Episode #70 Interview with Meera Raval Deters, M.A., CCC-SLP, BCTS, ACAS – Owner of Super Speech Solutions

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
child, speech therapy, parents, mira, speech, language, autism, social skills, working, american speech language, pandemic, love, houston, speech therapist, solutions, texas, pediatrician, super, specialize, referred

00:01
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the autism and action podcast. Today we've got another very special guest we've got Miss Mira rebel daters. She is a owner and speech language pathologist and super speech solutions LLC in Texas, and advance certified autism specialist and board certified telepractice specialist. She is the owner of superspeed solutions of concierge private practice that provides online speech therapy and therapy to Texans. She received her master's degree in speech language pathology from Our Lady of the light University in 2006. Mira has worked in a variety of settings including hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation clinics, charter schools and private practices over the past 14 years. Mira specializes in accent modification and child language disorders with an emphasis in autism. When she's not thinking about speech, mira loves to spend time with her husband Jeff cook and watch hallmark movies and go on walks with their dog Daisy, her certifications and awards they are so many here guys, she is so qualified to do what she does completed phase one out of three for her BCS CL, which is board certified specialist in child language through the American Speech Language Hearing Association. She's a certified brain injury specialist, a board certified telepractice specialist through the international Board of credentialing and continuing education standards, and Advanced Certified autism specialists through the international Board of credentialing and continuing education standards. She does a basic dir for time provider and three awards for continuing education through the American Speech Language Hearing Association. Mira, thank you so much for taking time to be on the show today.

02:00
Thank you. I'm so happy to be here, especially since April is autism awareness and autism acceptance month.

02:08
Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I can't wait to hear more about all the incredible work that you're doing. As you started super speech solutions.

02:19
Yes, yes, I started just a few months ago, last year in 2020. It's been a really exciting journey, I definitely have a lot more respect for people who have become entrepreneurs. Because as an entrepreneur, you can definitely wear a lot of hats, your you can be in charge of marketing. And you can also be in charge of doing therapy and networking and all kinds of other things.

02:44
Absolutely so many so many different things to do. So tell us who it is that you serve in your business.

02:52
Sure. So I know you did mention that I have a business in Texas. So because I do online speech therapy, I can see anyone in the state of Texas, which is awesome. And I'm actually located in Houston, Texas, and starting in the month of June, I actually am going to be doing some home visits in certain parts of town. And so that's something I want to mention. But in general, I do largely work with children who have autism or autistic children, that's definitely an area I specialize in. I also work with children who are late talkers. So they're just not using language as soon as they should. And I also specialize in working with children who have difficulty with language, meaning they have difficulty understanding language, so they might have trouble following directions. Or they might have trouble just using language so expressing themselves using words. And I also do work with adults who electively choose to do accent modification, which pretty much means that they have sought out my services because they want to be able to be understood better, and they feel like their accent is actually hindering them from moving up in the workplace.

04:03
Why? No, that's very impactful work. And you I'm sure you get to see working with children and adults, a wide variety of different clients. What is your favorite thing about working in the world of speech?

04:18
I love that question. So really, my favorite thing is everything because I absolutely love the field. And I'm so thrilled that I went into a field that I really enjoy so much. But I think overall, I would say the fact that there's so much diversity in terms of the settings you've been working. And in terms of the types of clients you can see. It's just incredible. I mean, you can never feel like oh my gosh, you can never feel like you know everything. There are just so many different specializations. And I love that during the pandemic, I actually got time to dive into some more specialties and certifications and really figure out what are the areas that I'm really more interested in. And that's honestly not something I feel like I had time to do. Before so there are good things coming out of the pandemic. There are there are.

05:06
What would you recommend to parents looking for a speech pathologist?

05:13
That's, I love that question. So I think first of all, definitely, you want to make sure the parent has talked to their pediatrician. So I find that a lot of pediatricians are really amazing people. And they're really good at knowing when a speech language pathologist or speech therapist, they actually mean the same thing. You know, that when the child needs to be referred to one. So I would say number one, if the parent has concerns about their child's language, or their speech, their pronunciation, how they're saying their sounds, and they're having trouble with that, then definitely let them know and have the pediatrician write a referral for a speech therapist. And then usually, you know, they'll give a whole list of speech therapists they can seek out in private practice, or of course, you can get speech therapy at school. But I think parents have a really good idea of, you know, how well are they able to understand their child. So just a quick, you know, important information, there are a couple of red flags that you can look for. So one of them if a child is four to five, and you're not understanding 100% of everything, they're saying, that's definitely a big red flag. And definitely anytime you want to talk to a pediatrician, and potentially have them referred to you have them referred to a speech therapists. But in terms of language, I would also say that if a child is not putting two words together, by the time they're two years old, that certainly is also a red flag for their communication, because they're not, you know, maybe they're not even using words, or they're just using one word at a time, but they definitely haven't met that milestone. So again, that might be a good, another good time to talk to the pediatrician and have them refer. Or if you notice other things, like they have trouble following directions. So maybe, you know, the parent is telling them touch your nose and raise your hand. But they're kind of confused about what to do, or they're only touching their nose, and they don't realize that they're also supposed to raise their hand. So therefore, they're only following one out of a two step direction. They're only following 50% of the direction. So I think in terms of children, those are the biggest things you want to look for in terms of knowing when when the child is not meeting their milestones for speech and language.

07:21
And then where can parents in Texas find you online? Sure.

07:27
So my website is the name of my company and super speech solutions.com. The best way to reach me is by email and that's my first name, Neeraj, m e ra at super speech solutions calm. And of course, for all of us, we do love social media. And on Facebook, my name for my business page is the same as Super speech solutions, LLC. That's also the same on LinkedIn if anyone's on there as well. And then for Instagram, it's just super speech solutions all lowercase. As my Instagram account name, I did want to also mention that I do have an awesome summer social skills camp coming up in the city of Houston. And more information is actually on my website where you can find the flyer itself, I did want to point out that it is designed to be a social skills camp. So essentially working on social skills. However, the camp is really for children who work on speech therapy all year round. So even though we are going to be working on social skills, I am going to be talking to each parent specifically before the camp actually starts so that I know what their child has been working on all year, a lot of kids don't receive speech therapy during the summer just because school is out or you know, maybe, because sometimes, you know, even if they have speech therapy through another therapist, maybe that person's out on vacation, different things like that. So I think it'll be really great. And I love that now there's a daily option to sign up per day, or you can sign up for a whole week or you can even sign up for two weeks. If it is something that your child's really interested in, it's definitely going to be really fun, and it's gonna be great. I'm really excited about it and I really excited to get a chance to meet some new kids and just have fun I think social skills is something good for all of us especially since the pandemic has now gone on for actually more than a year so I'm really looking forward to doing an in person event because I actually myself haven't done in person speech therapy for quite some time so I actually do miss a little bit I think it'll be nice. I just want to emphasize to all the parents listening that we are going to be following all of the social distancing precautions that's really important idea of extremely seriously, I am actually double vaccinated myself but I will still be wearing a mask or a face shield and that's something we want all the children are coming to do. So just so everyone knows that's really important and there's gonna be be outdoors, which I think is nice. Because it will be before it gets hot in Houston. And also I think it'll be fun just to be out in nature. And also it's better to do things outdoors as we've heard all the scientists say in terms of COVID practices,

10:16
absolutely. Nature is so nurturing. So, well thank you Mira for taking the time to be here today. I know that your summer program is going to be a hit what a better way to spend summer than to learn some new skills. I hope you parents get to drop in and check her out and visit super sweet solutions calm To find out more information.