New Specialist | abilitiesinfo

Specialists

Carol Briggs, M. A. CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist Founder, President

Founder and administrator of Abilities, Carol has dedicated over 37 years to serving the needs of families in Baton Rouge and the surrounding communities. Carol’s commitment to excellence and her dedication to her staff as well as the families they treat continue to provide the foundation for Abilities' success.

Amy Arledge M.A. CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist Therapy Manager

With over 25 years of dedication to helping children succeed, Amy Arledge leads our team with a contagious passion for helping every family that walks through our doors. In addition to making sure the clinic runs smoothly, Amy serves as a mentor to our speech therapy clinical fellows and provides direct therapy to our Abilities children as her schedule allows.

Margaret Reed M.A. CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist Mentor

With over 25 years of clinical experience, Margaret enjoys working with all children and has a special interest in assisting children with feeding difficulties. She is the leader of the Abilities Feeding Team and also mentors graduate students, newly graduated therapists, and newly hired therapists as the Abilities Speech Therapist Mentor

Lauren Taylor M.A. CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist

Lauren has a true passion for early intervention and helping children develop literacy and articulation skills. She believes that communication is the key to successful interaction. Lauren strives to work collaboratively with children and their families to help each child she works with reach their maximum potential.

Katie Guitierrez M.A. CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist

Katie has a passion for early intervention and believes that working in a multidisciplinary setting and providing functional, play-based intervention can drastically improve client motivation, progress, and self-confidence. She utilizes a whole child approach to promote skill mastery and carryover of skills learned in therapy

Kaitlyn Eddy M. A. CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist

Kaitlyn believes that parent involvement and early intervention are critical to a child’s success in pediatric therapy. She has a passion for helping children overcome all language challenges and has special interests in how hearing and auditory processing impacts language development as well as childhood apraxia of speech. Kaitlyn loves working with children and their families to help them achieve their goals.

Emily Kimball M.A. CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist

Emily believes we were created to have relationships and communicate with others. She understands the opportunity children have to mature in these skills. The techniques and knowledge she’s gained as a certified PK-3 teacher and speech therapist help steer her sessions. She is passionate about early intervention, parent education and motor activities to stimulate children’s whole body and encourage verbal expression.

Renee McGuinness M.A. CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist

Renee has 16 years of experience practicing Speech-Language Pathology addressing the following disorders: language disorders, articulation disorders, reading disorders, autism spectrum disorder, and apraxia of speech. She loves working with children and is dedicated to working with families to help a child reach his/her full potential.

Lindsay Perque M.A. CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist

Lindsay has over 15 years of experience working with pediatric clients with various language disorders, learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, apraxia of speech, oral motor disorders, articulation disorders, and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) needs. She believes in the importance of a team approach that includes therapists, families, caretakers, and educators in the therapeutic process.

Mary Kate Smith MCD, CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist

Mary Kate believes in the importance of using fun and functional activities to expand a child's ability to learn and apply skills taught in therapy. She is passionate about the importance of early intervention for language development and believes the key to therapeutic progress is parent involvement and multi-disciplinary collaboration.

Reygan Coxe, MCD, CF-SLP Speech Language Pathologist

Reygan has a true passion for helping young children reach their speech and language developmental milestones through play and parent collaboration. She believes that early intervention is integral in helping children develop speech and language skills successfully!

Courtney Marks M.S. CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist

Courtney loves creating a supportive and engaging environment where her clients feel comfortable and motivated to achieve their goals. She works closely with clients and their families to develop customized treatment pans that address the unique needs of her children.

Stacey Yuja M.A., CCC-SLP Speech Language Pathologist

With 25 years of experience in the Louisiana and Texas school systems and private practice, Stacey enjoys helping her clients to reach their full potential for speech and language needs utilizing fun and innovative therapy techniques. Stacey enjoys treating preschool to early elementary age children.

Jayden Berthelot M.A. CF-SLP Speech Language Pathologist

Gwen Marler, MOT/LOTR

Gwen is fulfilling her lifelong dream of making the difference in the lives of others. Gwen has a passion for collaborating across disciplines with other therapists to ensure the most comprehensive treatment is provided to each of her clients. Gwen is enjoying treating her clients in the Livingston location.

Amy Fuselier, OT Mentor Occupational Therapist

Amy piloted our occupational therapy program over 20 years ago. Her keen eye for seeing a child’s strengths paved the way for the client-centered and strength-based approach for which the Abilities occupational therapy department is known. In addition to providing direct occupational therapy services, Amy mentors graduate students, newly graduated therapists, and newly hired therapists as the Abilities OT Mentor

Bridget Champagne MOT/LOTR Occupational Therapist

Bridget enjoys collaborating across disciplines to ensure comprehensive treatment is provided to each of her clients. Bridget believes it is important to emphasize fun yet functional activities in play-based therapy to help motivate each child to increase their independence and meet their goals. Bridget feels that through her work she can truly make a difference in a child's life.

Rachel Misita MOT/LOTR Occupational Therapist

Rachel has been providing direct therapy to children and caregiver training to their families for over seven years. She is especially interested in how processing of visual stimuli and motor coordination impact a child's daily activities. Rachel enjoys facilitating children's abilities to accomplish their goals and witnessing their self confidence flourish.

Taylor Ann Marrazzo MOT/LOT Occupational Therapist

Taylor Ann is honored to serve families by striving to provide individualized and child guided therapy to allow for the greatest independence and participation in daily activities possible. She enjoys collaborating with a multidisciplinary team, including parents, in order to help a child enhance meaningful skills and occupations and reach his or her full potential

Isabella Payne MOT/LOTR Occupational Therapist

Isabella brings positive energy to all of her therapy sessions and uses fun and humor to engage her clients. She is always excited to learn new therapy techniques to facilitate progress. Isabella enjoys getting to know families and what is important to them. She is such a breath of fresh air in the clinic!

Shelly Aucoin, Intake Specialist Coordinator

Shelly helps parents navigate the process of setting up an initial evaluation with Abilities. She is the first voice our Abilities parents will hear when they begin their journey with us. Shelly is in contact with your local pediatricians and health care providers to ensure necessary medical documents are collected and filed prior to your child’s initial evaluation. Through information gathering, Shelly makes families' transition to Abilities seamless.

Aubrey Efferson, Patient Services Coordinator

Aubrey is often the first smiling face you will encounter when you walk through our lobby doors. Aubrey will ensure you are checked in and ready for therapy, receive pertinent therapy reports and updates, and that all personal information needed for seamless service delivery is up to date and accessible to our team.

Serina LeBlanc, Billing and Insurance Coordinator

Serina has 20 years of experience in the medical field with 16 of these years as a Medical Billing & Coding specialist. She assists our families with all of their billing and insurance needs. Serina is in charge of billing, coding, insurance collections and when necessary additional visits. Her efforts ensure continuity of care and seamless service delivery.

Kayla Valenti, Patient Scheduler

With 7 years of experience in the medical field, Kayla assists our Abilities parents in scheduling their child's weekly therapy appointments. Her efforts ensure continuity of care and in turn optimum therapeutic progress.

Stacey Wilson-David Administrative Assistant

With over 25 years of administration work, Stacey is excited to join the team to help patients and their families navigate through their experience at Abilities.

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