Play and Say Speech Therapy has been fantastic for my 4 year old son who has articulation delays…read more Andrea, the speech language pathologist who works with my son is so knowledgable and helpful. She explains everything she works on with him and then shows me how I can help continue his progress at home. Not only that, but my son ADORES her and actually asks "is today a speech day??" I highly recommend Play and Say to anyone whose child is having difficulty with their speech and/or language.

From the owner: Our mission is to provide the highest quality speech-language therapy to children and to provide…read moretheir parents and/or caregivers with the knowledge and training they need to help their children develop the best possible speech and language skills. We provide a number of different services, tailored to meet the specific needs of each child and there family.

I just want to take this time to thank Early Start Therapy! I'm a single mom to a three year old…read moreboy, I was unsure about ABA and Speech Therapy. After a few sessions with Deborah A. and the Team.. my son has blossomed! He started out shy and he wanted to do everything independently but now he has learned how to work with others and be a good friend! I also wanted to give a huge shout out to Deborah A.! I appreciate you so much! Thank you for your guidance, support and patience! My son had a really hard time understanding his own feelings. Especially being half verbal/nonverbal. Deborah took her time to show me how I can help my son when he was going through his big meltdowns. He's not having many tantrums anymore but when he does; I use the technique and after a few minutes he's okay! Thank you for everything! I'm really glad that we joined Early Start!

We were referred to Early Start Therapy by Kaiser for speech therapy. They evaluated our child and…read moretold us they had the perfect class. It was not perfect. It wasn't even speech therapy. It was some kind of behavioral therapy. It was not helpful. Additionally, when we requested that they provide our child's "Speech, Sound, and Language Evaluation," so we could take that to another therapist, they were unable to provide this despite having charged Kaiser hundreds of dollars for it.

We just love this place! Our daughter received OT and SP here for 5+ years. The owners and staff…read moreare all excellent people who really care about your kiddo. We highly recommend this place! They are in the Tricare/HealthNet network, which is GREAT being that they're in close proximity to Fort Belvoir!

This is my first time writing a review which indicates how strongly I feel about the services we…read morereceive at Exceptional Children's Center. Although the DC/MD/VA area is saturated with occupational and speech therapists, ECC stands above all others. Our son not only receives quality services from a therapist trained in dealing with young children through adolescents, but ECC's selection of these therapists is incomparable. ECC's therapists are not only up to date in the latest proven methods but are all caring, compassionate individuals who invest in your child. The benefits our son receives through ECC extend far beyond OT services. He's built a relationship with his OT which motivates and inspires him as a person. Our family is truly blessed to have found ECC.

My daughter was given a speech evaluation by Debbie in my home. She was 3 1/2 years old at the…read moretime. The evaluation resulted in my daughter being a year behind with articulating words as she spoke. Debbie's recommendation was for my daughter to get speech therapy at a facility, as my daughter is a real 'wiggle worm'. Debbie recommended a place, but unfortunately my daughter's insurance denied the claim since she did not experience a trauma or birth defect, which caused her delayed speech. In the meantime, Debbie is working with my daughter every week in our home to provide therapy. She does such a FANTASTIC job with my 'wiggle worm' that my daughter gets excited when she knows Debbie is coming and when she arrives. My daughter's speech has definitely improved since Debbie started working with her. Her sentences are longer, she is clearer, and I understand more words when she talks. My daughter even says, "Ms. Debbie says do this or that..." I would definitely recommend Eat, Speak, Play!

From the owner: Welcome to Eat, Speak, Play! We provide in home, functional based occupational and speech language…read moretherapy while specializing in feeding therapy and assistive technology in DC and Northern Virginia. Our programs are tailored to meet the specific needs of each individual person we work with. Our goal is to provide a multidisciplinary approach to therapy whenever possible to address each child in a holistic way. By doing this we will be able to treat the individual versus the specific problem. We want to provide individuals with independence and support the family and caregivers (including those at school and work) that will optimize quality of life.

Very unprofessional. The speech therapist was all over the place. She cannot even remember what…read moretime the appointment was. We went to her office nobody answered the door, and she doesn't take calls. Not a good place at all. She advises finding another professional that is what we're going to do. My daughter was there on time and went to the right place, but nobody was there, the therapist or the receptionist did not answer the phone. The therapist was confused about the appointment time and started to send odd texts two hours before the appointment trying to reschedule. The speech 0therapist doesn't even know the suite number where she works. Horrible experience, bad interactions, and very unprofessional. Don't go here!

