9 Best speech therapists in San Francisco
Updated: April 24, 2024 · 8 Minute Read
Reviewed by:
Chris Olmanson
Highlights
- 7.5 million Americans have trouble speaking and need support with their speech and language skills.
- We put together this list by surveying parents, talking to professionals for recommendations, reading hundreds of reviews, and interviewing the finalists.
- Each speech therapist has their strengths and unique offerings. Some specialize in working with younger children, a few are bilingual, and others have perfected working with families virtually or at their homes, just to name a few.
“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
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.
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Article References
- Statistics on Voice, Speech, and Language. NIDCD. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/statistics-voice-speech-and-language#:~:text=mood%2C%20and%20health.
