When our son was born extremely premature, we knew he would likely face developmental challenges. So when his speech delay became apparent, we searched high and low for a qualified yet sensitive professional to address it. We are so glad we found Speech Bananas! At Speech Bananas, a friendly receptionist in a bright, cheerful atmosphere greeted us.  His therapist sat down with us, took a detailed history, formally assessed his speech skills, and quickly customized a plan and set goals for him. Each week, when it’s time for his speech appointment, he eagerly bursts through the office door. He thinks he’s just there to play with fun toys, listen to stories, and sing songs, but we know each activity has been specially tailored to support and foster his emerging verbal skills. Additionally, we have been surprised by how much we, the parents, learned from the therapists about how to carry those lessons into our everyday lives and continue challenging our son outside of his office visits.When we started at Speech Bananas our son could only consistently say five words, now our home is filled his sweet voice singing songs and having imaginary conversations with his toys.”

Our son is profoundly deaf and received cochlear implants at 17 months.  When we moved to California from New York three years ago, I asked doctors and teachers to recommend a great speech and language therapist.  Jenny Reeder’s name came up repeatedly. Speech Bananas is an extraordinary place. Jenny and her team have exceptional training and experience working with children with hearing loss. Unlike some facilities that have a rigid, set approach to every child, I have found therapy at Speech Bananas to be strategic, expertly targeted and creative. The therapists are particularly skilled at mapping out a plan of action: assessing current skills, setting short term and long term goals, methodically implementing therapeutic techniques, carefully tracking progress and switching tactics as necessary. Our son has oral-motor and motor planning difficulties in addition to hearing loss. Learning to speak has been an enormous challenge and victories are hard won. Jenny and Chelsea have never lost patience or given up. Instead, they persevere and celebrate each step in the right direction. They build on our son’s strengths and push him just enough to help him grow. Speech Bananas has been an essential partner in our son’s progress. They’ve empowered us to support our son’s learning and effectively collaborated with his teachers and IEP team.

Speech Bananas has been instrumental in not only helping our son develop his listening skills and his speech and language, they have also educated us as a family on how best to support him and continue to help him progress. Through AVT, they have shaped the way we help our son communicate and further develop his speech. Our therapists have been great teachers, therapists and great supporters of our son.The Speech Bananas team through their extensive knowledge of AVT, their dedication to their clients and their professionalism create a great learning environment for the whole family where we can help our son learn, grow and thrive. As a parent, taking part in the therapy session and learning alongside with our son has also helped me learn how to best advocate for my son’s education and his communication needs. Speech Bananas was the true game changer for our family and we are truly grateful for all the education and support our son has received. What I truly want to say is “Speech Bananas is the best! We love them!! They changed our lives!!”

My family and I began attending Speech Bananas when my son was 3 years old and newly diagnosed as hard of hearing. Jenny quickly put me at ease with her kindness and positivity, and every therapist we worked with provided excellent therapy that was also fun for my son. Each session engaged my son in activities that were more like play than work, and yet simultaneously pushed him and helped him gain new skills. Our sessions involved the whole family and taught us techniques to integrate into our daily life, which was so helpful. The therapists we worked with were clearly given specialized training and were very knowledgeable, but were approachable and kind at the same time. The entire staff was always there to support us by answering questions, being extremely easy to work with, offering flexibility in scheduling and doing their best to accommodate our needs.  My son and I both learned so much and his growth while attending therapy sessions at Speech Bananas was astounding. I can, without a doubt, say that he would not be where he is today without all of the help that they provided.

I would highly recommend Speech Bananas! Both of my kids went here for AVT. Everyone wants the best for their kids and that’s why I chose Speech Bananas! The therapists were always at the top of their game and proved to be a wealth of knowledge for my children and I.  They were very easy to schedule appointments with even with my busy schedule. Being a teacher myself,  I was super impressed with the fun, exciting and educational games and activities that they provided during my kids’ therapy sessions while teaching me how to help them at home. We were very lucky to get the chance to have Speech Bananas as our AVT providers because they constantly proved that they provided the highest quality of therapy in the area. Thank you Speech Bananas for providing us with such fond memories!

“So glad we found Speech Bananas!  I’ve felt like a valued client since day 1 with them. We have a challenging schedule and Speech Bananas always fits us right in. We also have awesome therapists who always make me feel like they care about my daughters success. They always adjust her curriculum to stay ahead of her progress, fine tuning things whenever they see an opportunity for more growth. The amount of progress in her speech and communication in the last few months has been almost immeasurable. We went from a few intelligible words to hundreds of words and all kinds of spontaneous speech. I would definitely recommend them and I actually have.”

“We are beyond grateful for our experience at Speech Bananas. I don’t know what we would do without this resource. Our daughter has made incredible progress with her receptive and expressive language, thanks to her Auditory-Verbal Therapist (AVT). Our daughter’s AVT is very patient and looks for creative ways to motivate her to stay on task. Also, the front office is very friendly and easy to work with.”