OUR STORY
Built by an SLP who values community, collaboration, and connection
JLC Speech Therapy’s origin story began before the physical office space came to be. It started almost twenty years ago in the sonographer’s office during a routine anatomy scan of a baby who would soon be diagnosed with congenital heart disease. That single seemingly tragic event led to a cascade of events that has brought us here, to this moment. You see, the Jennifer before that moment did not know the world of Speech-Language Pathology. She was just a young mom and wife who so deeply cared for nothing more than her family. What followed was profound growth in perseverance, faith, love, and perspective. A fire was lit, and it could not be dimmed. It started as a necessity to fight for her child’s life and has transformed into a passion for advocacy.
For Jennifer, providing access to communication is a personal mission. She saw the power it gave her child to not only speak and be intelligible, but to also make connections with others. The road has been long, and sometimes, the paths were unmarked, windy, dark, and rocky. But, it was never alone. So many professionals–-medical and educational–have shared their kindness, time, and talents to allow us two decades of meaningful life. Those connections we made with them contributed to our abundant quality-of- life together. Then, there are our family and friends who would revel and relish with us at every hard-earned milestone, while providing us those quiet moments of solace as we mourn another diagnosis or decline in status. These experiences are what led to the foundation that JLC Speech Therapy is founded on: community, collaboration, and connection. It is center for families, clients, and professionals to support access to communication skills.
In our conversations about language, SLPs often discuss the depth and breadth of semantic knowledge. True depth of understanding a concept doesn't come only from seeing it or reading about it — it comes from real interaction and experience with it. The words "community," "collaboration," and "connection" are not just words to be learned at JLC Speech Therapy. We want you to experience them — through our workshops, family coaching, open houses, and informative events. It is our goal to create a space where professional expertise and personal experience can truly converge.
This is the community we are building, and we'd love for your family to be part of it. Get in touch, we can’t wait to hear from you.
Let's chat!
We are accepting new clients. Sign up for a complimentary consult and join our interest lists for our group workshops.
Community
Communication doesn't happen in isolation, and it shouldn't be practiced or learned that way either. JLC Speech Therapy values educating parents, caregivers, and community members who communicate with a client every day — because meaningful progress depends on the people around them, not only on what happens in a therapy room. Communication develops through partnership, and we see the whole community as part of that partnership.
Collaboration
We collaborate with parents, caregivers, medical and educational professionals, and related service providers to understand what may be impacting a client's communication, and how their skills show up across different settings. Together, we build an intervention plan designed to work in all of a client's environments — not just the therapy room.
Connection
Communication is at the core of connection. Our goal is to create the space and guidance for those connections to happen — teaching communication skills so a client can build relationships and friendships through their own stories, ideas, and expressions.
Jennifer Cao, MA, CCC-SLP
Founder & SLP
Philosophy
I believe communication is how we make ourselves known to the world — and how the world becomes known to us. It is the foundation for meaningful relationships, self-advocacy, and a fuller quality-of-life. As an SLP, I want every client I work with to have full access to that.
I also believe meaningful intervention begins with a thoughtful diagnostic assessment of a client's communication strengths and challenges, alongside understanding their personal goals. From there, I'm committed to providing the support and guidance my clients need to grow in their areas of challenge while building on their strengths and interests — so that the communication skills they learn are ones they can actually use in their lives.
Areas of Interest
-Language and Literacy
-Theory of Mind and Perspective-Taking
-Executive Function
-Social Communication
-Speech Sound Development
-Diagnostic Assessments and Synthesis
-Language Sample Analysis
-Multi-disciplinary Collaboration
-Intra-disciplinary Collaboration
-Caregiver and Community Education
-Efficient and Effective Workflows
We'd love to meet you
We are accepting new clients. Book a complimentary consult with us!