At Speech & Hearing Associates, we focus on helping people of all ages communicate more effectively by providing diagnostic evaluations and treatment for both children just learning to talk to adults who find their hearing diminishing. The ability to communicate is critical to a fulfilling life.
I have always felt the need to be close to the patients we evaluate and treat. Thus, after 9 years as a Professor in the Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Program at Columbia University, I decided to channel my energies into building a private practice of direct services to those with speech and/or hearing problems and to be in closer contact with the people who needed our services.
My first step was to one by one find the best speech-language pathologists and audiologists to join me. Having taught and trained Masters and Doctoral level students for 9 years, I knew that the ones with the highest grades alone weren’t always the best equipped to work directly with patients. I certainly wanted bright people, but those who also showed compassion, dedication to our field, and a personality and attitude consistent with the way I wanted my patients treated.
Over the years, the practice has grown to its current state, with 9 private offices, several consultantships with ENT practices, contracts with school districts, head-start programs, charter schools, and other specialized schools/programs for special needs children. We have grown from just a few staff members to over 50, including administrative staff. I am still actively involved in our hiring process as well as staff development. Many of our staff has been with us 10-20 years. One for 43 years!
I am extremely proud of our staff. We employ the best and brightest audiologists and speech language pathologists, having received their Masters or Doctoral degrees from the best colleges and universities in the country.
Our supporting staff has also been carefully chosen to have the personality and character to focus on helping our patients as much as humanly possible. This starts with scheduling evaluations and treatment, to helping you to navigate the ever changing and complexities of health insurance, to serving as an advocate, helping you to obtain the best coverage possible under your insurance plan.
What separates us from many other practices is our ability to combine speech-language pathology and audiology to provide the comprehensive services for both children and adults, from evaluating and differentiating auditory and language processing among children to the need for brief auditory training sessions to maximize the benefits of hearing aids among our adult hearing aid users.
At no charge, we routinely provide educational presentations to colleagues, parent groups, teachers, nurses, child study teams, physician groups, and civic and senior groups. We have even been invited to present the application of new hearing aid technology to hearing healthcare providers in Great Britain.
While we have all of the technical knowledge to provide the latest hearing aid technology and the most current treatment options for speech-language and hearing disorders, as part of our professional development program we invite hearing aid manufacturers, experts in new approaches to speech-language treatment and leaders in related fields such as ABA, reading, visual perception, learning, etc. to present at our monthly staff meetings.
My mission is and always has been “patient care.” I have always said to my staff “take care of your patient the best way possible and everything else will fall in place.”
I hope to see you and your family soon.
Sincerely,
