We were lucky to catch up with Abby Brandi recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Abby, thanks for joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

Moving to a new state. The first move was to Colorado from Wyoming where I met Claire. Claire and I met in the spring of 2016 when I came to do a tour of the school where I had just recently accepted a job as the ‘other’ speech-language pathologist (SLP) for the upcoming school year. As we navigated shifting the speech/language service model at this school to fit two full time SLPs we began to also build a pretty amazing friendship.

As with all good friendships, we also began to complain about work processes we were frustrated with and how we were going to fix them so we could actually make a difference. It turns out that no matter how many systems we tried to change we always came back to the same conclusion, it all starts at home.

Once I found out I was pregnant I did what most millennials do….I started to Google pregnancy and parenting. I was immediately overwhelmed and concerned. Overwhelmed at all the resources out there in the great world wide web that often contradict one another. Concerned, as a professional and soon to be mom, at the amount of opinions disguised as facts. I’m pretty confident that for at least two weeks I came to Claire every morning saying ‘Did you know?!’, ‘Is this true?!’, ‘I don’t know what to believe.’ about 18 different things. And every time she would respond with, “this is why we need to start Preventasaurus.”

After my husband accepted a job in California, taking on another move, we decided that I would not return to the public schools as a SLP and that I would start my own private practice to give me the flexibility to focus on a specialty area (Pediatric Feeding Disorders) and build Preventasaurus.

Abby, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The first thing I tell my families is I’m a mom first, a SLP second. I meet my families with compassion and honesty. My families feel comfortable sharing the struggles and challenges of parenting with me as well as the wins.

My area of specialty is Feeding Therapy which is the bulk of my case load in my private practice. I was fortunate enough to learn from the lead feeding and swallowing SLP at Children’s hospital Colorado. That experience created a love for helping families that have a child with a Pediatric Feeding Disorder, often described as ‘picky eaters’. As an Italian, I believe strongly that feeding someone is love. As a parent, the last thing that should be a stressor is making a separate meal for your child than the rest of the family, avoiding restaurants and parties because you’re worried about how your child will react if their preferred foods aren’t available, and the constant worry about if their nutrition is being impacted by their limited food repertoire. What’s different from my approach compared to some is that I believe that eating food should be intrinsically motivated, thus I do not use a behavioral approach to feeding therapy. No coaxing, bribing, or bargaining. I provide 1:1 intervention and consultations for families who have little ones that may be struggling with meal times. I work closely with families to meet them with where they’re at while building a healthy relationship with meal times to reduce stress and make meal times fun again.

In addition to my private practice I am a co-owner of Preventasaurus LLC. At Preventasaurus, we provide virtual consultations for parents and caregivers, creating family-centered plans to prevent speech, language, and feeding delays and disorders in young children. We also have presented our prevention model for several organizations. We truly feel that, by empowering parents and caregivers to “discover the potential of and promote the skills necessary” for development, we can make the future brighter for everyone. We have heard statements like this many times: “I didn’t know they were supposed to be doing that!” or “How am I supposed to know that they need to do that? I’m not an expert!” We want parents to feel empowered to be the expert on their child-not on child development. Knowing what children are capable of achieving can lead to exciting discoveries and stronger relationships.

I am a nationally certified and state licensed Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) who whole heartedly believes that the
ability to communicate and eat meals with loved ones are two of the most precious abilities that we as humans possess.

I earned my Bachelors of Arts in Speech and Hearing Sciences at Washington State University and I earned my Master of Science in Clinical Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Wyoming. I am licensed by the Board of California, Board of Colorado and has her Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA).

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

Hands down, absolutely. Being a SLP is so incredibly rewarding. I love that there are so many different avenues to take in our career. I also love the relationships I’ve built with my families and being part of their child’s growth.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Building a network with other SLPs and other professionals. I was on a local Facebook group and noticed that there was a SLP being recommended with high praise by several parents so I reached out to her and she agreed to meet with me. During that meeting she agreed to take me under her wing and teach me the ins and the outs of going out on my own. Since then we have built a small group of woman and refer clients to one another all the time.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.abbybrandispeech.com; www.preventasaurus.com
• Other: abbybrandispeech@gmail.com preventasaurus@gmail.com

Image Credits
Crystal Huber Photography