I was born in Orlando, Florida in 1979. My mom was a teacher and, thankfully for me, she oversaw my education very attentively. My dad challenged my thoughts and opinions and intentionally made me an analytical thinker. I grew up with a large extended family since both of my parents remarried. My dad’s wife just so happened to have two deaf children so I became fluent in sign language as a child. Communication was open to interpretation. Some of it was verbal, some sign language, and a lot of it looked like a game of Charades.

While growing up Ricky and I were the closest. We are the furthest apart in age, but since Ricky is a 10 year old trapped in an adult’s body we get along great. I would go to my dad’s house every weekend and we’d watch the Disney channel and play cards together. Ricky is deaf and maybe a little autistic, no one really knows, but he has a heart of gold. He sends all of his family members cards for each holiday including Halloween and Easter. Every Christmas I get a handmade jewelry box. Ricky loves to get mail and if you want to write to him I’ll give you his address.

When it came time to apply for college I only applied to one which was the University of Central Florida. I did not want to leave my town or my friends. The first couple semesters of college were hard. I had no time management skills and exercised my “choice” to go or not go to class frequently. I learned that it was much easier to just go to class than try to catch up. I ended up getting both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the major of Communicative Disorders and graduated in 2004. I worked for a year in the school system then began working for a private practice that provided speech, occupational, and physical therapies to children.

In 2008 Natural Communication was established to provide speech and language diagnosis and treatment to children. Caregivers and parents are encouraged to contact me via email, phone, or fax if there are any questions or concerns. I will be happy to answer your questions. As caregivers and parents you are going to be doing much of the work to carry over goals into the daily routine and I want to help you do that.