water the sponge services

Work alongside a certified Speech & Language Pathologist to help your child reach his or her true potential when it comes to speech and language skills.  Learn about the one-month and three-month packages below.

One-month email consultation package

Do you feel like your child could use a little “boost” in his or her language skills?  Do you have questions about your child’s development?  Are you wondering whether your child is meeting developmental milestones?  If so, you have come to the right place!  Consult with an expert to learn simple tips and activities to implement in the home environment that will improve language skills.

Learn More

Three-month email consultation package

Let’s work together for a few months to nurture your child’s communicative skills.  This package is particularly beneficial for children who need help producing sounds, improving expressive/receptive language skills, or learning how to read, as these are skills that take time to foster.  Learn how to improve your child’s language skills at home with simple activities sent straight to your inbox.

Learn More

Hello! I’m Tara

Owner / Pediatric SLP

As a parent and professional, I have found that one of the most joyful experiences in life is watching children grow and learn.  I am passionate not only about teaching children how to communicate, but also empowering parents and educators to build children’s speech and language skills.  I believe that a child’s academic and social skills will blossom once a solid linguistic foundation has been formed.

My Story

My areas of expertise

v

Speech disorders

  • Childhood apraxia of speech
  • Speech sound disorder
  • Stuttering
  • Dysarthria
  • Orofacial myofunctional disorders
k

Language disorders

  • Mixed receptive & expressive language disorder
  • Phonological disorders
  • Phonemic awareness difficulty
  • Reading comprehension difficulty

Learning difficulties

  • ADD / ADHD
  • Learning disability
  • Dyslexia
  • Auditory processing disorder
  • Selective mutism

My approach

I approach therapy with the individual in mind and recognize that you are your child’s expert.  As such, I work alongside you to create engaging activities for your child to naturally boost communication skills. 

Each child develops in a unique way and it is important to tailor therapy to the child’s interests and passions.  Tell me about your child’s personality, likes and dislikes, and favorite toys around the house so that I can help you transform everyday playtime into learning time!

I am so happy I reached out to Tara with concerns about my toddler! Tara provided tips to help my daughter use two-syllable words and my daughter took well to them! Throughout the month, Tara provided activities to help reach goals we had set for my daughter's language skills. I loved the activities because they were based on my daughter's interests. On top of providing activities, tips for us as parents, and reassurance of my daughter's speech development, Tara also provided us with research articles on raising a bilingual child. Towards the end of the month, my daughter was making leaps and bounds with her language! She is using new words every day and getting closer to using two-word phrases. Overall, I am so happy with the services Tara provided and we will definitely reach out for services again if needed. Thank you!

-S.G., parent of 21-month-old

Our child improved her vocabulary tremendously by working through the activities provided by Tara. All of the activities were easy to perform and directly connected with our goals of enabling our daughter to become more expressive. Tara quickly responded to all of our questions and tuned her program to our child's progress. It brings so much joy hearing our little one using her new vocabulary to describe the world around her. Thank you Tara!

-S.K. & A.K., parents of 19-month-old

Click Here

Water the Sponge is the best program we have done all year! I homeschooled my child this year and found myself wanting a program that could be tailored to him. I wasn't sure where to start with my son's speech and language development. Water the Sponge came to the rescue! Tara wanted to know what motivated my son, what games he liked, and his interests. I appreciated the initial questionnaire she sent out and could tell she really wanted my child to succeed. She created a program that was fun, enriching, and effective for the both of us! We looked forward to each week's activities and new challenges. It made learning so positive for him. Along the way if we needed to slow down or speed up in different areas it was no problem. We were able to go at my son's pace, and the program was so flexible. We were able to do it on our own schedule throughout the week which was very helpful. I will say that my son had very little exposure to rhyming words, making vowel sounds, or reading before we started with Water the Sponge. By the end of the program I was blown away! My son was a rhyming machine, improved on his word retrieval, was able to sound out and read basic words, and so much more! I will definitely be recommending Water the Sponge to all our family and friends. Thank you, Water the Sponge for making learning positive and fun for both myself and my son!

-M.B., parent of 4 1/2 year old

Click Here

Contact me

If you have questions regarding blog posts or are uncertain whether or not you should seek out consultation services for your child, please feel free to contact me.  You can use the form below, or email me directly at tara@waterthesponge.com.