Kristen from BDI is amazing. Our son just received his first quarter kindergarten report card, and he's "mastered being able to communicate in complete sentences" they say, and he's "progressing very well with his final /r/ and r and l blends". My son has come a very long way, and if you're a parent or caregiver, I highly recommend hiring Kristen from BDI. Since we only see Kristen, I cannot vouch for all employees at BDI, but if you're lucky enough to have her, you'll be amazed at her skills. Kristen is young, but we've seen three SLP's over the years, and she's the best at what she does! She's so great at zoom, and is a master with rolling with the punches and adapting to my son's special needs and his attention span... At first, my son wouldn't sit still for his zoom sessions. It was quite agitating and frankly depressing that it appeared as though zoom wouldn't work. But, Kristen happily twirled his attention back to her like she's been a mother for a dozen years. Now, he sits still, is happy and is having fun when he's being taught by her. But this wouldn't be possible if it weren't for Kristen thinking on her feet... "Coeur, would you like to participate in the session or run around the table 3 times?" Letting him run around for 1 minute did the trick, then he came back to the session excited. "Coeur, let's put your arms out and fly like an airplane." That would get him to stop talking or fidgeting and pay attention while having fun. Lots of stuff like that. Then, Kristen came up with the brilliant idea to offer him a reward if he completed the lessons. And, she'd even find the specific reward that I would give him (toy, etc), copy it from the Internet/Amazon, then show him the reward on the screen if his attention started to wander. Works like a charm. I don't think they teach all of her skills at BDI; they must be natural abilities from her maturity and intelligence. However, if indeed she did get trained with all her great ideas, then Kristen for sure has mastered those skills, and kudos to BDI. She seems like she's been doing this forever and has polished experience! Try to get her for your son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter. And don't be afraid of zoom sessions with Kristen, even if you're from out of town. She's young, vibrant, high IQ, and tons of experience. She's also a very happy person that has a perma-smile; she's so nice, and my son loves her! Thank you BDI for employing such an awesome person! read more

Went to BDI Playhouse for lactation support and myofunctional therapy for my 3rd son! Lets just say, I wish I would have known about this place with my first born! Amy Stumpf is beyond excellent and helped me so much! She went out of her way to get me in for an appt as soon as I was released from the hospital so that I could begin to receive help regarding breast feeding. She was also able to evaluate my son's mouth for ties and walked me through all the oral stretches after those were released. Highly highly recommend. read more

BDI Playhouse is an amazing environment and resource for a variety of supportive services - speech/feeding, occupational, and physical therapy. They have created an incredible environment both physically and culturally. My daughter loves coming to speech therapy - an unbelievable feat! Between the gyms full of fun equipment to bounce, swing, climb, and jump on and the toys/games room filled to the brim with so many types of activities, BDI really lives up the "playhouse" in their name. All the therapists incorporate play into their sessions, either switching between exercises and fun, or combining the two! Everyone I've encountered seems to genuinely enjoy their job. When you walk into BDI, there is an upbeat positive feeling throughout- therapists greeting their next appointments as well as saying hello to the other kids they see. The other patients are happy to see their buddies (therapists) too! You can tell that everyone cares deeply about their patients. A wonderful benefit of their multidisciplinary office is the collaboration between therapists and disciplines. If your child needs multiple services, the therapists are in one location and can easily work together, determining the appropriate order and timing for the different services. It is much less coordination for the parent, both from a scheduling perspective and a patient approach. The patient gets better care with less friction. And, if the stars and schedules align, sometimes you can get back to back appointments to minimize visits to the office too! My daughter has worked primarily with Amy for speech therapy, with some physical therapy from Lisa. Amy has a kind welcoming demeanor that was absolutely perfect for my daughter, who takes time to warm up to new people. Amy moves at Viv's pace while still getting through the therapy exercises. She is able to gently reign Viv in when she is being less than cooperative. Amy is realistic about what is and is not feasible for daily homework and keeps it to the most impactful exercises. We love Miss Amy! Lisa is also wonderful, regularly checking in with Viv to see how things feel and making sure nothing hurts. She doesn't dismiss Viv's feelings and reactions, but uses them to guide treatment. There is a level of respect and consideration for the kids that they don't always receive from grownups. I have also gotten to be a patient at BDI for physical therapy, specifically for Craniosacral therapy (CST). I've had long standing challenges around breathing/posture/stress and have spent many years working through these with exercise, speech, physical therapy, and more. Lisa, Andrea, and Cassie at BDI have been an incredibly important part of improving these issues. I have been a tightly wound person my whole life, never good at relaxing. Other than coming out of anesthesia after surgery, I've never truly felt relaxed in my body until a few sessions into CST. I hadn't consciously taken a real, full, deep breath using the correct primary breathing muscles until my CST sessions at BDI. Now that I know what a relaxed state and a full deep breath feel like, I can get much closer to replicating them on my own through home practice. I feel calmer. My posture has improved- my shoulders are less rounded and my rib cage moves a lot more. I'm able to use these improvements in my Pilates practice to make more lasting improvements. The actual sessions are wonderfully relaxing. I highly recommend BDI Playhouse - an exceptional environment providing supportive services to kids and grownups. I'm so glad we found BDI Playhouse! read more

