Client Comments
My daughter, at age 4 could not answer “why” questions, was often quiet when asked questions in class and couldn’t verbalize her thoughts properly. Susan started working with my daughter in November 2019, going to her school twice a week. After 1 month I could see the improvement in my daughter; her confidence and imaginative play were progressively getting better.
During the quarantine, Susan continued her work through teletherapy. She was able to keep a now 5 year old intrigued in the lesson plans and therapy sessions through teleconference. I hope to continue working with Susan in the following school years, as she has developed a great rapport with my daughter.
Jason R. – Dad
Susan started working with my daughter when she was 3, and has been with her for about a year.
I immediately liked Susan when I met her. She asked me a lot of questions about my daughter to determine if she could help her and if she would be the best person to work with her. I had met many speech therapists before through my other children and this was the first time I had seen a therapist take such a thoughtful approach.
Susan put in a lot of effort to get to know my daughter and build their relationship. She would bring things that my daughter loved to their sessions, like books about princesses, stickers, etc. From my first day working with Susan I could see how much she cared. My daughter grew to love Susan and always looked forward to their sessions. Unfortunately after this past March, Susan was no longer able to visit my daughter at her day care, due to the spread of Covid 19 in NYC, and their sessions went remote. The one positive that came from this is that I got to see Susan and my daughter work together. Whereas my daughter refused to do online sessions with other therapists, she was always excited to see Susan. My daughter’s speech and language, and articulation improved dramatically this past year due to all of Susan’s hard work. All the sessions were fun for my daughter, so it never felt like work to her. Now that it is summer break, Susan still checks in to see how my daughter is doing and gives me suggestions on things I can do with her. I feel very grateful to have met Susan and had her as my daughter’s speech therapist, and I look forward to continuing to work with her again in September.
Elise G. – Mom
Susan worked with my daughter for four wonderful years, since she was in second grade.
My daughter is very shy and very selective about whom she interacts with. We were lucky to have found Susan and that we were able to work out a schedule together all these years.
Susan is more than dedicated and compassionate about her job. She is very professional and always came prepared and excited, displaying positive energy. She would work on multiple language areas where my daughter needed help, such as reading comprehension, vocabulary development, writing skills, and organizing and planning her big school presentations; as well as building her self-confidence to try harder new tasks and to verbally express herself more.
Since we started with Susan, we have seen tremendous progress with our daughter’s confidence and grades. We highly recommend Susan and would love to have our daughter
continue working with her, but are unable to do so, as we have relocated far away.
E.L. – Mother
Susan is an amazing, most caring and very experienced therapist.
We truly love her natural and professional way of teaching. She has lots of teaching tools that she applies to the individual child – including our son.
After almost two years of therapy with Susan, our son’s memory and love of her remain active. Our son now receives his services at his kindergarten.
More than three times a week, though, he will remember Susan and say “Let’s go to Susan”. When we started the speech sessions, our son was barely using words, and could not ask for a certain toy that he wanted. After a few months of service with Susan, he was telling her “Susan, I want Play Doh letter toy”.
Imagine!….From no words to real words …. It’s amazing.
Today our son is making simple and longer sentences too. We are so grateful to Susan for giving him a very strong foundation. We appreciate her efforts, kindness, sense of humor, love and patience throughout our joyful therapeutic journey.
Susan and our son are the very best of friends. So are we too.
J. & J.K. – Parents
Susan Mason has worked with my twin daughters for the last 7½ years, for ongoing language-based learning issues. She has been a trusted counselor, directing me to resources, including specialized auditory evaluation and training, when additional expertise was needed to address learning challenges. Susan is a mentor and champion to my daughters, who are now 12 years old; she is supportive of the pace at which they learn and delights in their progress and success. Susan is patient and insightful, gently guiding my girls but also challenging them in their grasp of both expressive and receptive language. Through the years, she has been in tune with the pace of their days and has been sensitive to their emotions, moods and energy, an important attribute, because after so much time, my daughters still look forward to their weekly time with Susan. Susan also coordinates well with my daughters’ teachers and the learning specialists at school, and maintains an interactive relationship with them so the work she does with my girls complements and supports what they are learning in class. Finally, Susan conscientiously addresses the administrative tasks tied to assessments, weekly records, and insurance and Dept. of Education requirements. My daughters have greatly benefited from their relationship with Susan and the investment she has made in them. I highly recommend her speech and language therapy.
C.M. – Mother
When we started speech and language therapy with Susan, our son was 2½ years old. We were nervous about our son’s communicative challenges. It felt like we wouldn’t survive the commitment it would take for us to help him get the intervention he needed. But, Susan was so child-focused, so devoted to her work with children, it took our breath away at times. The bond she established with our son 6 years later (even after he ended therapy) is a testament to how hard she works to help children find their voice. She suggested tools and the information we needed for our son to thrive inside and outside of the classroom.
We will always be grateful to Susan.
L. B. – Mother
As a psychotherapist who works with the parents of children recently diagnosed on the autism spectrum, I can speak directly to Susan Mason’s exceptional skills working with children with special needs. Susan demonstrates remarkable skills at respecting the child’s personality and defenses while connecting with the child through the child’s interests. Her intelligence and kindness are evident in how she successfully engages the child in accessing the world of language.
