The 9 best speech therapists in SF Bay Area

“It’s a speech delay.” Not something a parent wants to hear about their child. You’re not alone though. Almost 1 in 10 kids have a speech sound disorder. 3 million Americans stutter. Over 7 million people in the US have trouble speaking and using their voices.¹

 

You’ve been told to look into speech therapy. Who should you go to? We’ve investigated and have answers — our team surveyed parents who’ve been through the process, talked to professionals for recommendations, read hundreds of reviews, interviewed everyone on this list and then some.

 

These places offer high quality speech, language, and feeding therapy. Their programs include free consultations, early interventions and evaluations. And if necessary, they’ll introduce alternative communication methods, also called Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). 

 

Here are the best speech therapists, also known as speech language pathologists (SLPs), who serve kids in the San Francisco Bay Area:

 

Hannah Lieberknecht, CCC-SLP

Profile | 2166 Union St., San Francisco, CA 94123

 

About Hannah:

Hannah worked at the Bing Nursery School at Stanford, where she collaborated on developmental psychology research with a focus on personality, motivation, nutrition and language development with preschool-age children. While receiving her master’s degree, Hannah developed and implemented a multi-year language intervention program for Head Start preschool classrooms, worked with school-aged children in a variety of settings, and assessed young children at the San Diego Regional Center.

 

Special areas of interest include early intervention for children with language delays, expressive and receptive language impairments in preschool- and school-aged children, articulation disorders (particularly the /r/ and /s/ sounds), childhood apraxia of speech, and stuttering. Hannah is trained in PROMPT (PROMPTs for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets) and the Lidcombe Program for young children who stutter, and has received additional training in Social Thinking for social-pragmatic language disorders. She has partaken in extensive training in gestalt language processing, including the Meaningful Speech training course

 

Insurance: Blue Shield PPO, Kaiser Permanente NorCal HMO, and United Healthcare PPO insurance plans as well as Golden Gate Regional Center

 

Contact: 650-468-6478, hannah@talkshopspeech.com

 

 

Sayard Benvenuti, M.A., CCC-SLP 

Profile | Virtual

 

About Sayard:

Sayard has 15+ years of experience as a Speech-Language Pathologist with a specialization in Early Intervention, the Deaf/Hard of Hearing population, and Auditory Rehabilitation. She currently provides care to Cochlear Implant recipients using a parent coaching model through Stanford University and serves as the Facilitator of Professional Learning for Baker Institute for Children with Hearing Loss.  She additionally sees patients and families virtually through her own practice and embraces tele-therapy to provide quality care regardless of geographic location.

 

Insurance: UnitedHealthcare / Optum, Cigna

 

Contact: sayard.benvenuti@gmail.com 

 

 

Contra Costa Speech Therapy

Profile | 1225 Alpine Road Suite 204-D, Walnut Creek, CA 94596

 

About Contra Costa Speech Therapy:

Julie Reiss, M.S., CCC-SLP is the owner of Contra Costa Speech Therapy and an ASHA certified Bilingual Speech-Language Pathologist. With over 15 years in the field, she has experience working in the academic, outpatient, and private practice settings. She has a passion for teaching future Speech-Language Pathologists and enjoys taking classes to expand on her own knowledge. She has a gift of making language learning fun and engaging by tailoring therapy sessions to the diverse strengths, needs, and interests of each child. 

 

Insurance: Kaiser, Blue Shield of California

 

Hours & Contact: 925-922-5863 | julie@cocospeech.com 

 

 

Christina Burnham, CCC-SLP 

Profile | Virtual

About Christina: 

Christina has been offering speech therapy online since 2019... she's one of the trendsetters who saw the opportunity for a more convenient and comfortable approach to speech therapy before it became the new normal.

 

Teletherapy opens doors for people to connect with the support they need regardless of their zip code. Teletherapy also creates time for things like going to the park and making a home-cooked meal for dinner rather than sitting in traffic and grabbing take-out to visit a clinic across town.

 

Insurance: UnitedHealthcare, Cigna

 

Hours & Contact: 512-765-4554 | hello@cloudspeech.com 

 

 

Lynchpin Speech Therapy 

Profile | In-home in East Bay Area

About Lynchpin: 

Lynchpin provides neurodiversity-affirming and strengths-based speech-language therapy with a belief that everyone deserves to be empowered individuals, positively connected with their community.

 

Insurance: UnitedHealthcare, Cigna

 

Contact: 925-361-2409 | kimberli.ng@lynchpinspeech.com

 

 

Liz Zyzo, CCC-SLP

Profile | Virtual

 

About Liz: 

Liz provides comprehensive speech and language evaluations, treatment, and parent consultations/training to children ages birth to five via teletherapy.

 

Her family-centered, play-based approach prioritizes creating dynamic and enjoyable sessions, meeting children where they are and fostering fun and meaningful engagement. Liz firmly believes in the vital role of parents and caregivers in their child's progress. She actively involves them in the therapeutic process, providing guidance and support to enhance their child's language development through early experiences.

 

Insurance: UnitedHealthcare, Cigna

 

Contact: liz@toddlertalkconsulting.com | Free consultation here

 

 

Geraldine Cabezudo, CCC-SLP 

Profile | In-home in San Francisco

 

About Geraldine:

As a mom of a child with special needs herself, Geri is passionate about supporting kids' communication development as well as training families in order to generalize communication skills outside of speech-language therapy sessions.

 

She's a senior Speech Language Pathologist with 12+ years of experience providing school-based speech-language therapy. She specializes in autism and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and is proficient in both ASL and Spanish at the preschool and moderate-severe levels. She has experience working with young and older adults as well as geriatric patients with dysphagia treatment, cognitive rehabilitation, voice, and aphasia.

 

She previously lectured at the college level for speech-language pathology coursework and have supervised and mentored numerous interns and clinical fellows on their professional journeys.

 

Insurance: UHC/Optum, Cigna, Golden Gate Regional Center

 

Contact: cabezudo.geraldine@gmail.com 

 

 

Gabriel Hershberger, CCC-SLP

Profile | Virtual

 

About Gabriel:

Gabriel has 10+ years of experience as a Speech-Language Pathologist in a variety of settings including special education classrooms, preschools, skilled nursing facilities, and health systems.

 

Insurance: UHC/Optum, Cigna

 

Contact: 773-512-7741 | tgabe@outlook.com 

 

 

Caitlin Ritelli, M.A., CCC-SLP

Profile | In-home and In-school in East Bay Area

 

About Caitlin:

Caitlin has worked in a variety of pediatric settings, including public school districts, in-home early intervention, and private clinics around the Bay Area. Clinical strengths include: pragmatics/social skills, early language development/early intervention, articulation and phonology, preschool and school-age receptive and expressive language delays, cognitive-communication, and literacy skills. Other areas of practice include Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), fluency disorders, oral-motor deficits, and auditory processing disorders. Caitlin is level 1 PROMPT-trained, has participated in the Talk Tools: A Three-Part Treatment Plan for Oral Placement Therapy workshop, in addition to completing numerous courses focused on the pediatric population. Caitlin enjoys working with children of all ages and skill levels, but is especially passionate about early intervention.

 

Insurance: UnitedHealthcare and Cigna

 

Contact: cait.ritelli.slp@gmail.com 

 

 

 

Speech therapy can last a few months to a few years, depending on your child’s needs. The good news? During that time they will learn effective ways to communicate which will help them grow into more independent and confident individuals.