We have two children attending BDI, for both speech and occupational therapy. Their quality of care and also their security is top notch. Miss Courtney and Miss Rebecca both take such good care of our kiddos and stay in touch about weekly progress (which we have seen ALOT of great progress) If anyone asked me for a recommendation for their kids, I'd 100 percent recommend BDI in Aurora/naperville. read more

This is a wonderful business with people who truly care about the kids they help and their families. They will work with you're insurance company and do whatever they can to make sure your child is seen by his/her therapist. The therapist my child works with gets his best effort, every time. She is kind and supportive. I wish we'd started going here years ago! read more

Comprehensive team approach to children"s therapy. The therapists all work together to encourage the greatest outcomes in treatment. You don't have to run all over to find the best therapist. There is so much experience under one roof. read more

BDI Playhouse Pediatric Therapy - Infant massage classes are ongoing! - Physical Therapy Near Me - Aurora, Illinois

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We have a child who has received services at BDI Playhouse (speech, OT and PT) for about a year and a half now. I would highly recommend BDI playhouse to other families. First of all, we have absolutely LOVED each of the therapists we have worked with. They clearly care about our child's progress and are always willing to answer my questions and provide ideas or suggestions as needed. I also appreciate that they will communicate amongst themselves to discuss my son's goals and to make sure we're looking at the big picture. He has made tremendous progress during his time at BDI. They are also excellent at helping me navigate other options to explore. One of BDI's biggest strengths is that their office staff is as wonderful as their therapists. We recently went through a frustrating insurance issue where we needed to obtain approval for additional PT sessions. Insurance was (surprise surprise) slow to address the matter but the wonderful team at BDI did a ton of work on their end to get the approval for additional sessions. They even held my son's spot for weeks and weeks to ensure that he could be seen again as soon as the matter was resolved. I really appreciate how they helped me navigate this problem. I also want to touch on the fact that BDI offers some unique services. They do bike riding lessons, offer some aquatic therapy, feeding therapy, and they have several classes you can sign your child up for to help further their progress. They also offer a monthly gait clinic and will help you obtain orthotics as needed. Finally, their new facility is awesome, super clean and has a nice large waiting room. We have several options for therapy that our closer to us, but we are happy to be working with BDI! read more

My son was diagnosed with SPD and has been coming to BDI since he was two. He is now 8 and the improvements we have seen are amazing. I couldn't have done this alone. I am grateful for the patience, kindness and the knowledge the therapists have shared with my child. read more

We came across BDI 4 1/2 years ago, just as my son was aging out of Early Intervention. I had not had any exposure to pediatric therapy places and when I came across their website, I saw a review and realized that it might have been written by an aquantance of mine. Sure enough, it was and she had only the best things to say about the practice. Well, that was enough to get me to make an appointment. After meeting a therapist and those of two other practices, I knew that BDI was the place for us. The expertise of the staff was evident and I knew that my son was going to make great strides there. This has been one of the single best decisions that we have made for him. After these 4 1/2 years, I have learned a lot of things about pediatric therapy in general and specifically BDI. There are lot of differences between adult pt or sports medicine and pediatrics. First of all, a practice can make really good money with adults because a therapist and their assistants can treat several patients at the same time. Pediatric therapists work one on one with a child. Adults are usually shorter term and kids often need therapy for years. This often means a lot of paperwork to insurance companies, schools, etc. to make sure that their patient's needs are being met. A pediatric therapist may have 30 to 40 kids on their case load at a time. This means 30x the paperwork and phone calls. Not to mention the texts that they get from concerned parents at midnight. Knowing all of this makes me even more impressed with BDI and all that they do. I have met so many therapists over the years and each and every one of them is committed to their patient's success. They host and go to numerous conferences to learn as much as they can to help their patients. Just recently, they held a seminar about breathing and how it affects kid's movement patterns. They came straight back to the clinic and began implementing what they learned. Another example is that once they moved into their new building, they built "cages." These are metal spaces that allow kids to be attached by bungees to four corners. The therapist can adjust the height of the bungees to give the kids as little or as much help as they need. Essentially, it takes "away" some of their weight. This allows them to do a particular movement in good form that they cannot normally do for various reasons. In the cage, they can squat or jump the way it is meant to be done. Their body can experience the feeling of how their body is designed to move and it can actually help retrain their body and brain. The only problem with all that they do is that they could devote 3 hours a days to each kid and get so much out of it, but sadly, they have to get as much done as they can in an hour! Every single therapist encourages my kids (I now have two kids there) and finds the things that uniquely motivate them. They have created a space that is dynamic and positive. My son has had such great success there. One of the best things that they have done for him is serial casting. BDI stepped out to develop a serial casting program at the clinic. This was a huge undertaking of training, planning and cost. So much so, that you normally only seen this done at hospitals. However, their commitment to do this, even at cost to them, shows how much they value the success of each patient. Due to serial casting and the therapy that surrounded it, my son regained his ability to stand flat footed and stay stable, something that he had not been able to do since the age of two. He can now run and casting has also prevented or at least delayed the need for surgery to address his needs. Finally, none of this would be possible without the passionate leadership of Janis, the owner. As described above, I know that she is not in this for the money. She is fully committed to the special needs population in our area. She works tirelessly with insurance companies, vendors and families to ensure each patient gets the best care. She brings therapy dogs in to encourage the kids. She helps plan theme weeks for patients, provides classes for the community and regularly visits preschools and other events to educate families and local educators. She probably doesn't even know that I have observed this about her, but us parents most certainly have. I would recommend BDI (and often do) to any family that I meet that has special needs. You will not find a place anywhere in the area that provides the level of care that we receive at BDI. read more

