How Your Child is Supported

We provide comprehensive speech and language therapy services for children with communication challenges. Our services include speech and language evaluations and personalized therapy plans tailored to your child’s individual needs.

Children receive one-to-one support in a caring and structured environment. Sessions are available after school or at times that fit your family’s schedule and are offered online via Zoom or other secure video platforms.
For alternative options, please feel free to get in touch to discuss what may best suit your family.

Areas of Expertise

Hearing Loss-Deafness: Hearing loss ranges from mild to profound. A child with mild hearing loss may not be able to hear certain spoken sounds. Many times these sounds are high-frequency sounds, such as "t", "s", "th", "sh" etc. Missing these sounds can lead to trouble following directions, acquiring new vocabulary words, and learning grammatical structures. A child with severe or profound hearing loss will have an even harder time understanding language and will require the use of a hearing aid or a cochlear implant to assist in language acquisition and correct use of speech.
Central Auditory Processing Disorder: Central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) is a complicated issue that affects about 5% of school-aged children. The term Auditory processing refers to the ability the brain has in recognizing and interpreting speech as well as non-speech sounds. Auditory processing disorders arise when the brain is unable to understand information. The following difficulties may be observed in children with CAPD: academic performance, attention, spelling, behavior, listening, following simple and complex directions, processing information, sentence structure (syntax), reading, writing, and vocabulary acquisition.
Articulation Disorders: The inability to correctly produce sounds of speech due to imprecise timing, placement, speed, pressure, or flow of movement of the lips, tongue, or throat.
Receptive Language Delays: Children who demonstrate a receptive language delay have difficulty understanding language. Delayed skills might include following directions (simple and complex), understanding and correct use of grammatical rules, following the details of a story, and maintaining attention.
Expressive Language Delays: Children who have an expressive language disorder may be able to understand spoken communication, but will have difficulty expressing their thoughts and ideas. They may demonstrate difficulty making a connection between words and ideas. Expressive language disorder symptoms include reduced sentence length, poor story recall, improper sentence structure, poor word choice, problems with word retrieval, and below-average use of the rules of grammar.
Oral Motor: Children with oral motor deficiencies have difficulties with blowing, chewing, and sucking which are cause of decreased muscle tone and lessened mouth movements. Symptoms of oral motor disorder in children are frequent drooling, a flaccid facial appearance, breathing with an open mouth, slurred speech, and difficulty swallowing or using a straw.
Neurological Disorders (Cerebral Palsy): Cerebral palsy is a term used to describe a disorder that mainly affects the body's motor functions. The causes may be prenatal, perinatal, or postnatal and some of the symptoms may be an intellectual disability, learning difficulties, and speech and language disorders.
Learning Disabilities: Learning disabilities such as Dyslexia, are mainly the difficulties a child faces in the interpretation of the written and spoken word, spelling, planning and organization, memory, and mathematical calculations.
Stuttering: Stuttering is defined by the discontinuance of normal speech flow. A person who stutters often halts when speaking and may repeat words ("My, my, my, cat Coco"). He or she may also prolong the use of speech sounds (Mmmm-my toy is on the table) and use fillers ("Um"). Secondary physical characteristics may be observed in severe cases such as laryngeal tension, eye blinking, and foot-stomping.

Please visit our contact page for more details.

Professional Profile

As a Speech & Language Therapist with extensive experience across a variety of settings, Maria Kehagias is dedicated, energetic, and resourceful, with a genuine love for working with children. She is particularly sensitive to the educational and communication needs of children in special education.

Maria conducts screenings and assessments for individuals of all ages and collaborates closely with other professionals as part of a multidisciplinary team. She specializes in providing therapy both individually and in group settings, using a range of evidence-based approaches, including play-based and role-play techniques, to support meaningful progress.

Highly motivated and child-centered, she strives to create an optimal learning environment by combining creativity with structured goals and objectives, fostering self-esteem, confidence, and a lasting interest in learning.

Licenses & Certifications

Licensed by the State Education Department of New York as a Teacher of the Speech and Hearing Handicapped
Licensed by the State Education Department of New York as a Teacher of the Deaf
Master of Science, Special Education - Deaf Studies - Adelphi University, New York
Bachelor of Arts, Speech & Language Pathology - City University of New York, New York

Certified by the Council on Education of the Deaf (CED), as a Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Certified in SKI * HI (Sensory Impaired Home Intervention)
Jose P. ESL Training Certificate - District 75 Office of Bilingual Services, NYC Department of Education
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Certification

Clinical Experience

Private Practice - Speech & Language Therapist, Athens, Greece (2007 - Present)
Teacher of English as a Second Language - Athens, Greece (2007 - Present)
NYC Department of Education - Hearing Education Services Teacher (2002 - 2007)
Community Education Services, Manhattan, NY - Speech Therapist for preschool-age children (2001 - 2002)
Saint Mary's Hospital for Children, NY - Speech & Language Department (2000 - 2001)