It is impossible to overstate how important Lisa Klein has been to my daughter’s speech progress. My daughter is four years old, and has been seeing speech therapists since she was 18 months old. I used to compare our experiences with SLPs to throwing a rubber ball against the wall. The therapists would speak to her as if she were an infant, enunciating words “at” her, over and over. She would smile but not respond. She has severe apraxia of speech and a motor disorder. She would produce two syllables for almost all situations: ah-da. Her receptive language is excellent, but she had almost no verbal output.

A board member of CASANA (Apraxia Kids) recommended Lisa. This would mean paying out of pocket and driving an hour in each direction, every week. My husband and I put it off. We thought it wasn’t doable. Finally, after paying privately to see other SLPs who were nearer to home, and determining that was useless, we decided to try Lisa. We are so thankful that we did.

On our very first visit, my daughter was able to produce some words. Yes, she broke out of “ah-da” during our very first visit! Everything physical that my daughter has learned (walking, self-feeding) has required “hand over hand” prompting in order to teach her the motor pattern. In her case, it turns out that speech is the same. Lisa shaped her mouth and positioned her body. And it worked! Five months after that first visit, she can now blow bubbles and blow out candles (two things that were unimaginable for her), say a long list of syllables, and most excitingly, she can speak in slurred sentences. They are still hard to understand, but it is obvious that she is talking. This is priceless.

If you have an extreme or a very difficult case, I cannot recommend Lisa more highly. She has enormous depth of expertise, and she is a real human being who cares deeply. Equally importantly, she never infantilizes our daughter. She speaks to her at an age-appropriate level, recognizing her intelligence. I believe my daughter feels that, and it’s why she makes a new breakthrough during every single session. Lisa is, quite simply, the very best.

​JA