We had a wonderful experience working with Suzanne. We are a bilingual (English and Spanish) family, and Suzanne was able to bring her considerable expertise, compassion, and dual-language skills to working with our then 14-month old baby girl, who was experiencing some early delays. In the year we worked together, Suzanne not only struck up a great relationship with our daughter, using play to help bring out new sounds and words, but also just as importantly taught us as parents the strategies and techniques to help her language develop in a natural way. The result is a happy and confident toddler, who chats away in Spanish, and is now speaking English too!
Dan, Fort Greene, 2024
Suzanne has been working with my 14-year-old son since he was 7 and she has been absolutely terrific. My son is minimally speaking and has autism. Throughout her time with us, Suzanne has continually been open to trying different approaches to support him in his speech. Suzanne is the consummate professional. She always shows up on time, is well-prepared and works to make every minute of her session count. My son has had some challenging behaviors over the years and we had never found a speech therapist who was able to break through to him in any way. Most would give up trying and use only the limited approaches they had in their toolbox with no success. In contrast, Suzanne has researched various methods, put us in touch with experts in different areas and never given up on supporting him in speech and communication. Most importantly, Suzanne has been empathetic and an amazing listener who was also always open to ideas I or others on our team put forward. She is highly collaborative and a great person in addition to being a highly skilled professional. I cannot recommend her highly enough!
Daria, Kensington, 2023
We highly value the work Suzanne has been doing with our nearly 4 year old daughter. Over the course of their time together, we watched our daughter's ability to pronounce words and communicate blossom, which gave our daughter a much deeper sense of expression and social confidence. Suzanne's exercises and take home work have been providing our family with fun and insightful activities to connect with our daughter's areas of need and watch her progress in real time.
Justin, Ridgewood, 2023
Suzanne is a great speech and language therapist. She works with bilingual children to help them develop the skills they need to communicate in a variety of situations. She's very easy to work with, and always ensures that her kids are comfortable and happy. She keeps them engaged through games, toys, and other supplies. Suzanne is also very flexible, which makes scheduling appointments much easier for everyone involved. Each week she would give us an update and techniques to practice with our child. If you're looking for a therapist who will keep your child engaged while also ensuring they learn what they need to succeed, Suzanne is definitely someone I would recommend! She's very kind, caring, and patient when kids are tired or frustrated with words. My daughter really enjoyed working with her and we saw real progress in her therapy sessions. I would highly recommend Suzanne to anyone looking for a quality speech therapist who knows what they're doing.
Veronica, Bedford-Stuyvesant, 2022
We were recommended Suzanne's practice by a pediatric speech pathologist at Weill Cornell during a very difficult time of speech delay and Autism evaluations for our 19-month-old boy. We have learned so much from Suzanne's speech therapy sessions and have noticed an improvement in our baby's play skills, interactions, and overall behavior. Suzanne helped us focus on specific areas so we could meet him where he was developmentally. This in turn resulted in us mindfully interacting and improving our baby's communication. Thanks to Suzanne, we now have a list of strategies that we deploy daily to help our 19-month-old have the support he needs during this crucial time of his development. Our family is beyond grateful for Suzanne's kindness and invaluable support.
Lori, Sunnyside, 2022
Suzanne worked with our child (now 32 months) who had a significant speech delay. She came highly recommended by a friend and was able to provide the necessary paperwork for insurance reimbursement. Suzanne's warmth and amazing ability to communicate with children made our appointments something we all looked forward to. She gave us techniques, tools and worksheets to use at home so we knew exactly what to concentrate on each week. With this focused attention our child was able to catch-up to an age-appropriate level of speech! Suzanne is truly a fantastic therapist and we couldn't recommend her more highly.
Deborah, Glendale, 2022
We have been working with Suzanne for over 2 years now, and her dedication, patience and commitment to our now 5 year old son has far exceeded our initial expectations. We knew when we began this journey to support our son with his speech, it would be important for us to collaborate with his therapist to maximize his learning at home. Not only is Suzanne extremely caring and connected to our son (he speaks of her often as a buddy when they don't have a session), but her patience and dedication towards us as parents, has been such a wonderful part of our relationship. She has provided us comfort and guidance when we have felt a bit lost or confused on how best to proceed. With this, our son has flourished under her care and we just don't know where we would be without Suzanne!
Melissa, Brooklyn Heights, 2021
Suzanne was so wonderful with my four-year old daughter! My daughter looked forward to seeing Suzanne at her school for their sessions, and she quickly gained confidence in her speech. After a couple months, we were forced to switch to virtual sessions, and I was definitely skeptical that it would work! Suzanne adapted the sessions and material in a way that kept my daughter's attention and supported her progress even while quarantined at home. She made quick adjustments as needed, found activities that interested and engaged my daughter, and ultimately coached my daughter toward meeting all her speech goals via virtual sessions! We are so thankful for her creativity, compassion and expertise.
