It took almost a year to convince myself to attend a Toastmasters meeting. I wanted to get over my…read morefear of public speaking and gain confidence when speaking in front of people. In July, I finally forced myself to attend a meeting and I am so glad I did! I've been attending Surf City Speak-n-Lead Toastmasters for about 6 weeks now and I've already learned quite a bit. This group's friendly, warm, and safe environment has helped me begin to build confidence in myself and my words without judgment, ridicule or criticism. The critiques are encouraging and is helping me develop into a stronger speaker. As a writer, words come easily, but voicing them out loud always has been an issue. I struggle especially with impromptu speaking and this group helps in not only prepared speeches but also improv speaking skills. The members go out of their way to make you feel genuinely welcome as well as help you with any questions and advice. Meetings are very well organized and the food is surprisingly good (I'm not typically a fan of restaurants like IHOP). I actually look forward to Wednesday nights every week and am excited to continue to learn and grow my skills with the help of this club.

Pretty fun group of people. Meeting every Wednesday makes it easy to get the most of what I was…read morelooking for in a toastmaster club. 5 stars because of the location is easy to get to and park, food available, and long term members who are always there to help. I encourage anyone who is looking for a well organized club to visit and give #6570 a try! :)

I was watching my 7 year old daughter do her ModernBrain speech and debate class for the 1st time…read moreand the coach asked her to argue the pro of reading versus watching a film. I immediately thought this was going to be hard for her because she definitely loves her movies. Instead what I found was a thoughtful argument for something that I knew would be hard for her. For example, she cited that through reading you can become a better writer, and have better comprehension because you see the same words and gain familiarity. In addition to better reasoning, she was also able to structure her argument better than I expected. She started her argument with a hook which is a question to draw the listener into her speech then she stated a couple of her main points before she began to get into the meat of her argument. I found the whole thing adorable but I'm sure it will also serve her well in all future academic endeavors. I know it'll be useful even for meetings in the business world if 7 year olds are allowed!

My modern brain experience has been going exponentially well; not only have I been doing great in…read moretournaments, but it's also been helping me a great deal in school. I highly recommend.

We had Leah come to the house and she was absolutely outstanding! She really took the time to…read moreunderstood my daughter and knew exactly how to help her. Her sessions were very impactful from the minute she comes to the house. We saw a huge difference in our daughter ever since we started seeing Leah and we appreciate her so much!

We couldn't speak more highly of Shea! Shea worked with our 2-year old son for about a year. She…read morewas patient, kind and fun; but also had a way of teaching and communicating discipline that our son responded exceptionally well to. Her primary goal wasn't just to teach language, but to give our family the tools to continue the teaching on our own. She brought in toys and books and had tricks to teach in a way that was custom to our son and how he likes to learn. Our son ultimately graduated from Shea's care and you would never know that our chatterbox now 3-year old only had ten words when we started. We are forever grateful!

Very good place.. it's my kids second year and we love it .. my other son joined this yearread more

As soon as my son first participated in his school's debate program, he finally found his life's…read morepassion. Unfortunately, when he switched to a school without a debate program, he no longer had access to it. New England Academy came to the rescue. My son found it incredibly instructional and supportive. Not only did he improve his speech and debate skills, but he was able to take on leadership opportunities. His critical thinking skills have also improved and have been inherently applied to his school work. Mr. Hughes and Mr. Hobbs are more than teachers. Their individualized instruction and ability to connect with children makes the program resemble a family activity rather than simply an academic program. They have created a safe environment where making mistakes is constructive and team work is emphasized. My high school son is now an OCDL middle school assistant coach, judge, trusted mentor and friend - which are additional life skills he picked up from Mr. Hughes and Mr. Hobbs.

