Testimonials

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Kelly:
We hired Dana and had such a wonderful experience! We established clear goals for our son’s progress up front and tracked his progress throughout the coaching process. Not only does Dana come armed with a wealth of knowledge from extensive experience in speech therapy, she is also creative and engaging with kids and knows how to make the sessions fun and innovative--taking the feeling of work for the kids. Our son was working on re-mediating a lisp with the letters /s/ and /z/ so they baked cookies, made slime, created an obstacle courses and played games to get him to say words while having fun. She tries to understand each child’s unique interests and craft the perfect set of lessons. 

Dana also gave us sessions to do at home to help advance his speech on our own. Our son’s speech has improved remarkably and we exceeded the goals we set initially for the experience in half the time we had anticipated. I highly recommend Dana for those looking for an experienced, kind, and engaging speech therapist.

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Elizabeth: 

My three-year-old son has been working with Dana for about eight months and we have seen tremendous progress over that time.  Initially, he communicated primarily with grunts and gestures and had a spoken vocabulary of less than 25 words. Now, his communication is almost completely verbal and he routinely expresses his thoughts in phrases that are four to five words long!  Dana relates well with my son and has an easy-going, flexible manner. Like most three-year-olds, his attention span and interest can vary from moment-to-moment and Dana is able to work with him and accomplish an objective even when an initial activity (or two!) are rejected.  Having therapy in our home means that I am present and involved with the therapy and Dana clearly explains how and why we are doing something so that I am prepared to continue the "lessons" informally throughout the week. It was very difficult to watch my son struggle to learn to talk, in spite of my best efforts.  If you find yourself in a similar situation, I highly recommend GR Speech. Your child will benefit from Dana's technical expertise and you will acquire specific strategies to help you help your child. This has been a winning combination for us!

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Anonymous: 
I am a successful adult but have several sounds and words that I could not say clearly. I was in speech my whole life in school as a kid and was then exited without really having mastered all that I needed to in order to feel confident in speaking. I was frustrated by people saying, “what?” and having to repeat myself. I felt this impacted me both professionally and personally.

Initially, I went to a hospital in Grand Rapids and paid more than $300 for an evaluation that my insurance would not cover and was then told they could not help me. My sister heard about Dana’s company and referred me to her. In home therapy worked for me as it was flexible and Dana was willing to see me after my work in the evenings. I paid much less out of pocket. Dana analyzed my speech and came up with a plan of attack and we were able to work together.

She incorporated my hobbies such as outdoor sports and mountain biking within activities and used my line of work to make it functional. I made fast progress and can now say all the words and sounds that have bothered me for years. 

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Tom (Age 36):
In April of 2019 I underwent a retro-sigmoid craniotomy to remove a medium sized acoustic neuroma, which is a benign brain tumor that was located behind my left ear.   The tumor was growing between my balance, hearing and facial nerves. As a result of surgery, I experienced partial facial weakness and numbness in my mouth, tongue and cheeks.  Dana has been a great resource to help me re-stimulate the weak and numb muscles in my face through a number of exercises focused on activating my disturbed nerves. The exercises were easy to understand and after several weeks they aided in bringing back facial strength and reduced numbness. Thank you Dana for your patience, kindness and help during this challenging time in my life.