Nathaniel's Story

Our son Nathaniel was born at 23 weeks gestation and is a true miracle! He spent the first 4.5 months of his life in the NICU, and developed subglottic stenosis in his airway from being intubated. Nathaniel had to be trached at 3 months of age in order to get him off the ventilator, and he was successfully decannulated in May of 2010. After his first reconstructive airway surgery in August of 2008, Nathaniel stopped eating and drinking due to a plastic stent that had to remain in his airway for 6 weeks post surgery. Three months later in October of 2008 after slow weight gain and reduced oral intake, he received a g-tube.

We started working with Jenn in November of 2008 and initially Jenn's

goals for Nathaniel focused on normalizing responses to input in his mouth, building his oral motor movements to an age appropriate level, and creating positive food experiences. He has since mastered these areas and now our goals focus on increasing oral volume at mealtimes and keeping Nathaniel interested in food/eating orally until we can start weaning him off the g-tube.

Nathaniel's speech was late to develop due to being a micro-preemie and also from having a trach the first 3 years of his life. Jenn has also been working with Nathaniel on his speech, and he is doing wonderful! He has gone from signing with a few vocalizations to using all age appropriate sounds in just 5months.

Jenn has been a Godsend to Nathaniel and our family, in fact we consider her part of the family! Her dedication, enthusiasm, patience, and love for children and for what she does is truly amazing and inspiring! Nathaniel instantly connected with Jenn and she has been instrumental in Nathaniel's amazing progress over the last 2.5 years.

We love her, and are truly thankful to have her in our lives.

- Nancy G.

Ella's Story

I wanted my daughter to talk. I watched and learned from several speech therapists. I would do the homework with Ella, and frustration after frustration left me researching for something more. All I wanted was for Ella to talk! I found some information online about oral motor therapy- this sounded interesting to me since Ella was diagnosed with low muscle tone. Jenn described Oral Motor Therapy as "physical therapy for the mouth"- slam dunk! This was what we needed.

Enter Jenn Buck.......

What I have witnessed from Ella working with Jenn is PROGRESS.

When we first started with Jenn 2 years ago, Ella would make more progress in her 1 hour with Jenn, than she would with 5 or more sessions of traditional speech therapy! Two years later, Ella SPEAKS! AND to top it off- her traditional speech therapy sessions are more productive because of the oral motor therapy component. Jenn has written homework and exchanged emails with our traditional therapist to help her be more productive with Ella as well.

I am every so grateful to Jenn for what she has done for my sweet Ella. If you think something is missing with your speech therapist or that traditional speech therapy just isn't doing enough? Jenn is your missing link.

-Chad & Carly P.

Ryan's Story

Ryan was nearing 4 years old and had already been receiving speech services privately and through the public school system for 2 years when we found Jenn. He had been diagnosed with low tone and global developmental delays, but never had a real reason for Ryan's severe speech delay. Ryan's private speech therapist felt it was time to seek out another therapist who might have more experience with what she suspected to be his problem-Oral Muscle Weakness. This was not an easy task, but after much prayer, I came across Jenn's website and saw the list of areas she

specialized in.

When I spoke with her, she confirmed that it did seem like he suffered from what our original therapist suggested. And then what she also told me was that we could keep our current therapist, because she could train her in the talk tools method! I was so relieved and excited to know that we could have both therapists working with Ryan as a team!

It would mean traveling 45 minutes one way to see Jenn, every 3-5 weeks, but she is worth it!

When we started with Jenn, Ryan was only saying the endings of words, and not in sentences at all. He was not intelligible to anyone unless I translated. Not even a year later, he has grown into only having an articulation issue! The strength he has gained in his mouth is incredible. Jenn has such a great, patient way of dealing with kids. We are so grateful to have found Jenn, and are blessed to have her as part of Ryan's story.

-Stephanie W.

Johnny's Story

When a parent realizes that something may be wrong with their child’s speech development, they embark on a journey to not just find help for their child, but to find the best help available. After many evaluations, hours of speech therapy, and more questions than answers, I began searching for something different for my son’s treatment. I needed to try an innovative approach to my son’s therapy to see if we could get more results with his speech development. This is when we met Jenn Buck. She uses many techniques that are different from the traditional one-size fits all approach to speech therapy. I often describe this to my friends as “physical therapy” for the mouth. She consistently gets great results from my son. Jenn has a unique gift to get kids excited about therapy.

When we first began seeing her for speech therapy, my son would say “eh eh” and point as his main method of communication. Within a few months, he was saying words, putting them together to say short sentences, and now very clearly says, “I love you, Mom.” If you are looking for a new approach to your child’s speech therapy, I recommend Jenn without any hesitation.

-Pam B.