Speech Therapy

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Children learn to babble and talk all at different times. Before you know it they can read their favorite book or tell you what they want for their birthday. But, when they can't tell you what they want to eat for breakfast or the daycare teacher can't understand what they say, parents need somewhere to turn.

Choosing our team

At Cook Children's Rehabilitation Services, our speech-language pathologists are highly skilled and experienced in children's communication development. They work with parents and families to help their children communicate their wants and needs. Many of our therapists have additional training and experience in specialty areas. We also have bilingual therapists on staff that treat a variety of communication and feeding difficulties.

What makes Cook Children's unique?

We know that when a child has difficulties, parents can sometimes feel helpless. That's why our Cook Children's rehabilitation team is to empower parents to help their child acheive their therapy goals. We know that therapy works best when parents and children practice each day. That's why our therapists spend part of each therapy session working with parents to teach them what to do at home.

We also work with your child's medical team and other therapists to make sure our treatment plan fits your child's exact needs. Whether they are recovering from an injury or have a lifelong illness or disability that impacts communication, we're here to help them.

We know that therapy is a big commitment so we want to get your child back to their school, community and everyday life as quickly as possible. Our speech-language pathologists will adjust your child's treatment plan as they get better. We can also help you find resources and community activities that support your child's communication needs as you finish therapy.

Eye Gaze Therapy Gives Voice to Non-Verbal Patients

New augmentative alternative communication (AAC) technology is helping Cook Children's Rehabilitation Services give a voice to non-verbal patients for the very first time.

Specialty programs

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC)
Children who have difficulty communicating verbally may be able to use pictures, communication boards or speech-generating devices to communicate.

Cleft lip/palate and velopharyngeal dysfunction
Children with a structural issue in their soft palate may have difficulty speaking. Air may come out of their nose, or they may be very unintelligible.

Facial Reanimation
If your child is unable to use their facial muscles to eat, speak, or show emotions, we can help.

Feeding and swallowing disorders
Children who have difficulty swallowing food or drink or may have a limited range of accepted foods.

Hearing loss and cochlear implants
Our speech-language pathologists and auditory verbal therapists have special training to help children with hearing loss learn to listen and talk.

Voice disorders
Children with voice disorders may have difficulty breathing during exercise or using their voice to speak or sing. Our speech-language pathologists can help change how your child’s voice sounds and help decrease breathing difficulties during exercise.

Physician referrals/consults

Physicians, make a referral or schedule consultation

Refer/consult

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Hearing loss
Cleft palate and velopharyngeal dysfunction
Childhood apraxia of speech
Voice disorders and vocal cord dysfunction
Concussion and traumatic brain injury
Other genetic and medical disorders resulting in communication difficulties
Autism
Articulation disorders
Receptive/expressive language disorders
Bilingual language disorders
Feeding and swallowing disorders

Jillian Lemonds, M.S., CCC-SLP

Jillian Lemonds, M.S., CCC-SLP, MSHA, is the director of Rehabilitation Services. She has served in a variety of clinical and leadership roles in her 25-year tenure at Cook Children's. Jillian is a graduate of Texas Christian University where she received her undergraduate degree in speech-language pathology and her Master's degree from Texas Woman's University. She is certified through ASHA and is licensed as a speech-language pathologist in the State of Texas.

Jillian strives to carry out the Cook Children's mission in all areas of Rehab Services. Her favorite part of working at Cook Children's is helping all of her team members to be their best; which will allow them to deliver exceptional care to all of our patients!

Becky Clem, M.A., CCC-SLP, LSLS, Cert. AVT

Becky Clem, M.A., CCC-SLP, is a speech language pathologist, LSLS Cert. AVT and the Rehab Services Education Coordinator. Becky has contributed to the professional literature as an author of several articles on a variety of topics. She provides professional learning experiences nationally and internationally. She mentors professionals pursuing certification Listening and Spoken Language. Becky is passionate about health literacy, family centered care, along with helping Rehab staff with their professional growth.

