Allison Smith, M.A. CCC-SLP, Backyard SLP, LLC

We used the services of Backyard SLP for a year with our son Cillian and I would highly recommend the speech pathologist Allison Smith to anyone. She was very understanding of our situation and was able to provide our son with the help he needed to improve his speech and language skills. Our son had improved in all aspects of speech and has been able to enter full time daycare as a result. Allison has the perfect demeanor for helping kids and made our son feel at ease immediately. Cillian was always excited to see Allison and as a result more receptive to her sessions. Please reach out to her if your child is struggling. You will not be disappointed.

Allison is a natural with kids and was very effective in helping my son with his speech. With all of the thoughtfully personalized activities and games she brought, he looked forward to his sessions each week. He even enjoyed the "homework" she left for him - all very age appropriate games. He was actually sad when he graduated.

Allison Smith is incredible!! I cannot recommend her enough. Forget sterile office based speech therapy. She came to my house after school to work with my son. She was incredibly professional, but also warm, playful and empathetic. If my son was having trouble focusing, she always had a fun and engaging way to bring him back. She came prepared with so many fun activities (her "bag of toys" as my son called it) that he barely knew he was doing speech therapy and thought he was just having a fun play session with a cool lady. She often provided little printed activities for me to do with him at home between our sessions so I did not have to think to much about practicing and could just follow what she provided. She also gave me detailed info from his initial assessment on where his gaps were for his age, what things not to worry about that would develop with time, and which areas he really needed support. She also let me know when he was ready to graduate. I felt like Allison was a true partner in getting my son to pronounce his blended consonants. he and I still laugh at how he used to say Kunk instead of Skunk and Keleton instead of Skeleton. He still misses his time with Ms. Allison!

Allison is a gift. Her warm and relaxed approach put my kid at immediate ease, and she is profoundly good at reading kids to switch up activities or approaches, as needed, and to keep them engaged. She provided so many resources between sessions - and not just book lists but actual activities to help facilitate practice. In the warmer months her use of the garden for activities is so special, and in colder months we were just as happy in her cozy indoor space full of good books and natural light. I’m so proud of my kid every time I hear them say a sound that used to be really hard for them, and grateful to Allison for helping them find their voice.