As a licensed and certificated speech-language pathologist, I provide convenient in-home speech and language therapy for your child. Servicing the East Bay region and surrounding areas, I specialize in early intervention and pre-school language, as well as school-age language and learning disabilities. My extensive experience includes diagnosing and treating children with a variety of mild, moderate, and severe speech and language disorders.
Services that are available include evaluations, therapy, screenings, and consultations.
Below is a review written by the parent of a former client:
8/23/2010
I can’t say enough good things about Mrs. Doonan.
Our son had no words at 2 years of age, not even Mommy or Daddy. Some of the few things he knew as a baby, like humming to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star appeared to be slowly fading away. His only form of communicating was to grunt or reach for what he needed. Often it would end in a frustrated tantrum as he couldn’t effectively communicate his needs to us. Our son appeared to become more and more withdrawn into his quiet little world, and we began to despair we were losing the chance to have a normal son. After trying socialization music classes, speech videos, and flash cards to no avail, we turned to professional help with Mrs Doonan.
One of the hurdles we had with getting our son to speak, was his extreme shyness and difficulty in staying engaged long enough to make training sessions worth while. Mrs. Doonan’s youthful energy and approachability soon made her my son’s favorite “playmate”. Her weekly visits were often greeted with my son waiting at the front door for the lady with the big bag of games. Little did he know she was secretly filling his head with the tools he needed for effective communication.
By the first month, she had my son using sign language to ask for food.
By the second month, we noticed a substantial decrease in tantrums, as he realized he could ask for what he needs by increased use of signing.
By the third month, he began to repeat words.
By the fourth month, he began to label objects, including Mommy and Daddy.
Within the first year of therapy and now at 3 years of age, he now can recite the alphabet, counts to 20, can label objects by color and shape, and knows hundreds of words and sounds.
Our friends and families had often tried to console our concerns with our late talking son, telling us he’ll pick it up in due time, and everyone knew of a rocket scientist that didn’t talk until he was 4. Now that he is 3, and despite his dramatic improvements, his continuing struggles with communication verify the validity of our concerns. Our son continues his therapy at a preschool that addresses his social and speech issues, and is often complimented by his rapid progress and excellent learning skills he learned with his time with Mrs. Doonan. Most importantly, his dramatic improvement we’ve had with him has returned to us the happy little boy we thought we were losing.