Alexandra Surdo, M.Ed., CCC-SLP

Alexandra Surdo, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, is a speech language pathologist who has been with Cook Children's since 2020. She has specialized in pediatrics since the beginning of her career, and has prior experience in early childhood intervention. Alex is passionate about working with children of all ages with dysphagia and feeding difficulties, as well as evaluating and treating patients with voice disorders and inducible laryngeal obstruction (ILO). Her favorite aspect of providing therapy in a pediatric outpatient setting is helping to foster meaningful interactions between caregiver and child. Alex loves being part of a multidisciplinary team and she appreciates Cook Children's family-centered approach for empowering families to take the lead in their child's care.

Dianna Hernandez, M.S., CCC-SLP

Dianna "DeeDee" Hernandez, M.S., CCC-SLP, has been a speech language pathologist with Cook Children's since 2014. She has extensive pediatric experience in a variety of therapeutic settings. DeeDee cohesively works with a team of professionals that focus on family centered intervention. She empowers parents/caregivers and believes family involvement is instrumental for successful therapy. DeeDee enjoys guiding families and their children to reach their potential through individualized approach.

Emily Jones, MA, CCC-SLP

Emily Jones, MA, CCC-SLP, is currently the manager at Cook Children's Rehabilitation Services South location. She has worked at Cook Children's since 2012 in a variety of different roles. As a speech-language pathologist, Emily has worked with children with a variety of different diagnoses. Recently, her work has been focused in the area of infant feeding and swallowing. Emily has a passion for helping others - especially children. She is thankful to work in a system that focuses on family-centered care and that celebrates children of all abilities.

Heather Durden, M.S., CCC-SLP, LSLS, Cert. AVT

Heather Durden, M.S., CCC-SLP, LSLS, Cert. AVT, is a speech language pathologist and listening and spoken language specialist with a certification as an auditory-verbal therapist. She focuses on listening and spoken language outcomes for children with hearing loss. Heather has worked at Cook Children's since 2018. She has experience in a variety of settings, including school and clinical. Heather enjoys collaborating with medical professionals and providing family-centered care for children with hearing loss and their families.

Jennifer McReynolds, M.S., CCC-SLP

Jennifer McReynolds is the clinic lead and speech-language pathologist at Cook Children's Medical Center. She began working at Cook Children's in 2003 and has experience working in both inpatient and outpatients services. She has specialized education and experience in working with children with feeding and swallow disorders, acquired speech/language, cognitive communication disorders and hearing loss. She is passionate about interprofessional collaboration and education to improve patient care and maximize patient outcomes. She enjoys working with infants and children of all ages learn to eat, drink, listen and talk.

Jonathan Suarez, M.S., CCC-SLP

Jonathan Suarez, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a clinic lead and staff speech language pathologist who has worked at Cook Children's since 2012. He has a strong passion for treating children with cleft palate/VPI, expressive language delay and autism. He has also enjoyed his experience working in the Cook Children's Neighborhood Clinics. There, he completes speech and language screenings while also collaborating with physicians and families to improve outcomes of children with a variety of speech and language disorders. He finds joy in learning new therapy strategies to aid in his patient's success.

Julie Schmidt M.S., CCC-SLP

Julie Schmidt M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech language pathologist and has worked at Cook Children's since 2015. She treats a variety of children with difficulties in articulation, expressive language and feeding difficulties. Julie enjoys writing informational articles for families which have appeared on the Cook Children's Checkup Newsroom and professional articles that have published by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association. She has experience presenting to students, teachers and other professionals that want to learn more about speech language pathology. Julie loves helping kids learn to use words, gestures or pictures to ask for their favorite things.