We brought our 4yo daughter here under a recommendation that she get evaluated for speech and audio…read moreconcerns. We appreciate how honest the therapist was about how she didn't see any underlying concerns with her in this area and was not pushy about continuing therapy sessions. But we did discuss perhaps occupational therapy to help her with feeding for future development. So we booked a few feeding OT sessions with Nadia and my daughter was in love with her from day 1. She was kind, patient and instantly connected with our daughter in trying to pin point the best way to encourage her to open up on how she interacts with food. Would highly recommend.

My son has been attending speech therapy sessions at Fairfax Pediatric Therapy since early January…read more He is almost 9 and has always struggled with his "s," "sh," and "ch" sounds - but we waited to see if he would grow out of it (he didn't). On recommendation of our dentist, we tried some videos to help him with speech, but we were not successful on our own. After a Zoom call with Ariel and Ahmad, the speech therapist, we felt very confident and comfortable with Fairfax Pediatric Therapy. After the first session, my son made huge strides in his "sh" sounds - he was actually able to articulate it correctly, even if it was a struggle. Long story short, as of today (3 months after starting) Finn has met all of his speech goals and no longer needs the services. Both Ahmad and Finn worked hard to make this happen - and in such a short time. I didn't expect progress so fast, to be honest. Not only that - my kiddo actually looked forward to the sessions. Ahmad took the time to get to know his interests - chess and strategy games - and built the sessions around play. When we left today, for the last time, Finn said he was going to miss his friend. We have had the best experience! Thank you.

We brought our 2.5 year old to see Mandy and were with her for approximately 1.5 years. Mandy…read moreprovided just the right advice as well as engagement for our child (and as new parents, her experienced guidance and suggestions throughout also gave us peace of mind). Our toddler at the time was very shy, so her approach of play-based speech therapy was the ideal fit for a shy kiddo. He looked forward to sessions and didn't realize it was "work", but instead saw it as a fun activity where he was able to play with a variety of toys with an energetic playmate. I don't see how Mandy has the energy to play with the little ones all day, but she does--and really seems to enjoy it. The play/session environment is comfortable, welcoming, clean, and has a toy store's worth of different toys (and Mandy is always trying out new ones for the repertoire). Mandy immediately identified a structural issue that a previous formal evaluation from another speech therapist missed. Our child progressed wonderfully and is now outgoing, able to express himself clearly and with a range of vocabulary and sentence structures, and is doing advanced language and verbal work at school. We are very satisfied and highly recommend Bethesda Speech for Kids and Mandy.

Mandy has made an enormous difference in the life of my 9yo. My son has been in and out of various…read morespeech pathologist's offices since he was 4, and I could never hear or see a measurable difference in his speech until we found Mandy. The difference in a year with her is greater by far than the difference in 5 years with everyone else combined. I cannot say enough good things about our experience with her. She is incredibly effective as a speech pathologist, and the results are really clear. Even more than that, she is flexible, patient, adaptive and works with my son rather than at him. Her humor shines through steadily, and she is very kind, and my son can sense that and relaxes with her. She has specific, targeted exercises and games she goes through with him - he has only begun to figure out that the games are work - and gives us home practice in such a way that he knows what he needs to be doing and how to do it. My son can be a handful - so she works in movement breaks and tunes the games to his interests and approaches it with humor that makes him feel welcome. She gives prizes after so many stickers earned - set at a reasonable, attainable pace - and I noticed that, having figured out my son liked puzzles and stuffed animals, that the prizes being offered have quietly become things he enjoys. He vibrates for the opportunity to win them. Even the games have become quietly tuned to his needs and preferences; I've never seen so many games of Memory played. My son invented his own version of Go Fish with the articulation cards, and she went so far as to write down the rules so they could play it again. Seriously, she is *amazing*. As a note: my son went from throwing tantrums at the very idea of speech to cheerfully practicing at home and happily showing up to his speech therapy. Because she praises him for his effort and his progress and specifically what he is doing right, he can aim for that specific thing again and *believes her* when she tells him he's working and she can tell. I cannot tell you what a difference that has made. Most importantly, my son went, in less than a year, from being unintelligible unless someone had known him for years, to being a confident, talkative, outgoing kid with a lot to say. A few months in with Mandy, I stopped having to 'translate' for him. Months ago, he suddenly started talking non stop, because he could be understood and heard and participate. Before that, he only spoke that much with me, and he chose the most efficient script to short hand what he wanted to communicate, as speaking was tedious and hard work and he might have to repeat himself five times. Now, he is speaking happily and with assurance with his friends and with his teachers, and does not hesitate to step up and speak when called upon to do so. Mandy has made SUCH a difference in his life, and I am forever grateful. She is worth every penny and moment of time. I highly recommend her; you won't find a better speech pathologist.