Helping Your Child Talk the Talk!

 

Heather Marenda-Miller and Amy Wilhelm, better known as Social Scouts Los Angeles join eHealth Radio and the Children's Health, Education and Health News Channels. Heather and Amy are pediatric speech and language pathologists who specialize in working with children who have difficulties with speech, language and social communication.

 

Listen to interview with host Eric Michaels and guest Heather Marenda-Miller and Amy Wilhelm discuss the following:

• As pediatric speech and language pathologists, what age children do you specialize in?  What are some of the issues you deal with in the children you treat?
• What exactly is the difference between speech and language?
• When would a parent come to see you and why?  When should a parent become concerned if their child is not talking?
• What if a child has a lot of language but doesn’t use it with other kids?
• What role does “play” have in language development?
• What are Social Skills groups?
• I understand you have a book coming out – in fact, a series of books for kids. Can you tell us a little about it?    

 

Heather Marenda-Miller, CCC-SLP, Clinical Co-Director
 
Born and raised in Illinois, Heather received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Communication Disorders and Sciences from Eastern Illinois University. She moved to Southern California from Chicago in 2006 for better weather and the beach. Heather is a current California licensed and American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) certified speech-language pathologist. She specializes in treating children ranging in age from birth to 6 years. With a high interest and much experience treating children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech and Autism Spectrum Disorders, Heather is also particularly interested in children who are gifted and/or Twice Exceptional (2e). Heather is the owner and director of Speech Me, LLC and the co-founder and co-director of Social Scouts™. Training and working closely with staff is a not only a requirement but truly a delight for Heather.
 
As a practicing speech-language pathologist, Heather treats clients with a vast array of diagnoses and disorders, enjoying the uniqueness each child brings to her clinic. Working closely with children and their families is why she loves being in private practice. Heather enjoys utilizing her creativity and developing new and innovative activities on a daily basis and uses what her client’s mother coined as “The Marenda Method”- an eclectic approach combining the various techniques she has learned throughout her years as a clinician to ensure best and most effective and individualized techniques for each child she treats. Heather is trained in Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT)-Level 2, Speech-EZ® Apraxia Program, Talk Tools® Oral Placement Therapy (OPT) and Interactive Metronome (IM). In addition to her DIR/Floortime Training, she has extensive experience collaborating and co-treating with Behavioral Analysts/Therapists specializing in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Pivotal Response Training (PRT) as well as Occupational Therapists specializing in Sensory Integration Therapy. Heather continues to attend multiple conferences each year to further enhance her knowledge and clinical skills.

Amy Wilhelm, M.S., CCC-SLP, Clinical Co-Director
 
Amy Wilhelm was born and raised in New York and earned her Bachelor of Science in Communicative Disorders and Sciences from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 2000.  Her graduate studies led her to the west coast where she attained her Master of Science in Communicative Disorders and Sciences from California State University, Northridge in 2002.  She is a certified member of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) and licensed by the state of California in speech-language pathology. She has remained a resident of Los Angeles where she is currently the owner and director of Splash for Speech, Inc. and the co-founder and co-director of Social Scouts™.
 
Amy has always had a passion for working with children and has made the pediatric population the core of her caseload.   Since the completion of her graduate studies, she has engrossed herself into her career and strives to provide the best quality of speech therapy possible.  Amy has extensive experience working with children with a wide variety of communication challenges and diagnoses, including Developmental Apraxia of Speech, Autism Spectrum Disorders, various genetic syndromes, developmental delays, speech and language delays, and articulation problems.  She is trained in Level 2 PROMPT therapy, has completed training in the Speech E-Z® Apraxia-Program, is versed in TalkTools® and Oral Placement Therapy, Interactive Metronome, and has attended numerous conferences relating to articulation and phonology, Autism, Apraxia of Speech, social/pragmatic language skills, executive dysfunction, sensory processing disorders, and RDI.  Moreover, as her role of business owner has evolved, she enjoys mentoring students and new clinicians and has supervised both graduate students and clinical fellows in the field of speech pathology.

 

Website: www.socialscoutsla.com