Susan Obrecht, LCSW
Faculty, Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis and National Institute for the Psychotherapies
Susan helped my son tremendously with his complex articulation issues and she helped him in the most joyful, enthusiastic, fun and intelligent way. My son loved going to see her twice a week for a number of years. She treated him with a perfect balance of seriousness and playfulness, and she was able to combine work and play in the most natural way. She did a wonderful job of assessing his interests, and she always took these interests into account in their work together. They laughed together, and their strong connection served as a foundation for my son’s relationships with his teachers. It is clear that Susan truly loves her work and she is deeply committed to seeing the children she works with learn and grow.
D. G. – Mother
We had the absolute pleasure of working with Susan Mason, who is an exceptional speech therapist. She worked with my daughter for one year, starting at age 2 years, 2 months, when she had very limited speech and very reduced intelligibility. I couldn’t believe the progress our daughter made in just one year.
Susan always made sessions fun, bringing a range of thoughtful toys and books, following the interests my daughter particularly had (specifically art projects), and also incorporating her favorite toys and using them for language goals. She used a variety of techniques to help her and managed to engage my daughter every session. She used many sensory and also movement activities, which our daughter greatly enjoyed, to gain her attention, and Susan was always very patient along the way. She provided suggestions and resources for ways that my husband and I could help our daughter on our own, which I am sure helped her development too.
When we finished the year, our daughter was using longer phrases and was often quite intelligible — major progress!
Susan helped our daughter so much and I am forever grateful to her.
J.A.– Mother
We have had the great privilege to find Susan to work with our three-year-old daughter for seven months after less than satisfactory experiences with two other speech therapists. Susan is not only very experienced, but is also obviously passionate about her work and the rapport she builds with the child under her guidance. Our daughter bonded with Susan very quickly and looked forward to their sessions. I appreciated the level of communication and feedback I received from Susan, and her keen observations on our daughter’s progress with speech, and on her mood and behavior during their sessions. Her interest in our child as a whole provided us with a holistic view of her strengths, weaknesses, particular areas of interest, and ways of relating to others. I deeply wish we could keep working with Susan, as I have every confidence in her expertise and judgement. I cannot recommend her enough to any parent wanting to provide their child with the best support in their early years. Thank you again, Susan! We miss you.
B.S.M.– Mother
Our daughter began working with Susan when she was 21 months old and had no words whatsoever. Susan was extremely patient and easily built rapport with her. Susan assessed and determined the most effective way to help our daughter and made the work truly enjoyable. She never felt like she was going to therapy and instead, looked forward to her sessions with Susan. In addition, my husband and I felt completely part of the process and with Susan’s guidance and thorough explanations, we were confident our daughter was getting the support she needed.
After three years of working with Susan, our daughter has made tremendous progress. We are very grateful and appreciative for the time Susan has taken to get our daughter’s communication skills to where they are today.
J. & A. — Parents
Susan Mason worked with my daughter when she was newly identified with a hearing loss. Susan has my highest regard for her knowledge and competence in her field. She has been terrific as a speech pathologist to my daughter. She displayed thoughtful preparation for each session, with a clear purpose, plan and accompanying learning aids. She included the holidays as well as personal special events in my daughter’s life as part of the sessions. She was skilled at noticing the slightest nuances of improvements or regressions, and also had a wonderful memory for the details in my daughter’s life. She was a good communicator, always following up each lesson with a brief written report or phone call. I was always aware of my daughter’s progress. Susan was clearly dedicated, accommodating changes in our schedule, and committed to making up any lost time. Susan holds herself and her clients to the highest professional standards, and for this reason, it is a parent-provider partnership that works extremely well. My daughter thrived under Susan’s tutelage, particularly in her adjustment to bilateral hearing aids. As a parent, I was at a loss regarding some of the basic practical aspects of hearing aid education, and Susan provided written materials and other resources that no one else had. Having a partner in handling the practical aspects made it easier for me to handle the emotional impact of my daughter’s hearing loss. Susan is a consummate professional who gives everything she has to the children in her care. Her clients are blessed to have her as a key player on their speech and hearing team.
I.D. – Mother
I can’t believe that Speech Therapy can be so much fun! That’s not how I remember it from my childhood!
Tara – Caregiver
Our family was so lucky our daughter received speech therapy with Susan. When our daughter was identified as having a speech delay, our further investigation revealed a bilateral hearing loss. Susan met with our 3-year old daughter at her day care for a year, and in that time, we noticed incredible improvement in our daughter’s articulation and expressiveness. We also noticed an increase in her confidence and ability to advocate for herself when she doesn’t hear or understand something clearly. Our daughter looked forward to the days she knew she would meet with Susan, and Susan always made her feel special. For instance, like many three-year olds, our daughter had a penchant for princesses, so Susan used princess stickers and princess stories in her lessons, which always delighted our daughter and kept her engaged. Susan was also hugely important to us in helping our daughter get familiar with and use her FM device to augment her hearing.
For us, Susan was the key part of the coordination of our daughter’s care and monitoring her progress, coordinating with our daughter’s audiologist, physician and CPSE. We relied on her to communicate with our daughter’s day care teachers and director, and she educated them on how to best support our daughter and accommodate her special needs due to hearing loss. We felt Susan was a true partner, completely invested in making sure our daughter got the services she needed. With her clear communications after each session, and periodic meetings in person, we were aware of our daughter’s progress or regressions and of how to support her at home. We feel fortunate that our daughter and our family had Susan’s support, knowledge and thoughtfulness to rely on when understanding our daughter’s hearing loss and speech issues
M. & B. J. — Parents
Susan Mason, M.S., CCC-SLP
Phone: (212) 691-1806
Email: Susanmasonspeech@gmail.com