Bree, Williamsburg, 2020
Suzanne Ashman-Kipervaser came to us through our son’s preschool. We knew he had an expressive language delay. Although he did not qualify for Early Intervention speech therapy was recommended. By the time we met with Suzanne in early spring of 2019, we were dealing with a frustrated child who was less than 25% intelligible. At the time, we thought he would eventually start speaking and things would correct themselves. We did not really comprehend that there was something we could do to help our child get past the difficulties and unlock his speech.
Suzanne came to our rescue and started seeing our son twice weekly at his school, where she made this new transition as seamless for our son as possible. She was an immediate partner with both my husband and I and his teachers, helping us all learn how we could support her work and give a consistent message at home and at school. Suzanne has been instrumental in helping us realize the most important part of helping our child was to accept that he needed some extra support in this area, that it wasn’t anything we’d done “wrong.” She is an incredible teacher and had me sitting in on the last 10-15 mins of his sessions to see what she was working on with him so I could support him at home. Suzanne would go over her lesson plans in advance with me so I could prepare to work on those points with him, she would give tips/suggestions/materials for us to have at home as well. She would share all of this with our son’s teachers as well, giving them tips and tools to support his language learning in the classroom - the very definition of a team player.
If we were at all worried that our son would not connect with her because his language difficulties made it hard for him to have meaningful interactions with others, we could not have been more wrong. Her gentle manner was immediately soothing to him and he took to her pretty much right away. Fast forward to a year later and we have seen absolutely incredible progress! With her instruction, our son went from being almost completely unintelligible to a little chatterbox bursting with humor and personality. Where he would melt down or push others when he couldn’t communicate, he became helpful, cooperative and downright sociable. This does not mean all our speech language issues are solved completely, but Suzanne’s work opened the door to moving on towards other critical skills like social-emotional learning - those all important “play skills.” Suzanne was also instrumental in recommending an occupational therapist to join our support team - she saw our son’s need for additional help in another area and by this time we had been working together successfully for over 6 months and we trusted her judgement. It was spot on and bringing that piece of support into his life has been transformational. We cannot recommend Suzanne highly enough, she is an absolute joy to work with and I can’t imagine where we would be right now without her help. Thank you, Suzanne!
Jane, Park Slope, 2019
Suzanne worked with our son from age 3-5. He will head to kindergarten exhibiting no speech issues, having near perfect diction. Not only did Suzanne carefully work on his various pronunciation issues, she made each lesson fun. Our son enjoyed the lessons, even the practicing during the week. Suzanne's wonderful attitude helped him take pride in each accomplishment. We are thrilled with the progress he made.
Lynette and Geoff, Carrol Gardens, 2019
I can't speak highly enough of Suzanne as a speech therapist for my four-year old son. He struggled with disfluency, yet her warmth and patience always put him at ease. He so looked forward to their sessions, which she tailored specifically to meet his needs and interests. Suzanne's exercises helped build not only his fluency but also his confidence. She worked with our family to implement strategies that would alleviate his speech struggles. We are so grateful to have worked with her and wholeheartedly recommend her!
Maryann, Sunnyside, 2018
I just wanted to take some time to recommend a local speech therapist, here in Sunnyside. Her name is Suzanne Ashman- Kipervaser. She recently worked one-on-one with our 4-year old son. Since starting school last September, it was noticed that he struggled with fluency and articulation. After his teachers gave us Suzanne’s name and information, we quickly contacted her. She reached out right away and based on our concerns, set up an evaluation within a week.
To accommodate our crazy schedule, she made an appointment with us during a weekend. Prior to the evaluation, she asked questions about my son’s interests and made sure to bring toys that he would enjoy. Although he was a little shy at first, Suzanne was very patient and eventually, he warmed up to her. I appreciated her willingness to allow me to observe and ask questions if I had any. She also took the time to sit with me after each session to recommend strategies that we could use at home. Over time, my husband and I noticed a tremendous amount of improvement in my son’s speech. It was amazing to see how far he grew with her in such a short period of time. She continued to work with him throughout the summer and after her last session; she later contacted us to check in to see how my son was doing. She is an amazing teacher. She is dedicated to her students and makes every effort to make not only them feel comfortable, but families as well. We were very fortunate to have worked with her! As a parent (and teacher), I highly recommend her if you or someone you know are seeking speech and language services.
