Speech-Language/ Disphagia (Feeding) Therapist

Licenses: New York, New Jersey

Languages: English, Russian

Education:

• 2008 MS, Columbia University, New York
• 2006 BS, Brooklyn College, New York

I am the founder and Clinical Director of the First Rowe Speech & Feeding Therapy Center. My more than twenty years of professional experience began in Russia, where I received a dual degree in speech pathology and special education. I also has extensive training in child psychology, as well as in brain anatomy and physiology.

Continuing my education in the United States, I graduated with a Master’s Degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Columbia University. Previously I had worked with prematurely-born infants in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the SUNY Downstate Hospital in Brooklyn, and in the New York State’s Early Intervention program.

I spent several months in La Paz, Bolivia in 2008, where I worked at a local hospital and at the Camino de Sordos school for children with hearing disorders. In 2015, I became a faculty member at my alma mater, Columbia University, teaching graduate-level courses in Diagnostics and Speech Language Pathology.

In 2015, I was also a featured guest speaker at the National Conference on Feeding and Swallowing Disorders in Moscow, Russia, where I discussed evaluation and current evidence-based treatment strategies for dysphagia in infancy and early childhood.

 In 2018, I provided diagnostic evaluation and intensive treatment to children in Switzerland with severe motor speech disorders and autism, as well as conducted training for Swiss clinicians. In addition, I provided evaluation and treatment via teletherapy to children throughout the world, including the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Russia, Germany, Belarus, Ukraine, and Greece.

My areas of specialization are dysphagia and motor speech disorders, including Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). I am an  innovator by nature. My approach uniquely integrates behavior modification strategies, motor learning techniques, myofunctional therapy, and Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) approaches. I have achieved significant success with non-verbal and minimally-verbal children with autism and CAS, including those who gained minimal results through previous traditional modalities.

Currently, I am providing comprehensive evaluation services and leads therapy programs at First Rowe Speech & Feeding Therapy Center for children with speech, language, feeding, and swallowing disorders. I provide in-service training for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) programs in New York City, and individual supervision to clinical fellows and licensed speech-language pathologists. I also provide the above services in collaboration with TEMA Therapy Center at our Fort Lee location