Meet Our
Team
About Us
Kid Spot Center focuses on treating the whole child. Therefore, we take great pride in our relationships with related service providers. We provide comprehensive evaluations, weekly therapy sessions, and clinical team meetings for children enrolled in Early Start Academy’s ABA Clinic located in Livingston, NJ. Find out more about Early Start Academy: The Clinic and Early Start Academy: The Preschool.
Meet
Rachel Kirson, M.S. CCC-SLP, TSSLD
Rachel Kirson graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Science in Speech & Hearing Sciences and Psychology. She continued her graduate studies at Adelphi University, where she received a Master of Science in Communication Sciences and Disorders.
Rachel has extensive experience with the pediatric population, evaluating and conducting therapy for preschool and school-age students with developmental delays. Her areas of expertise include articulation and phonological disorders, oral-motor difficulties and childhood apraxia of speech, expressive and receptive language delays, pragmatic/socialization difficulties, and AAC.
Additionally, she specializes in the communication needs of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. She believes interactive activities and play are the most effective ways to build a child’s speech and language skills.
Training:
Rachel is an Apraxia Specialist and has completed the Advanced DTTC Training (Dynamic Temporal & Tactile Cueing) to treat Childhood Apraxia of Speech. She has also completed training in the PROMPT technique and TalkTools® hierarchy, which are used to treat a variety of oral-motor difficulties and articulation delays.
Additionally, she is trained in the Orton-Gillingham Reading Program, a multi-sensory reading/spelling technique used for struggling readers or children with Dyslexia. Rachel has also received training and education on common developmental conditions and therapy techniques, including Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) use, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), and Verbal Behavior & Functional Behavior Assessment. Rachel supervises students and new clinicians on their first endeavors in the field.
Furthermore, she supports parent communities, schools, and clinics throughout the tri-state area by providing parent workshops and professional training on typical speech and language development, toy selection, common developmental disorders, and parenting as children develop language.
Rachel is a certified member of the American Speech & Hearing Association. She is a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist in New York and New Jersey and a certified Teacher of Students with Speech and Language Disabilities. In her spare time, has led the fundraising committee on JCC Metrowest’s Parent Board in West Orange, New Jersey.
In her personal life, Rachel is a mother to three children and a wife to Josh. She is passionate about empowering little voices and shaping bright futures through effective communication.
Meet
Brenda Waldner, M.S. CCC-SLP
Brenda Waldner, is a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist in New York and New Jersey. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University at Buffalo in 2007 and her Master of Science in Speech Language Pathology from Molloy College in 2011.
Brenda specializes in working with children from birth through five years old, as well as early elementary students on the autism spectrum, focusing on expressive and receptive language, apraxia, feeding, pragmatic and play skills. She has completed her level 1 training in PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets) and training in high-tech Augmentative Communication Devices and DTTC (Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing).
Brenda recently completed training in SOS Approach to Feeding. In her spare time, Brenda enjoys going to the park with her daughter and goldendoodle.
Meet
Danielle DeMarco,
Speech Pathologist
Danielle DeMarco earned her Master of Science degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Emerson College and her bachelor’s degree in Elementary and Special Education from the University of Hartford. Danielle holds a Speech Language Specialist certification from the New Jersey Department of Education.
Before becoming a speech pathologist, Danielle worked as a developmental interventionist in early intervention and as a registered behavior technician with children with autism. Her experiences in these roles ignited her passion for helping children enhance their communication skills to find their voice. Danielle is skilled in play-based therapy, which she integrates into her sessions to engage and motivate young clients. She also has experience in implementing oral motor therapy with students who struggle with motor speech.
Danielle evaluates and treats children at the early intervention level through the high school level with receptive/expressive language delays, fluency disorders, articulation and phonological disorders, auditory processing deficits, pragmatic language deficits, learning disabilities, selective mutism, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, and childhood apraxia of speech.
In her free time, Danielle enjoys hiking with her dog, Sunny, and gardening. A fun fact about Danielle is that she played two NCAA Division 1 sports.