Michelle, Sunnyside, 2018
At the end of 2017 our son was identified as having a possible receptive language delay by his teacher at school. The speech pathologist who initially tested our son gave us contradictory information and we sought out recommendations for a different professional to re-evaluate and engage in sessions with our son. When we reached out to parents at our school, Suzanne’s name repeatedly came up as highly trained and conscientious clinician who worked well with families.
When we first met Suzanne we knew we had found the right person. Soft spoken and articulate, she immediately inspired confidence with her technique and interaction with our son. He responded positively to her right away. Suzanne asks frequent questions to the parents to involve them in the process and forms her opinions only after careful and extended observation. She kept us continuously informed of each session and shared techniques and skills we could utilize at home in order to build on our day to day progress. After 8 months of tremendous growth in our son we will be saying goodbye to Suzanne. We are so grateful to have had her working with him and for the progress he has made. We highly recommend her!
Lisa, Fort Greene, 2018
Suzanne Ashman-Kipervaser is a very skilled professional, who is not only intelligent and passionate about her field, but also clearly loves working with children. She is kind, patient and believes in her students' ability to succeed. It was a true joy to work with and learn from Suzanne over the course of about two years when she came to our home to provide speech therapy to our son. She continually challenged him to build on his skills through play and other activities. I highly recommend Suzanne to anyone who believes her child may need speech language therapy. She is a committed professional, and I truly believe she is among the best in her field.
Monica, Forest Hills, 2017
Our pediatrician suspected that our two-year old son was having speech delays in February 2016, after his second birthday. He was hearing both Spanish and English outside of the home, and we were speaking to him primarily in Spanish. We assumed that when he started school in September, he would readily pick up the English, as did his older sister. I contemplated Early Intervention, but didn't like the idea of having to take him into the community for these sessions. They also had difficulty finding an English and Spanish Speech Pathologist to evaluate our son.
When we decided to privately find a therapist, we were referred to Suzanne Ashman-Kipervaser. From our first phone call, I knew our family was in good hands. After our evaluation, she understood how important it was to me to continue to speak Spanish to my son, even though it isn't my native language, and helped me to work on how to model the language. She modeled for us, for our daughter and for our caregiver how we could help our son to communicate better. Every week we received an impressive write up of the activities of the session and our homework for the week. We heard his progress. We saw his progress, and as his behavior improved we felt his progress. He was understanding us and more importantly we were understanding him.
We are certain that Suzanne's patient nature, positivity and persistence is what has helped our son more than words can describe. We will continue to work with Suzanne until our son no longer needs her services. I would refer Suzanne to anyone in need of a Speech Pathologist.
Michelle, Brooklyn Heights, 2017
Suzanne provided us with tools and emotional support to help our daughter work through her stuttering. Every week, our daughter was thrilled to "play" with Suzanne, who would give our daughter her complete focus and undivided attention. For the length of our session, she would make our daughter feel like the most important person in the world. Our daughter still stutters from time to time, but now we have the tools and confidence to handle these situations with grace. Thank you Suzanne!
Juliana, Sunnyside, 2015
Suzanne Ashman-Kipervaser is a truly exceptional speech therapist. She began working with my son when he was 2.5 years old and had limited speech. He was given a preliminary diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, which presented with delayed speech and challenges in social interactions, particularly with peers. At that point, he made requests using gestures and two and three word sentences and predominately used echolalic speech. He had limited eye contact, a very limited attention span and engaged only with certain adults. Suzanne was undaunted by the task. She methodically approached teaching him how to speak – beginning with making requests, answering yes/no questions, answering why questions, answering open ended questions, using a variety of verbs, commenting and asking questions, and so on, all while playing and having fun. Since we started working with Suzanne, he has made incredible progress. Now at 3.5, his speech is still slightly delayed, but he is eager to communicate and engage and has confidence in his ability to do so.
A few highlights of working with Suzanne --
Suzanne excels in communicating with parents. We have had several speech therapists and this is an area that really stands out. Suzanne always keeps us informed of current goals and strategies and provides us with updates on a weekly basis. This is key because it allows us to reinforce the same goals and I am convinced that this is the key to our son’s rapid progress.
Suzanne is creative. She never blames stagnation or regression on the child but rather looks for creative ways to re-engage or address a problematic behavior. She is solution-oriented and is committed to the child’s success.
Suzanne is fun and establishes a great rapport with her students. One might think that this should go without saying, but having had our share of experiences with other therapists, this is not something you can take for granted. As a result, my son looks forward to her visits with anticipation!
Suzanne goes above and beyond the call of duty. She made time to observe my son at school and communicate with the teachers and speech therapists at school. She had sessions with him with other children to help him work on social and pragmatic speech.
