Dana Rimer :: Speech Therapy

"After my son was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 2, hospitalized for 6 weeks, and discharged home to continue intensive chemotherapy treatments for the next two years, the last thing on my mind was his speech and language skills."

"But as he approached 3 years old and it became evident that his speech was markedly behind age level expectations, I decided it was time to hire a speech pathologist."

"I have a professional history in the field myself and so I know there are many personality types out there and many skill levels."

"It was most important to me to find someone with the ability to think holistically who would be understanding of the effects that the chemotherapy on Patrick’s fluctuating fatigue level and persistence during treatment. I also wanted someone skilled enough to think flexibly and creatively about how to go about meeting our goals for Patrick and how to switch gears when needed. However, it also had to be an individual with a firm enough manner to set boundaries appropriately. And of course it had to be someone who knew articulation and phonology inside and out. I discovered all this and much much more in Dana Rimer."

"Though I was in denial at the time, I realize now that my son basically had vowel sounds and a few consonant sounds at best, when we first started with Dana."

"I also realize now how skillfully she navigated not only my son, but me, through the unchartered waters. Now, Patrick’s speech skills are at or near age level expectations, and he loves his speech pathologist. Dana Rimer is an outstanding speech and language pathologist, a bright, energetic and creative clinician and a thorough and efficient parent educator. She is compassionate, encouraging, well learned, and up to date in her knowledge base. I consider it a blessing that I found her, and I would enthusiastically and most sincerely recommend her services."

"Dana Rimer has been instrumental in helping my son make tremendous gains in language. Her expertise in assessing a child’s language skills, working at the child’s level and then raising the bar just above their ability, enabled my child to maximize his potential. Her warmth and genuineness allows her to build immediate rapport with her students. She is skillful and creative with handling challenging behaviors and helping a child through personally difficult tasks. Dana offers sound advice to enable parents to help their children at home. She has truly been an asset to my son’s development."

"Our three year-old son has been seeing Dana for speech therapy for the past three months, and we couldn't be more pleased with our experience under her care. Dana's warm and genuine personality made for an instant bond with our little guy, and he now awaits her visits with excitement and smiles. As parents, we truly appreciate the professionalism and support that she provides in helping us to understand the best ways to assist our son. Each week, Dana takes the time to listen to our questions and concerns, and then provides concrete exercises and recommendations that we can use in-between sessions. We have seen definite progress in our son's speech and communication skills since engaging with Dana; he is markedly less frustrated when trying to express himself and is more understandable to others. My husband and I wholeheartedly recommend Dana to any parent who is looking for warm, caring, and professional speech and language therapy for their child. She has made such a positive impact on our child and our family!"

"I feel no hesitation when I say that my two boys are able to speak normally today because of Dana. They are now 6 and 8 and are bright, happy children who are popular with their classmates and very successful in school. There was a time when my husband and I feared that they would never speak normally and would lead lives circumscribed by their articulation deficits. Our older son began with Dana at 18 months because he was born with a cleft lip and palate and was completely nonverbal (though he had invented his own sign language to communicate). Two months into his treatment, he was diagnosed with severe verbal apraxia. Over the course of several years Dana taught him, through practice, mouth manipulation, muscle strengthening and more, how to make every spoken sound and then how to string them together to make intelligible speech. It would be difficult to overstate how physically challenging it was for him to overcome his apraxia. It was Dana's creativity and quick mind that kept him engaged and it was her commitment to him that made him work his heart out. They would often begin their sessions with mouth exercises and very explicit instruction in how to make a sound and then they would do 150-200 repetitions of his target sounds. It was extraordinary to watch my toddler, who could barely sit still, do a hundred rapid fire speech drills with calm and focus. No one has ever gotten him to do so much; he has resisted every other therapist he's had. Dana also worked with our younger son, who had a more mild apraxia, and she advanced his progress several times faster than other therapists. Between both our boys over the course of seven years of treatment, I have observed and worked with many speech therapists. Some gave us no progress at all; others had difficulty relating to toddlers and young children. Dana has an absolute gift for what she does. She combines a brilliant diagnostic mind with a perfect understanding of who children are and how to get them to do the hard work that makes speech therapy successful. We still very much miss her. It was an irreplaceable loss to our family when she moved to Boston. Our older son is still doing some "clean up" speech work and we would give anything to have him working with Dana again."

"Dana is not only an exceptional speech pathologist, but an incredible individual. During the two years my son spent with her, we trusted her instincts (always spot on) and watched in amazement as she turned toys and board books into teachable moments that helped our son overcome his apraxic diagnosis. She was endlessly compassionate and supportive not just to my son, but to our entire family as we worked our way through the emotional process. 4 years later, my son still speaks fondly of his time with her, and we know we couldn't have been in better hands. Anyone who works with Dana is working with the very best."