Hi! Welcome to my page. My name is Olivia Healy and I am a bilingual speech language pathologist based in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. I am a full time school based speech therapist who additionally works privately with clients outside of school. Currently, I work in structured early childhood programs within a therapeutic preschool. I service children between 3 to 5 years of age who possess a variety of complex communication needs due to autism, ADHD, and other types of neurodiversity. The students I work with are additionally almost all Spanish-English bilinguals. It is my strongly held belief that having complex communication needs does not prohibit children from achieving bilingualism; fostering both languages is at the forefront of everything I do. Helping neurodiverse children navigate their world with confidence is what drives me; whether that be supporting them in their journey to try unfamiliar foods, or helping them be understood by those that matter most.
My niche/specialities in this profession are Augmentative and Alternative Communication, play-based therapy, autism spectrum disorder, gestalt language processing, and sensory based feeding therapy. I take a very personalized, family-based approach to therapy; I believe that the best way to set a child up for success is to ensure their entire family is prepared and empowered to be an involved member of the therapeutic process.
I am Wisconsin born and raised, but have been living in Chicagoland for almost 4 years now. I attended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire for Speech therapy and Spanish prior to getting my masters in Speech Pathology with an emphasis in multilingualism at Elmhurst University. When I am not giving speech therapy in some way, I love to be outside at local nature preserves, or spending quality time with our kittens named Walter and Wilma.