We have been with OCSS since my son first received his ASD diagnosis in spring 2021. The facility…read moreitself takes up the entire fourth floor of the Credit Union building on Edinger across from Bella terra. Each therapist has a room and the children can either spend time in said room or use the two gyms that are full of toys and play equipment (Lots of swings, slides, playhouse, climbing wall, crash pad, etc.). Both gyms are very clean and well maintained. They also have a nice kid friendly kitchen! Since we have been here for some time, we have had an opportunity to work with many speech and occupational therapists as well as the admin. Everyone here is very kind and knowledgeable in their field, generously offering tips and advice when I ask 100 questions. My son's schedule is packed, so when I need to reschedule, administration is very friendly and helps find a way to make our make-up appointments work for us. We have been with our current and absolutely amazing Occupational Therapist, Brenda, since day 1. She is a miracle worker when it comes to my son's food aversions- getting him to taste things he would normally throw at the wall. He is always super excited on Friday when I grab him from school since he knows hes going to see his "ms. Brenda". She is truly a key figure on my son's care team. We started speech services about a year ago at OCSS and my son's therapist, Claire, is extremely knowledgeable in Gestalt language processing. We just learned that my son is a Gestalt learner before we switched to OCSS and we are so thankful he was paired with someone with the expertise and knowledge that Claire has. She meets him right where he is that day and lets him lead which is so important for our son since he is a little unpredictable. He adores his time with her, and asks for her by name even on days we're not going to OCSS. If you're shopping around for therapy services for your child, I highly recommend OCSS and their staff.

We are so fortunate to have spent the past 2 years working the therapists at Orange County Speech…read moreServices. They are very skilled in working with children with a wide range of needs. They are overall very creative in developing therapeutic plans to meet our shared goals and open to parent and family input. They truly care for the children that they work with. Over the past 2 years, our son worked with various therapists from PT, OT, speech therapy, and behavioral therapy with both regional center funding and through medical insurance. Our son initially started with significant developmental delays, but now he has more than caught up in almost every area. Our son worked the most with Ms Ruth (ST), Ms. Kelly (ST), Ms. Ariana (OT), Ms. Brenda (OT), Ms. Dana (PT), and Ms. Tori (behavioral therapy). We have had a great experience with therapists our son worked with regularly as well as those not listed that covered on vacations. They are the best. Ms. Ruth and Ms. Kelly helped so much in expanding his communication skills. He started severely delayed in all aspects of communication, and he now can speak up to 7-8 word sentences clearly and understand others. With our son's complicated medical situation, we require a significant amount of assistance and input from OT. We especially appreciate our time with Ms. Ariana and Ms. Brenda, who helped so much in teaching our son to be independent in the day to day self care activities. We really appreciated the many helpful emails from Ms. Ariana with ideas, links to videos, therapy items, educational information, and worksheets to use at home, so we can continue therapy at home in between sessions. The billing situation can be confusing if your child utilizes a lot of therapy session in a week. That in part might be due to insurance processing claims not necessarily in a chronological order. It would be helpful to keep track of visits and insurance explanation of benefits. Even with the billing situation, we would still choose to work with the therapists at this office. They are very skilled and devoted to the children and what they do,

After going to 3 other speech clinics that wasn't helping my daughter, I took her here and got the…read morecorrect, precise assessment done. For the past 10 months we've worked with Andrea and Kelsey. My daughter says words with sounds she wasn't able to do before. She also has so much fun. The sessions are engaging and the toys are always different so it motivates her to target goals. From what I've seen, all the therapist are super positive and ready to jump in and WORK HARD. The SLP's use every moment as an opportunity to help target my daughter's speech goals. At first I didn't think 30 minutes would be enough time. Nope, I was wrong. Without Andrea and Kelsey's expertise, my daughter wouldn't be saying the words she says now. I've been with other clinics with my other children too. Speech Point really is a top notch clinic. I have to add: The owner is really nice and easy to talk to. She's busy doing assessments all the time but she'll make time to chat when requested. Just ask. Courtney and Temika are on top of the scheduling and behind the scenes tasks. They always respond via text, email or by phone. There's some scheduling issues at the moment due to short staffing but management has been giving updates and the owner is stepping in to help. I can't thank the team enough for helping my daughter so much this past year.

Our family believes what makes this clinic THE best is the owner Mrs. Gaulin (and her amazing…read morestaff) and how she trains her staff to target goals during session. She (so brilliantly) manages to ascertain appropriate goals for our little one and teaches her staff on how to appropriately target those goals during session. No other clinic has come close to consistency and professionalism, and warmth. We have been coming here for over 2 years now and the progress has been tremendous. They have taken the time and energy to get to know our child - something that a lot (most places, especially the larger ones that offer speech, ot, classes etc) of places do not bother to do - and the SLPs and support staff are driven, work hard, and are not phoning it in ever. They take any feedback very seriously and always help us with questions. We are so grateful to Speech Point!

