We recently connected with Megan Black-Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Before I started my private speech practice, I worked in schools and other private settings where it felt like something was missing. I couldn’t support clients and students to the best of my ability because the most critical factor that was key to their communication success was missing….parents! The nature of school based therapy, heavy caseloads, paperwork, made it impossible to include parents in their child’s therapy, but I tried nonetheless…and paid the price with feeling burned out and exhausted…I just did too much, I cared too much. I saw glimpses of parent involvement in outpatient and private setting; however, caregiver involvement was minimal and most therapy was lead by the speech language pathologist (SLP) while parents watched, distracted with other tasks, or even encouraged to wait outside of the clinic room. When I worked for an early intervention program, a state based program that encourages parent involvement for young children under 3 years old, I saw how parents became empowered to help their own children and in turn, the progress their child made each month.

With those experiences, I knew I could create a therapy approach that was uniquely family-centered for all children I worked with, not just for a specific age group. A model of therapy that included caregivers and parents in the entire therapy process. My speech therapy practice highlights the importance of teaching caregivers tools and strategies in therapy sessions…demonstrating, modeling, providing opportunities for them to practice with their own children…free of judgment, only positive support and understanding. Home-plans are a staple of my speech therapy visits…a way for parents to use skills they have learned at home, to brainstorm how they can use them in everyday tasks and play activities. This matters because parents learn that small changes, using intentional strategies can make a huge impact on their child’s speech and language development. Parents will often comment on how helpful having a written plan is, “My partner really likes these plans, he/she reads them and knows how to try it at home.” Those comments tell me caregivers are learning, feeling empowered, and becoming more confident with supporting their young child at home. We choose to focus on family-centered therapy because parents/caregivers are the most important individuals in each child’s life and spend the most time with their child. By empowering parents and building their capacity to learn new skills, the children we work with are receiving support with their goals everyday, not just in therapy visits…leading to more positive outcomes for every child and family we work with.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a pediatric speech language pathologist (SLP). I started my own practice after discovering I wouldn’t be able to support the children I worked with in the way that would benefit them the most or lead to the best possible outcomes. My practice specializes in family-centered therapy for young children typically under the age of five years old. We support children in developing their language and speech skills, including children who are late talkers, have specific diagnoses (autism, apraxia), speech sounds disorders, gestalt language processors, and who benefit from alternative and augmentative communication (AAC)/picture communication. Most importantly, we value child-lead, play-based therapy that focuses on building relationships first and connecting with each unique family and child. We are proud to be neurodivergent-friendly and celebrate children with unique neurotypes; we view autism as a different way of being human rather than a deficit or disorder. We respect each child’s unique way of learning, thinking, playing and speaking. We prioritize children learning skills in fun, meaningful ways with the people who are most important to them. Because we are family-centered, we work together with caregivers to plan small, but intentional changes at home that make a powerful impact on each child’s learning and development.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Realizing that I don’t have the skills and knowledge to help every child and family. Instead, I focused on what I’m good at, where I felt I could make the biggest impact. Also, I realized my approach and therapy model was not a good fit for every family. When I discovered this, I created a “screening” process during my intakes. I made sure to ask specific questions and be upfront about my therapy approach: my therapy looks like play, progress relies heavily on parent involvement, I follow the child’s lead, I don’t practice compliance based therapy, I don’t work with children who stutter or have tongue thrust, etc. By creating a niche and being upfront with families looking for services, I am able to have the biggest impact on the families who were the best fit for my therapy model. In turn, they shared their positive experiences which helped build word of mouth in the community.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Yes! In graduate school we are taught how to be therapists and we learn nothing about starting a business, being a business owner, and navigating insurance. These books were instrumental in learning about systems, data, organization, setting goals, etc…

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Facebook groups related to various topics in private practice were also very helpful.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.blacksmithspeechtherapy.com
• Instagram: @blacksmithspeechtherapy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Blacksmithspeechtherapy/
• Other: [email protected] 801-210-8695