We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Vanessa Zimmer-Powell & Tas Kajani The Learning Sphere a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Vanessa Zimmer-Powell & Tas Kajani, thanks for joining us today. We’re complete cheeseballs and so we love asking folks to share the most heartwarming moment from their career – do you have a touching moment you can share with us?

What Tas and I love most about speech-language pathology is the opportunity to make a difference in a child’s life. One of my favorite memories is from when I was working in Early Childhood Intervention (ECI).

I started seeing a 2-year-old girl who was on the autism spectrum. Her communication skills were comparable to a 6-month-old. She was a very active little girl who wasn’t attending to or responding to her parents. She also wasn’t saying any words. Her home was constantly in chaos as she existed in her own world. Her parents were very worried.

However, she was fascinated by books, specifically words in books. She loved it when an adult pointed to a word and read the word to her. I suspected that she might be hyperlexic, which meant that she could figure out how to read on her own just by being fascinated with words. We started putting word labels on or near her favorite objects in her home. Words became her bridge to language, and indeed she started talking, one word at a time. When she turned three, she graduated from our ECI program and moved to her school program. I thought I would not see her again.

It meant a lot to me when her mother sought me out and brought her daughter to my office a year later. She thanked me for changing her daughter’s life. I was thrilled to see her daughter speaking to me in sentences. Then, the mother got out a piece of paper and wrote a multi-step lengthy direction on the paper. Her daughter followed it exactly. What an emotional experience for her mother and me!

Vanessa Zimmer-Powell & Tas Kajani, 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?

I started working as a speech-language pathologist (SLP) when I was 30 years old, over 20 years ago. I had not heard about this field when I was in high school or when I went to college in my early 20s. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do at that time. I enjoyed reading, and writing poetry was one of my hobbies. I loved language, words, and how they sounded, so I decided to major in English. I ended up becoming a copywriter and graphic designer. This was in the 1990s’, so I mostly produced business cards and brochures. I was pretty bored.

In my late 20’s, I had a friend who went back to school to become a speech-language pathologist. The more she told me, the more intrigued I was. I decided I wanted to do this! I loved the idea of helping others do something I love—experience the joy of language. I was so glad I discovered this career!

Over the years, I have had many roles/jobs as a speech-language pathologist. I have worked in a school district for early childhood intervention, and I have been the director of a large private practice. I even did some PRN work for an assisted living home.

I have learned so much from all of these experiences. When I was in my late 40s, I realized I wanted to do something different, have a business with a business partner—Tas Kajani. I had known her for many years. She was an exceptional SLP, and has the kind of personality that parents and kids love. I was so glad that she was ready for a career change and was open to the idea of starting a business with me. We both wanted to do something fresh and different. We were frustrated by Medicaid and insurance restrictions. Many children who were denied services (particularly for feeding therapy) because of their insurance, clearly needed help.

Tas and I decided to do something small, more of a concierge type model. We wanted the families and children to be given exceptional care—the care they needed—not care restricted by insurance mandates. We wanted a model that allowed for time with each family. We did not want to be caught up in a “numbers driven” model where you rush from one client to the next.

We have been open at The Learning Sphere for 4 years now! We can’t believe how fast time has gone by, and how much we have achieved in a short time.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In September of 2021 the new landlords of our multi-use office building gave us a 10-day move-out notice. They said that our clients (the children we work with) were too loud and were disturbing our office building neighbors. After being tenants for several years, the notice of having to leave suddenly came as a shock and surprise to us. Though we were excited that our children with communication challenges were talking loudly, joyously, and being heard, we did not want to disturb our neighbors,

Ten days was definitely not enough time to find a new place and to build it out so that it would meet our client’s needs. There were even more challenges due to the effects of the pandemic, including building supply shortages, permits, etc. We were so grateful to have the support of Tas’ brother, who helped us find a lawyer who could negotiate acceptable terms for all parties. This allowed us to continue to provide excellent care to the families we serve while having time to search for a new location.

We turned this experience into something positive and used this as an opportunity to find a larger space and meet the needs of our growing business. In three months we successfully built-out, moved into a much bigger office in a medical setting, and did not lose one client. We couldn’t be happier! Our families have a beautiful, therapeutic space, and we no longer have to worry about quieting their voices.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

The key to our success is having fun and being passionate about our work. Everyone learns best when having fun and being engaged. We love it that our families tell us their kids are excited about going to therapy. Parents are happy when their children are happy and successful. Parents tell other parents, and our business grows!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thelearningsphere.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelearningsphere/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelearningsphere/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfg5Mxnwc5g
• Other: https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+Learning+Sphere+-+Pediatric+Speech+Therapy/@29.7406881,-95.5218792,15z/data=!3m1!5s0x8640c30af8de5d9f:0x910834d475915e59!4m7!3m6!1s0x0:0x9fed4b9c09aff408!8m2!3d29.7406881!4d-95.5218792!9m1!1b1