My son adores Tara, and so do I! She combines technical excellence with a wonderful personality and a way with children. I could tell from the first moments that she knew what she was doing. In fact, I recommended to my sister who lives out of state that she bring her daughter to Tara for diagnosis and a plan of action. What makes her so effective, on top of her professionalism and skill, are her great sense of humor and fun and her ability to build trust with children. She won my son over immediately. He loved coming to see her and was sad when speech therapy came to an end. -Charlotte D.
Tara Bernard has had a major impact on our family’s life. Her skill and technical prowess are unmatched–and coupled with her sensitivity and warmth they are an unbeatable combination. She is able to engage and encourage kids to work hard while letting them have fun; she always makes sure they feel good about themselves. She is a gifted speech therapist–and will always consider her a family friend. -Meredith B.
I reached out to Tara when my son, then 2.5 years old, was having disfluency issues for a little over a year and seemed to be worsening. From the very first phone call where I was screening potential speech therapists, Tara took the time over the phone to understand my concerns asking pointed and intelligent questions while offering preliminary ideas and ways she would work with my son; she also showed tremendous compassion from the start. Tara came to our house and with each session she brought new tools (therapeutic toys and games) that made it fun for my son. He SO looked forward to her coming each week and responded to her energetic but calming manner. Although Tara would review my son’s progress and daily exercises briefly with my husband who was at home during the sessions, she would also take the time to call me immediately after each session and go through it again in detail, answering all my questions and concerns. I really felt that Tara was a true partner in helping my son and that she really cared about him and us as a family. Within a few months of weekly sessions and daily exercises that she gave us to do with my son (which she adjusted weekly depending on how he was doing), his stuttering had declined dramatically. By the end of the year, the stuttering was completely gone. Tara is incredibly insightful and also immediately noticed issues with my son’s breathing, which I was attributing to allergies, but which she suggested I get a second opinion from another ENT. We soon discovered very large adenoids and tonsils which we subsequently had removed. Tara was there for us every step of the way as my son recovered. My son now speaks beautifully and breathes better. -Ellen R.
My son loves his speech therapy sessions with Tara. They have so much fun, she motivates him to work hard and she celebrates his successes. After their sessions he is so proud of his progress, and that motivates him to practice the home exercises that Tara gives me to do with him until their next session. Tara is very knowledgeable and introduces new techniques as my son’s speech progresses. Tara is prompt, professional, and has established an excellent dialogue with myself and my son’s teachers to support his speech progress. I have highly recommended Tara to other parents looking for a speech therapist to work with their son or daughter, and also to my Occupational Therapy pediatric clients who can benefit from speech therapy. -Mary K.
Tara has been working with my daughter for the past five years and she has been excellent in every aspect of her work. In addition to her competence as a speech and language therapist, she has wonderful interpersonal skills, which allowed her to build a strong working relationship with my daughter. She has always gone the extra mile to help my daughter achieve her goals. I highly recommend her! -Kay K.
My daughter loved working with Tara and looked forward to going to speech therapy. Tara was incredibly patient, creative, and kept her focused on her exercises to get her up to level quickly. She was also great with us by making suggestions on how we can support and reinforce what our daughter did during therapy. I would highly recommend Tara as she is a great speech therapist and wonderful to work with. -Ria S.
Tara was a great speech therapist for our son. When she began working with him he was 20 months old and had only a few words and wasn’t repeating sounds or words spoken to him. We noticed a huge improvement very quickly as he soon began initiating words to us and repeating new information. Tara had a fantastic way of engaging our son. He looked forward to seeing her before each session. She was very playful while also making sure he was focused on the task at hand which was learning to use words to communicate. -Allison F.
I am friends with the family of a six-year-old who had significant speech and language delays before his work with Ms. Bernard. I saw improvement in the child’s communication after only a month with this talented speech therapist and pathologist. I am often close by when the therapy is conducted and I have seen her make the process both fun and effective for the child. Over the past 18 months, I have observed her conferences with the child’s parents and saw what a success the collaborative effort between them has brought. The child’s social, scholastic, and personal development has all been strengthened greatly by Ms. Bernard’s work and expertise. -Lee S.