Finally, though Suzanne is trained as a speech therapist, she is also very knowledgeable about child development generally and is adept at identifying and addressing other issues that may come up in therapy sessions. We have learned so much from Suzanne and are grateful to have the opportunity to work with her. I recommend her with the utmost enthusiasm!
Meera, Fort Greene, 2014
Suzanne has been working with our 3 year old son for a little over six months and his progress in both receptive and expressive language has been dramatic. When we started speech therapy, our son was speaking in one or two word utterances, not in complete sentences as one would expect for his age. He now asks and responds to many different questions in complete and original sentences and is much more expressive overall! My husband and I initially were not sure what to expect from speech therapy and how much it would help our son. We are so very happy to have found Suzanne, who is so thoroughly professional and capable. Suzanne has a very warm and engaging manner about her and knows how to involve a child through play, and still achieve remarkable learning outcomes. Our son eagerly looks forward to visits from “his friend Suzanne” and all the toys and projects she brings with her. Suzanne provides us with regular and very thorough progress reports, coaches us on how to better engage our son through language, and has even gone to his preschool to watch him in a classroom setting. I cannot be complimentary enough about her work with our child. If you are in need of speech therapy for your child, do not hesitate to reach out to Suzanne—you will be thrilled that you did!
Karen, Greenpoint, 2013
I highly recommend Suzanne as a speech therapist. We had Suzanne perform a mini-evaluation on our son this past Saturday and we had such a good experience with her that I feel compelled to share my impressions. At first, I must admit I was a bit apprehensive about having someone come into our home to evaluate our son. He is very active and, like any toddler, can be extremely suspicious of strangers so I wasn't sure how this was going to work. When Suzanne entered our apartment with her big bag of toys, my partner and I were immediately put at ease. She has a warm yet confident way about her and she obviously loves working with children, which is the key to my son's heart. Additionally, Suzanne is very knowledgeable about speech language pathology with young children, particularly with bilingual children. Suzanne is very professional and methodical. She “played” with our son while speaking with us and answering all of our questions. She was a pro. The experience with Suzanne was better than I could have imagined.
Wendy, Upper East Side, 2012
I cannot say enough about Suzanne Ashman-Kipervaser! After our first meeting I was certain that I had found the right therapist for the whole family. She spent time getting to know my son and building a relationship with all of us and we all looked forward to her visits. My son was so excited for therapy sessions. She always had a new game or activity and a corresponding book, I credit her with my son’s new love of reading! She would always communicate with us and explain the language goals she had for him, she kept us informed of what progress he was making and gave us tips on how we could support that learning and development at home. She is creative and found new ways to keep him engaged in activities. She experimented with various motivational and reward tools until she found exactly what worked best for him. She was a true partner, not only with the family but also with his teachers. We were so fortunate to have found her.
Elizabeth, Woodside, 2012
Suzanne Ashman-Kipervaser is a wonderful speech therapist. She worked with our son for a year. In that time, he went from a just-over-two-year-old who was not yet combining words and had many articulation issues to a well-spoken and talkative three-year-old. She is warm, patient, engaging, and my son loved working with her. She was really able to connect with him and make the therapy time productive, but very fun for him. She also taught us how to help him and continue his therapy ourselves. We HIGHLY recommend her!
Sarah, Lefferts Garden, 2011
I highly recommend Suzanne Ashman-Kipervaser as a speech therapist. My daughter is very sensitive and prone to anxiety; Suzanne was both in tune with my daughter's emotions, and skilled at keeping the sessions focused. To me this is no small feat with a 3 year old. Suzanne always came prepared with a game to play, a project (such as arts and crafts, cooking) or a book, or a combination of these activities. She worked with my daughter on a variety of language issues, as well as making choices, taking turns, listening. She used a visual (picture) schedule each time which seemed to help my daughter feel more organized and in control. This was before she was in school, and it was with Suzanne that she learned to “read” a schedule. In addition, Suzanne was exceptional at communicating with us as parents. She actually listened to our concerns, and addressed them head on. We have had our share of therapists, and have found that this is not something you can take for granted. Suzanne is attentive, sympathetic, and dedicated, fun, kind, and knowledgeable. She challenges the child at the right level---not too easy, not too hard. I highly, highly recommend Suzanne.
Margaret, Brooklyn Heights, 2011
We had a wonderful experience with Suzanne Ashman-Kipervaser. She worked with our 4-year old son for several months on fluency and pronunciation issues. He made remarkable progress with her and we were extremely pleased with Suzanne's professionalism, warmth, knowledge, and attentiveness. Our son soon learned to love and look forward to her visits and she was extremely thorough in working with us to explain the process and go through our questions. We wholeheartedly recommend her.
Rayna, Sunnyside, 2011