My 2 year old daughter has been seeing a speech pathologist here. I am so pleased with her progress and this is down to her therapist. I'm so glad she comes here. read more

BDI children's therapy has made a huge difference in my grandsons development. He was a preemie yet just a little over 2 pounds and now as a eighth grader he is on the honor roll. read more

BDI offers an amazing staff and a great experience for its clients. My son looks forward to working with his occupational therapist, Terri, each week. I have really been impressed with the progress my son has made with his sensory issues in the past year and I know BDI has played a very important role in that progress. read more

All of the therapists and staff are friendly and outgoing, and very knowledgeable. We have seen a huge difference in our son since he began therapy at BDI. read more

My sons SPEECH THERAPIST LAURA C. is just a God send. Mrs.Laura continues twice a week working her magic with my son his autistic and non-verbal. She managed to inspire ,motivate and help build my sons self esteem by giving him a voice in just a month.Mrs.Laura introduced my son to a Dynavox and taught him to use it in just 2 visits when others said this was something that would never work for him.Ms.Laura managed to get threw to my son the importance of using the device to get his needs met. Ms.Laura helped my son believe in himself,something that had been taken away now since he is back on track he uses the device to ask for food and various activities. Since having the machine my son has become more verbal.Ms.Laura said just because he is using the Augumentative Communication Device she will not give up on my boy Speaking. Thank You Laura for believing in my son and making him believe in himself. Felicia J. read more

We were introduced to Sheri Berk, the Director and PT at the Naperville BDI location, when our son was first enrolled in EI for benign central hypotonia. At that time, he was 11 months old. He is now 4 years old , and much of his progress is due to Sheri. She has a wonderful way with children, able to engage them, even during those "plateau phases" when they are resistant and evasive. Her many years of experience are paired with a great enthusiasm and thirst for learning and sharing new ideas. She comes back from seminars and conferences, excited to share, and her energy is contagious. When we first entered EI, our family was unfamiliar with the intricacies of the system. Sheri was, and has been, our son's Biggest Advocate. I never hesitate to ask her questions or her opinion. She has, on more than one occasion, spoken up and out on behalf of his best interest and treated Luke like her own - not to mention his two sisters, who often accompany him to his therapy times. They are excited as Luke to see "Mrs. Berk" and have learned how to "help" and encourage their brother through her. The physical space of the Playhouse is HUGE, clean, has every piece of equipment imaginable, is inviting to children with bright colors and like an enormous playhouse, as its name implies. Unlike many other clinics, the therapists are easily accessible, flexible with times and schedules - and Sheri has even met us at other venues like parks and the DuPage Children's Museum. Personally, Sheri has been both an encouragement and example to me and my husband. She has four children of her own - so you know and feel like she totally understands the demands of family life. Her passion for children is so evident and the clear fact that she loves what she does have helped us through those discouraging times. We would recommend Sheri and BDI Playhouse without reservation and are blessed to have met her so early on. I would encourage you to check BDI out and see for yourself. My husband put it best one day after I came back from a session, telling him about Luke and Sheri's interaction with him. He said, almost wistfully, "Everyone needs a Sheri in their life." I would agree. read more