We had the good fortune of connecting with Breanna Waldrup and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Breanna, what are you most proud of in terms of your business?
The services we provide and the community we’ve created for our children with childhood apraxia of speech and their families. We strive to help the children we treat to find their voices, as well as build their confidence as communicators and to build meaningful social connections with others. As we’ve worked with these children we have found the need to address other challenges, such as reading, that many of these children face. Since we also do a great deal of charitable work, such as organizing and sponsoring the North Texas Walk for Apraxia each year, we have created an amazing community to support these children and their families.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Childhood apraxia of speech is a rare speech sound disorder in which the motor planning and/or programming for speech is disrupted. Since it is a motor speech disorder, it requires specialized treatment based on the principles of motor learning. Most speech-language pathologists receive little to no instruction during their graduate education on how to effectively treat this disorder. With proper treatment, many of these children make significant progress with their speech, and many are able to resolve the disorder over time. However, if the disorder is treated from a traditional speech therapy approach, these children make very slow progress. Since speech-language pathologists do not receive adequate training in the treatment of apraxia in graduate school, I have to train any therapist I hire on the job. In most settings, a business can hire a speech-language pathologist and have them takeover a caseload in a matter of days. In contrast, when I hire a speech-language pathologist, they pair with me for months, learning and co-treating, before they start seeing any children independently. Once a therapist does start treating a child independently, we still continue to meet regularly and observe each other’s therapy to continue to develop their skills in treating apraxia. In addition, I pay for therapists to attend a variety of continuing education opportunities to learn more about research-based methods for treating childhood apraxia of speech. I would say this dedication to providing the highest level of therapy has been a big challenge, since it requires a lot of time and effort. At times it has meant that we have had a wait list of clients, since we did not have enough therapists with the required level of training and expertise. We become very devoted to the children we treat and while this is wonderful, it also takes its emotional toll on us, the therapists. Balancing the emotional demands of being a therapist treating children with a severe disorder has also been a big challenge both for me and the speech-language pathologists I employ. I allow my therapists to determine their own schedule and caseload to help find balance in their lives between the needs of the children they treat and their own. We strive to find the appropriate boundaries so that everyone, therapist and client, can thrive.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
There are so many great restaurants in Dallas! We would definitely have to eat some Mexican cuisine, so for that I would take them to Hugo’s Invitados in Las Colinas. They have amazing organic food and drinks that are inspired by Mexico. I would also take them to True Food Kitchen, which has delicious food and a wonderful food philosophy. A trip to Dallas wouldn’t be complete without Texas Barbecue, so for that we’d head to Hard 8 in Coppell. I’m a huge brunch fan, so we would definitely eat at Snooze and Ascension. We’d want to spend plenty of time in local coffee shops as well, so we would go to Ascension, Native Coffee and Edison Coffee Co. If we needed a sweet treat, we’d visit Melt Ice Cream in Bishop Arts. While there, we would pop into Bishop Arts Cider for a cider sampler. With all that food we would want to do some active activities, as well. We would visit the Dallas Zoo and the Dallas Arboretum. We would also take some walks or run along the Campion Trail in Irving, and probably take a hike at Cedar Ridge Nature Preserve.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Kay Giesecke, the original founder of Apraxia Dallas, mentored me when I was new to the apraxia world. She shared the knowledge and experience of treating this severe speech sound disorder with me, as well as modeling how to be a person and therapist of the utmost integrity. Kay taught by example how to love the children we treat, which benefits both the children and the therapist in countless ways. As I progressed into a specialist in childhood apraxia of speech, she continued to mentor me as we co-presented together at state and national conferences. I would not be the person or therapist I am today without her mentorship and support.

Website: www.apraxiadallas.com
Facebook: @apraxiadallas

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