Kathy Soland, M.S., CCC-SLP

Kathy Soland, M.S. CCC-SLP is a speech language pathologist who has worked at Cook Children’s since 2016. She has over 40 years of working as a speech language pathologist. Her specialties include infant feeding and children with feeding and swallowing concerns, early language development, working with children with autism and cleft lip/palate and VPI. Kathy’s passion is to work with families and children to take the stress out of mealtimes so that they may enjoy mealtimes. It is also her desire to open up a child’s world of communication so that they can enjoy developing their relationships with families and friends. It is her goal educate and empower caregivers so that they can implement programs at home to facilitate their child’s progress towards their goals.

Katie Crouch, M.S., CCC-SLP

Katie Crouch, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist and has worked at Cook Children's since 2020. She has experience working with children and their families in a variety of therapeutic settings. Katie is passionate about helping infants and toddlers with their feeding and swallowing skills, as well as helping young children find their voice through development of early language skills and sound production. She enjoys working with families to provide family-centered care in order to help each child reach their full potential.

Kambrie Kilcrease, M.S., CCC-SLP

Kambrie Kilcrease, M.S., CCC-SLP, is an inpatient speech-language pathologist who has been with Cook Children's since 2020. Kambrie received her Master of Science degree from the University of North Texas. She has experience with the pediatric population in home health, inpatient rehab and the acute care setting. She enjoys the variety of children she sees in the acute setting and loves helping them grow to their full potential.

Kimberly Richardson, M.S., CCC-SLP

Kim Richardson, M.S. CCC-SLP, is an acute care inpatient speech-language pathologist and has worked at Cook Children's since 1999. She primarily treats infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, as well as children with feeding/swallowing difficulties, cleft palate/VPI and voice disorders. She enjoys presenting at the state level and collaborating with a local university to enhance graduate level education regarding acute pediatric topics. Kim loves assisting families in advocating for their child, empowering them to help their child reach their full potential.

Lori Cochran, M.S., CCC-SLP

Lori Cochran, M.S., CCC-SLP, is the speech language clinical coordinator and has worked at Cook Children's since 2014. She primarily treats children with cleft palate/VPI, apraxia, hearing loss, expressive language delay and those using communication devices. She presents frequently at the state and national level on a variety of clinical and professional development topics, and serves on the executive council of the Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Her favorite part of working at Cook Children's is the opportunity to collaborate with and mentor other clinicians.

Leslie Powers, M.S., CCC-SLP

Leslie Powers, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech language pathologist and has worked at Cook Children's since 2014. She primarily treats children who have complex communication needs and may require augmentative communication (AAC), as well as children who have apraxia, cleft palate/VPI, language disorders and/or speech disorders. She has presented at Texas Speech and Hearing Association conventions. She enjoys the Family-Centered Care model at Cook Children's, which allows her to work with children and their families. Leslie loves helping children find their voice.

Megan Brown, M.S., CCC-SLP

Megan Brown, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech language pathologist and has worked at Cook Children's since 2015. She treats children with a variety of speech and language delays including expressive language disorder, articulation disorder, alternative communication, and has special interest in early language, autism and voice disorders. She has a strong passion for the pediatric population and enjoys getting to know the children she serves, as well as their families, in order to meet their specific needs. She believes every child has a unique story to tell and loves being part of their journey.

Megan Karas M.S., CCC-SLP

Megan Karas M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech language pathologist and has been with Cook Children's since 2019. She has an extensive background in treating children with complex medical concerns in a therapeutic setting. Megan is passionate about treating pediatric feeding difficulties, pediatric swallowing difficulties, and complex communication needs requiring an AAC device. In addition, Megan is dedicated to helping children with voice disorders and exercise induced laryngeal obstruction (EILO). She loves working collaboratively with families and the medical team at Cook Childrens to help parents advocate for their child and receive the best quality of care. She believes that every child and family is unique and should have personalized medical care in order to help them meet their needs reach their full potential.

Paige Howell, M.S., CCC-SLP

Paige Howell, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist who has been with Cook Children's since 2020. She has extensive background in treating young children with a variety of feeding and swallowing disorders, early language development and AAC needs. Over the last few years, Paige has developed and presented several courses related to these topics. She is passionate about working with families on mealtime dynamics and reducing the stress of eating. One of the things she loves most is seeing caregivers become empowered to help their children communicate and participate more in the home and community. She has spent time working in schools, homes and other medical settings. Paige is so happy to be part of the Cook family and have the opportunity to collaborate with other professionals daily.