I don't even know if this guy is still in business, but this is long overdue. I worked with Mark…read morePowers several years ago and what a waste of time and money. I had to take time off work to see him and when we did the speech excerises he put me on this machine and made me read out loud while he sat on his computer online shopping. I would not recommend and I still stutter even trying his "techniques". I swear you can find all the material he gives you on google. It's a joke

I had a mild stutter for basically my whole life. I was always fluent enough to basically get by in…read moremost situations, but my stutter was bad enough to lead to major embarrassment in high-stress social situations or public speaking situations. I reached out to Mark because my stutter was starting to get worse and I'm really glad I did. The program I went through with Mark really helped me become more fluent. I now have MPI speech as a powerful tool to help me get through any high-stress speaking situation. If you have a stutter I highly recommend Power Stuttering Therapy. I think it will help you a lot.

Dr. Ansari is both brilliant and and intuitive. Her team is spectacular (we are BEYOND impressed…read morewith therapist, Christina!). My daughter is actually EAGER to attend her educational therapy sessions to learn how to work with her learning disabilities. The extremely thorough testing is extremely multi-layered & comprehensive - and they are compassionate and willing to help find a way to make the pricing and payments work. Once the results are in, they are MORE than equipped to help their clients over come their issues. BEYOND impressed!

Very nice people to work with and excellent advice. Both my boys were having problems with…read morestandardized testing and I found out much more to help them academically from having them tested. One of my sons was very depressed and felt safe in their care to express how badly he was feeling. It sounds dramatic but this office saved his life. Looking back as a parent, sending my boys to this office was one of the best things I ever did.

Jessica is amazing and we are so grateful for her and the time she spent with our daughter. Our…read moredaughter was diagnosed as a "late talker." Her receptive speech was in the normal range, but her expressive speech was delayed. At two years old, our daughter was saying only about 5 words. We discussed speech therapy with her pediatrician at her 18 month well check, then again at her 2 year well check. When we were told that she should have been saying at least 50 words by 24 months, we knew that speech therapy was necessary. I contacted Jessica to start the process, and during our first phone conversation, I knew she was the right choice for our daughter. Jessica was extremely patient. She took time with me explaining the process of speech therapy, going over options, and overall, easing my mind about everything. After the initial evaluation, Jessica was able to give us a diagnosis, an overall plan, and an estimated timetable for therapy. Our daughter had sessions with Jessica for about 5 months. Jessica was very flexible with our family's schedule. She came to our home, as well as my parents' home, as they took care of our daughter a few days a week. Jessica immediately bonded with our daughter. She would sit with her on the floor and interact with her in a very calm and patient manner. Our daughter always thought that she and Jessica were just playing. She loved the games they played and the activities they did together. She looked forward to her visits every week. Jessica involved all family members in the therapy process, giving us tools to be able to work with our daughter on skills in our everyday life. She provided us with strategies to be able to reinforce what she had been working on with our daughter. All the tactics and routines that were part of her therapy plan were made known to everyone, and this approach, we truly believe, hastened her development of speech. We saw improvements in our daughter's expressive speech very quickly. Not only was she saying new words, her overall demeanor changed. Before she started speech therapy, she would get easily frustrated, as it was difficult for her to communicate with us. As her speech developed and she was able to express herself more to the people in her life, she became more content and calm. We are so grateful for Jessica and highly recommend her if you are looking for a speech therapist!

We sought therapy for our son when he was about 16 months old. Jessica was quick to get us in for…read morean evaluation and listened to all of our concerns. It's hard to see your child struggle or recognize a delay with them, but Jessica was very sensitive and helpful and that made the whole process a great experience. We were lucky and he only needed therapy for a couple of months but we will miss her and will be back if he shows any signs of a delay again. Thank you so much Jessica!

I first discovered The Meditation for Health Podcast in 2014. Immediately struck by the quality of…read morethe recordings, I was attracted to the energy of openness, and impressed by the relative lack of commercialization, compared to other meditation resources. It truly is geared towards health & wellbeing, steering clear of some of the 'tropes' and consumerism that I have found in other podcasts for meditation. The immense qualifications of Dr. Robert Puff also are a huge benefit -- in an era where many in the digital space profess to know so much, it is reassuring to know that you are in the 'hands of an expert' when listening to this podcast. I have always appreciated the pace and gentle focus of each session, Dr. Robert Puff has an aura of nonjudgment and safety in his language and message. I would highly recommend this podcast; it's simple and nonintimidating, especially for those new to meditation.

Dr. Puff is both kind and wise beyond measure. Simple, insightful, helpful. I also love his…read more"Happiness Podcast" as well as his books - particularly "Reflections on Meditation." Thank you, Dr. Puff!