of the sessions with her.

The same goes for both of us. We were surprised at the extent of his delays, but with their help, he progressed more quickly than we could have ever hoped! We think that our sessions with Liz gave him just the boost he needed to gain the confidence to express himself verbally and get on track. We loved everything about our experience with Meg and Liz and will certainly be reaching out to them in the future for any speech needs!

Our speech therapist, Liz Abowd has changed our lives. My son’s speech was extremely limited before his therapy began. Over the course of the last several months, however, I have seen significant growth in his speaking and comprehension. More impressively, I observe a considerable spike in speech abilities every day Liz is there. In other words, I leave that morning and come home to a child who has learned a lot more than his average daily growth, and it is always on “Liz days” that this happens.

For this reason, I feel very comfortable linking the extent of his growth to his therapist. In addition to her obvious competence, I am repeatedly impressed by Liz’s professionalism.

... Liz’s job might be impossible if she did not love or simply was not good at interacting with kids – but her warmth and care for my son really does go above and beyond.

- Shermin, Parent

I cannot say enough good things about Liz and Meg. We started with speech therapy when my son Jake was 18 months old. He could only muster a few words and we were both frustrated with our inability to communicate with one another.

Liz started us off with a few simple, common sign language signs to use, and suggested we assemble a picture board to allow him to associate the picture with the sound of the word. Right away we were able to start communicating better with each other, and my day to day interactions with Jake became infinitely better.

Over the next several months he slowly but surely began to use speech instead of the signs and pictures (though, he still uses the signs out of habit!)....

We've recently just graduated from the program, but Liz and Meg gave me some excellent additional resources to use and reference so that I can keep working with him. I'm going to miss having them both in our lives.

- Sarah, Parent

How do you thank somebody that has truly been an invaluable gift to your family? G. was 14 months old when Meg Chalmers came into our lives. He wasn't imitating in speech or play. He'd bang his head against walls. He hadn't said mama yet, or anything really. I was worried he had autism. I so badly wanted to unlock doors for him and help him thrive in his environment, but I was lost.

Enter Meg, the most AMAZING speech therapist we could have hoped for. An answer to a nervous Mommy's prayers. She is kind, gentle, patient, loving, silly, and compassionate. Week by week she helped Gray see through the fog. She gave us reassurance and strategies. The twins love her so much they squeal when she arrives. She has not only loved them like her own, she's opened up a world of communication for G.

Hearing him say, "I love you," still gets me. He continues to learn and grow each day. I do not know where we'd be without this absolute GEM that was sent to us. I am humbled and honored to have known you, Meg. We will never forget you!!!!!

- Melissa, Parent

I cannot say enough good things about Liz and Meg. We started with speech therapy when my son Jake was 18 months old. He could only muster a few words and we were both frustrated with our inability to communicate with one another. 

Liz started us off with a few simple, common sign language signs to use, and suggested we assemble a picture board to allow him to associate the picture with the sound of the word.  Right away we were able to start communicating better with each other, and my day to day interactions with Jake became infinitely better. 

Over the next several months he slowly but surely began to use speech instead of the signs and pictures (though, he still uses the signs out of habit!). She gave me tools and suggestions each week for us to practice. She came equipped each week with new toys and games but always brought at least one old favorite. I was most impressed with her ability to modify her lessons to accommodate Jake's mood. If he was restless, she'd make the lesson a running game. If he saw a book he wanted to read, she'd switch to reading the book. Anything to keep him engaged. 

- Sarah, Parent

I wanted to contact you and let you know how impressed we are with Liz. 

I know we've said over and over that T's language skills have exploded since she started working with Liz, but we were blown away over the long holiday weekend how much more clearly and how many more words we've noticed with T.  She's not only saying more: she's much more able to express her feelings and needs; she tells stories about experiences she remembers and expresses them in ways that we can understand; and her imaginative play and the stories and actions that go along with it are just amazing. 

She had none of these skills a month ago!  We are so happy with the work Liz has done.  Thank you so much for helping our daughter!

- Parent

In the eight months we have been working with her, Meg has been a godsend to our family. Her deep theoretical and practical knowledge base, endless patience, and gentle nature make her not only an effective speech pathologist, but one of our little girl’s favorite people as well. Meg creatively tailors our daughter’s therapy to her unique speech-related needs, her separate sensory needs, and her idiosyncratic toddler interests. As a result, our daughter remains motivated and engaged–and has made far more progress than she would ever have been able to otherwise. Meg also helps us, as parents, to meaningfully support throughout the week the work that she and our daughter do during their sessions. We simply can’t recommend Meg highly enough.

- Kyle, Parent

My four year old was experiencing speech delays and it was somewhat difficult for anyone besides Mom and Dad to understand. We worked with 606 Speech for less than a year and now I think she sounds more articulate than the average 5 year old, wow! Fantastic improvement. I think what we appreciated just as much was the approach. Meghan and her team have a beautiful approach with children; positive, supportive and encouraging. Whitney just loved the time she spent with the 606 Speech team. It's hard to find good solution to issues with your kids, and such a blessing when you find an amazing team like this.

- Melissa, Parent

Meg and Catherine have both worked their magic with my 7-year old daughter. We have seen major improvement not only in her speaking skills but also in her confidence. My daughter looked forward to every session. They met her needs by making it fun! They met my needs as a parent, by building upon each session and communicating goals and accomplishments with me. We are thankful to have worked with 606 Speech.

- Kim, Parent

I have had the pleasure of Meg working with my twins through EI over the past 2 years. I am not new to speech therapy as my older child was in speech therapy for 5 years. I was very fortunate to have Meg work with our younger children. Our twins were born a few weeks early and at this time you are not thinking about speech. As they grew I noticed they were not babbling or making sounds like other infants their age. After an evaluation with EI, speech was approved for delay in both of my children. One child has a motor processing issue and the other was able to talk but not at her developmental age. Meg worked diligently to address each of their issues and find out the underlying problem to help them talk at their level according to age. She was not only a superb therapist but was a great resource. My little guy was delayed in several areas but Meg continued to work with him on his speech from one year until he was three. She brought in several types of techniques to assist in his motor planning. If one technique was not making progress, she would research the issue, talk to other therapists and add in other ideas to assist him in his motor planning. She worked well with our other therapists to get the most benefit from the therapy. Not only did she bring in techniques she provided ideas on outside resources for us that may benefit our children. In addition to working with our children, she taught us as parents what we can do between sessions to help our children. This was very helpful and we could see progress when we worked with them. Her experience and expertise was a tremendous help to us as parents.

At the infant toddler stage a parent hopes “they will catch up or grow out of it” Children are sponges at this age and although you think they do not hear or understand, they do. My children are still in speech at the age of 4 but they have progressed very well and it is because of all the foundation skills Meg taught them as toddlers. Their speech skills have progressed very quickly and they will be in preschool ready to be with all the other kids. Thanks Meg for your diligence, guidance and expertise.

- Jeanette, Parent

Having worked in the school and home setting as a co-worker and co-treating therapist throughout the past 10 years, I can say that Meg Chalmers possesses multiple qualities that make her a fantastic Speech Therapist. She has proven to be warm and nurturing communicator with her patients, their parents, other therapists and related medical professionals. Her treatment of the child maximizes his or her ability to make progress. Meg solves any difficulties collaboratively taking into account the goals of the family. She is a self-starter with a thirst for knowledge. Meg is continually consulting with therapists in her discipline and across disciplines as well as reading literature and taking courses to provide the most effective treatment for the children.

- Meagan, Physical Therapist