Sara Adams, M.S., CCC-SLP

Sara Adams, M.S., CCC-SLP, is the feeding and dysphagia clinical coordinator and has worked at Cook Children's since 2006. She loves to help babies and young children with their feeding and swallowing skills. Sara is a frequent presenter at state and national events on a variety of topics including feeding, swallowing, and professional development. She is also highly active in local speech pathology groups, working to help build collaboration and to mentor clinicians in feeding. Sara loves the emphasis on family involvement at Cook Children's.

Sara Lopes, M.S., CCC-SLP

Sara Lopes, M.S., CCC-SLP, is an inpatient speech-language pathologist who has been with Cook Children's since October of 2008. Sara received her Master of Science degree from the University of North Texas in 2005. She has worked with the pediatric population in both the outpatient and inpatient setting. Currently, Sara works primarily with infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and cardiac step down unit to improve their feeding and swallowing skills. She has a passion for working with children and their families in order for them to achieve their full potential.

Selina Vargas, M.S., CCC-SLP

Selina Vargas, M.S., CCC-SLP is a bilingual speech-language pathologist. She has been part of the Cook Children's family since 2017 and became a speech therapist with our team in 2020. Although her experiences encompass all scopes of speech-pathology practice, her main interests lie in working with children with developmental delays, autism spectrum disorder, and those who may use alternative modes of communication. Empowering families to be advocates for their children and making those special connections with families is her favorite part of her job.

Suzanne Bonifert, M.S., CCC-SLP

Suzanne Bonifert, M.S., CCC-SLP, is the speech-language program manager and Mansfield clinic manager who has worked at Cook Children's since 2013. Her clinical area of expertise is working with young children with autism, and she enjoys working collaboratively with different disciplines and departments to care for this population. She is active in serving her professional associations, and she has presented on leadership and professional issues as the state and national level. Her favorite part of working at Cook Children's is helping mentor and support clinical staff.

Theresa Jones, M.S., CCC-SLP

Theresa Jones, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech language pathologist who has worked for Cook Children's since 2017. She enjoys every aspect of the speech language pathology field, but her primary focus is working with apraxia of speech, facial reanimation, feeding/swallowing difficulties, and complex communication needs with AAC. Theresa has completed extensive education on autism, augmentative alternative communication, complex needs, and dysphagia. She adores advocating for those who learn differently by presenting to the community and professionals, where she has experience presenting at the local, state, and national level. Working closely with families and guiding them to being an advocate for their child is her favorite part of her job.

Tonia Kline, M.S., CCC-SLP

Tonia Kline, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech language pathologist and has been with Cook Children's since 2011. Tonia's passion is working with infants with feeding difficulty and dysphagia along with their families to advance on their feeding journey. She is also a Certified Lactation Counselor working with breastfeeding families. Tonia is a member of the Cook Children’s ACPA certified Cleft Lip and Palate Multi-Disciplinary Team working with patients with cleft and craniofacial differences/VPI. What she loves most about Cook Children's is the collaboration with other professionals and helping patients and their families grow! Tonia loves sharing her knowledge and passion with others through mentorship, supervision, and presentations.

Diana Vega Torres M.S., CCC-SLP

Diana Vega Torres M.S., CCC-SLP, is a bilingual speech language pathologist who has worked for Cook Children's since 2021. Diana earned her undergraduate degree at Stephen F. Austin State University and her Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology with bilingual Spanish emphasis at Texas Christian University in 2020. She has experience working in private practice and home health setting, where she has had the opportunity to professionally work with children with children with developmental delays, Down syndrome, autism, apraxia, fluency disorders and articulation/phonological disorders. She enjoys working with children and their families to establish and support communication development as a team. Diana is originally from Fort Worth and enjoys being able to work closely with children and their families in the community, in addition to working collaboratively with the Cook Children's team.

