My Nonprofit Reviews

First of all thank you for providing us with the opportunity to share our experiences with the Scottish Rite Childhood Language Center. The Center has been serving our family since roughly June, 2018. We were introduced to the Center when they provided speech and hearing screenings at our son, Jett’s Preschool. Following the screening we came in for an Evaluation with Heidi Chew and Laurie Clifton. At the time of the screening we had a three week old baby and the Staff was very accommodating of both our schedules and of our new little one. Laurie did an amazing job making Jett feel welcomed and comfortable during the hearing screening and Heidi provided a very thorough evaluation of Jett’s speech while at the same time making him feel at ease and have fun.

Heidi initially recommended implementing at-home strategies to assist with Jett’s speech and also said she’d follow up in a few months. True to her word Heidi followed up at which point we requested speech therapy. Heidi did an amazing job working with our time constraints and schedules and scheduled Jett’s therapy with Gina Urban-Dwyer. At first we were hesitant as we loved how Heidi worked with Jett and communicated with us, however, we quickly learned we were in for a real treat with Gina.

Gina worked with Jett approximately a year prior to retiring this past June and both Jett and I looked forward to his sessions with Gina. Gina was very creative and very thoughtful when she worked with Jett. She really took the time to listen and learn what he was passionate about (dinosaurs, space and underwater creatures) and would pick activities, books and games that matched his passions to keep him engaged. I greatly appreciated how thoughtful and planned out her sessions were—for each session she’d have the activities laid out and she and Jett collaborated on a plan—Gina had first pick and then Jett. It really helped Jett stay engaged and have a vested interest in finishing each activity. Though a small space, Gina really worked all corners of her room with Jett—they’d often jump on the trampoline, play on the floor or shoot starts around the room—all very creative ways to keep Jett vested in what he was learning. Our love for Gina grew over the past year and we felt like she was part of our family—often asking how we were doing personally, etc. Jett loved bringing her art projects and fruit (we love to go to “pick your own” fruit places as a family).

We were extremely sad to hear of Gina’s retirement, but she did a wonderful job transitioning us to Lauren Carpenter. Gina, Lauren and Jett did a shared session prior to Gina’s departure and that was a wonderful way of transitioning Jett from Gina to Lauren. Fortunately, after just a few sessions Jett has become just as enamored with Lauren! Lauren too does a wonderful job engaging Jett—I like that she gets down on Jett’s level and becomes one of the children.

Jett has had physical and occupational therapy, so I’ve interacted with other similar providers and beyond just the therapists themselves there are other things I love about the Scottish Rite. I bring Jett’s brother, (16 Months) to 90% of Jett’s appointments and the Administrate Staff is always so welcoming and inviting. I greatly appreciate that there are toys and things to keep him busy while I watch Jett on the monitors. There is nothing harder than attending a therapy session for Jett and having nothing for his brother to do in a waiting room. It’s such a simple thing to have toys to keep siblings engaged and yet few places do it. The Staff is a pleasure to engage with and always so willing to lending a helping hand whether it be with deciphering insurance claims or playing with our youngest while I run to the bathroom child free!

Finally, I cannot say enough wonderful things about the monitoring equipment! It is so beneficial to be able to watch therapy sessions via a monitor rather than listening to an update from the therapist after the fact. Don’t get me wrong the one-on-one therapist reviews are helpful, but being able to watch the sessions on a monitor is so wonderful—it not only allows me as a parent to provide updates to the therapists based on what I saw in the session, but it allows me the ability to make note of things we could do at home. The monitors are also a great way to give Jett the independence to work one on one with a therapists but also the security of knowing that I’m right around the corner watching. I wish that this was available at Jett’s occupational therapy appointments.

My husband and I both received speech therapy as children and it’s looking like our now sixteen month old, will be next in line. Without hesitation we’ll look to the Scottish Rite for therapy services for him.

We were fortunate to find the Scottish Rite and the amazing women who work there both now and in the past. The Scottish Rite provides amazing personalized services in an environment where we often feel as though we are the only clients because of the Staff’s unparalleled passion, dedication, love and desire to know our Family on a personal level.