"I am so grateful my physical therapist highly recommended Tammara Carrara for my speech, cognitive and swallowing assessment and therapy after sustaining two concussions in a fall and a bicycle crash two years ago. I began speech therapy in the hospital and home care in Florida, but when I arrived in Killington for the summer and fall I was still experiencing difficulties with my memory, decision making, organizing, executive skills, word finding and swallowing.

As an artist and writer these problems made it too frustrating and challenging for me to do my work.

Tammara assessed my challenges and helped me in unique ways, providing materials to help me each day and connecting me with resources to meet my needs. She raised my spirits and gave me hope, encouraged and understood me. She is patient and kind, perceptive and excellent in her work as a speech therapist. When I left I had the tools to continue to improve on my own.

Now I am writing my weekly column again in “The Mountain Times” and have just set up my first solo exhibit of my paintings of France in several years. These are both major steps in my brain recovery and I thank Tammara Carrara for helping me regain my confidence and abilities."

Marguerite Jill Dye,

Whiplash, 2 concussions, tibia plateau fracture, cognitive and swallowing challenges

“The first thing I noticed about Tanya was her calmness, empathy and compassion.  After many therapy sessions I am totally independent when talking with someone.  The best two days in my week is when I have speech with Tanya.” 

Elschwarez, 37, Traumatic Brain Injury

https://highfivesfoundation.org/athlete/michael-schwarz/ 

"As a parent, you want to support your child when you know something is wrong. It is also essential your concerns are taken seriously. I remember walking out of my child's fall school conference and knowing I needed to do something at the same time as the school. After taking a day off from work and searching the ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) website, I found a few speech therapists nearby. I wanted to work with a group that would collaborate with the school system. I wasn't interested in a fight. I wanted professionals to support my daughter so she could grow. Tanya called me back the same day I called. She listened to my concerns. I followed up with the information in writing with some student work samples and examples of what we noticed at home with her sounds (b,d,th,g,k,c,t,w,r). Our daughter was seen for an evaluation within a month, and we had the report in just a few short weeks. From the report, we were stunned to learn her vocabulary was equivalent to a 3-year-old's at 6 years old. However, Tanya told us there were ways for us to help through speech therapy, and while we were nervous, Tanya was calm and supportive of us and the school. Therapy began soon after that, and within a month, we heard a shift in her sounds. We stuck with the process and followed up on ways to practice at home. Tanya was great about being straightforward to make it fun and low-stress. The bathtub became our favorite place to practice of all places. On days my daughter was not feeling therapy or tired, Tanya had a way of nudging her along through humor or motivating activities. Tanya always made her feel comfortable and validated in her feelings of frustration. Tanya has a warm and nurturing spirit, so our daughter did well.

They were two peas in a pod back in the therapy space. As a parent, Tanya provided resources for families and reassurance that the skills would come in time. Tanya's reports and progress monitoring allowed us to share our child's needs with the school in a straightforward, data-driven manner. Overall, Tanya wanted our daughter to progress and reduce services as soon as our daughter was ready. Tanya also conducted an assessment a year later to see how our daughter had grown. The assessment tools used were reasonable for a school to review and consider again. This information, resource, and connection allowed our daughter to stay with her peers in reading and writing instruction. We wanted to be proactive, so support was brief, and our daughter could do everything she was shy about doing. Within a year, I saw our daughter go from only speaking to friends who would slow down and listen to her to speaking to anyone she needed to. This February, she signed up for a local theater camp, and a year ago, she would not have done this because she would have feared how others would think of her talking. At this point, our daughter is continuing with school support only, and we know if we need to return to The Center for Communication, Cognition, and Swallowing, we can."

-Parent of a child, age 6-7, with a speech disorder