Ginger Hejtmancik, M.S., CCC-SLP

Ginger Hejtmancik, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech language pathologist and has worked for Cook Children's since 2021. Ginger has been a speech language pathologist for over 29 years in a variety of pediatric settings. She has experience treating children/infants with feeding and swallowing disorders, cognitive disorders and cleft/lip palate. Ginger is a Certified Neonatal Therapist, is certified in Neonatal/Infant Touch and Massage, and is the SLP mentor for the National Association of Neonatal Therapists. Ginger loves working with infants and families to promote developmentally appropriate feeding, patients and families following traumatic brain injury and children with cleft/lip and palate. Ginger enjoys working in the collaborative environment at Cook Children's to provide the best possible outcomes for children.

Marissa Dornak, M.S., CCC-SLP

Marissa Dornak, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist who has worked at Cook Children's since 2021. Marissa earned her undergraduate degree at Central Michigan University and her Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of North Texas in 2019. She has experience working as a hospital-based SLP serving patients in the areas of feeding and swallowing, cleft lip and palate, voice, head and neck cancer and neurocognitive disorders as a result of traumatic brain injury and stroke. Marissa loves to work with children and their families to facilitate feeding, swallowing, and communication interactions so that their child is able reach their full potential.

Sarah Young, M.S., CCC-SLP

Sarah Young, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech language pathologist and has worked with Cook Children's since 2022. She has prior experience working in the school setting, and has specialized in pediatrics since the beginning of her career. Sarah loves treating patients with developmental delays, autism spectrum disorder, and AAC. She enjoys collaborating with caregivers to help patients have fun while learning new speech and language skills. Sarah enjoys helping families learn to advocate for themselves and the patients.

Skylar Van Norman, M.S., CCC-SLP

Skylar Van Norman, M.S., CCC-SLP, is a speech language pathologist who has been with Cook Children's since 2022. Skylar received her Master of Science degree from the University of North Texas. She treats children with a variety of speech and language disorders including expressive/receptive language disorder, as well as with augmentative and alternative communication needs. Skylar also has special interest in articulation disorders and apraxia. She has a strong passion for the pediatric population and enjoys working with each child and their family to provide functional communication to help improve their daily lives. Skylar loves that Cook Children's provides an excellent environment to facilitate collaboration between disciplines while providing the highest quality services possible.

Claire Voss, M.S., CCC-SLP

Claire Voss, M.S. CCC-SLP, is a speech language pathologist who has worked at Cook Children's since 2022. She received her undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University and graduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She has prior experience working with children with developmental disabilities, hearing loss, Autism, Down syndrome, and children using AAC devices through the school and clinical settings. She has specialized training in working with children who are deaf and hard of hearing to develop listening and language skills. Claire loves empowering children and families by fostering independence through finding their voice and building communication skills. She collaborates with families by celebrating the unique skills and strengths of all children and connecting families with community resources to support the development of the whole-child.

Kayla Grupe, M.S., CCC-SLP

Kayla Grupe, M.S., CCC-SLP is an inpatient speech-language pathologist who has worked at Cook Children's since 2023. She received her undergraduate degree from The University of Texas at Austin in Communication Sciences and Disorders and her Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology from Texas Christian University in 2022. Kayla is passionate about partnering with children and families to support feeding, swallowing and communication with the hope that every child feels comfortable and confident to reach their full potential.

Natalie Stevens, M.S., CCC-SLP

Natalie Stevens, M.S., CCC-SLP is an inpatient speech-language pathologist who has worked at Cook Children's since 2022. Natalie received her Master of Science degree from Northeastern State University in 2013. She has worked with the pediatric population in a variety of settings including early childhood intervention, public schools, outpatient clinics and home health addressing communication and feeding skills. She works closely with patients and their families to facilitate effective skill development and implementation.