About Me
Allison Stephens, M.S., graduated from The University of Arizona (U of A) with a Bachelor’s degree in Communicative Disorders. She received her Master’s Degree from SFSU in Speech-Language Pathology. While in High School at Sacred Heart Prep on the Peninsula, Allison spent her summer obtaining community service hours at The Children’s Heath Council at Stanford. At the time, Allison worked under a Speech and Language Therapist which sparked her desire to pursue a career helping children with communication impairments. While going through her Masters program she returned to The Children’s Health Council and obtained clinical experience. She provided not only educational therapy to children with learning differences but also provided services to children with speech and language disorders.
During that time she also worked as an SLP in the public school system at Encinal School in Palo Alto. While in this setting, Allison provided intervention services for children with various communicative disorders, and she gained valuable knowledge related to the IEP process and Special Education procedures in the public school system. Allison has worked intensely with children on the Autism Spectrum and noticed while working with this population that in addition to language, children also need skills for a healthy mind and body development.
She was able to broaden her scope by going through a specialized yoga based training method with children, Integrated Movement Therapy, at the Samarya Center in Seattle. Core principles target structure and continuity, language stimulation, physical stimulation, social interaction, self calming and direct self esteem building through a holistic, brain based method. To continue her education in this realm, she also obtained a yoga certification with children at, Its Yoga Kids, in San Francisco. She provided yoga as a fun activity for children of all ages and abilities. Children are exposed to integrated yoga with reading, writing, storytelling, music, games and poetry. While having fun, children consciously discipline themselves in areas of balance and concentration. Over time, these techniques are consciously applied to everyday life.
Allison went through training and was an instructor at The Lindamood Bell Learning Processes Center. She provided instruction with children using programs such as Visualizing and Verbalizing, Seeing Stars, Lindamood Bell Phoneme and Sequencing and On Cloud Nine. Therapy was based on developing the sensory-cognitive processes that underline reading, spelling, math, language comprehension, attention, memory and critical thinking.
Allison believes in an individualized approach for each child, and she thrives in maximizing communicative growth. Allison’s clinical strengths include early language development, articulation and phonology, preschool and school-age receptive and expressive language delays, social skills, and literacy skills. As a mother of two children age 10 and 12 and a child with learning differences, Allison has gained a better understanding of the joys and struggles her clients’ families go through. This has strengthened her passion to be an advocate for individuals and families with children with specific learning styles. Allison is continuing her education by learning new methods and going through a course in Dr. Bruce Perry’s method of the Neuro-Sequencial Model of Therapeutics.
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In her spare time, Allison enjoys tennis, running and biking with her children. She continues her passion for yoga with children and independently. She spends time with her children exploring new places and staying active in the community. Allison is a member of Support for Families with Children with Special Needs, Academy of Sciences, Discovery Museum, St. Vincent De Paul Society and The Tipping point Community in San Francisco.
