The Shared Map

I've been a speech-language pathologist for more than 25 years, specializing in early communication, AAC, and supporting individuals with complex communication needs. Most of my career has been spent in settings where the students are the most underserved and the most misunderstood - where the question isn't "what words does this person use?" but "how can we see, focus, and build on what this person is already doing?" That question is what drives everything I make.

I make tools that bring the team together. I aim to support early communication skills: what those actually look like, at every level, for every person. My resources are designed so that anyone on the team can pick them up and use them: the SLP doing the formal assessment, the para in the room every day, the family member who knows this person better than anyone. No jargon barriers. No assumptions about diagnosis or age. Just clear, research-grounded frameworks that help teams see the same thing and talk about it the same way.

I hold a Bachelor's degree in Psychology, a Master's degree in Speech-Language Pathology, Certificates in both building- and district-level administration, and a Certificate in Advanced Graduate Studies in the Teaching and Research in Autism. I hold the Certificate of Clinical Competence from ASHA (MA, CCC-SLP). I am also a certified ASHA Continuing Education provider, which means I can provide professional learning opportunities where you can earn ASHA CEUs.

The Shared Map started because I kept watching the same thing happen: a student communicates, and half the room misses it. Not because anyone isn't trying, but because the team didn't have a shared framework for what to look for, or shared language for what they saw, or enough people in place to have eyes on these moments. I built these tools to fix that. Every booklet in this series is designed to travel. Any page can be handed to any team member, the teacher, the para, the family, the advocate, without explanation. The goal is that everyone in the room is working from the same map and it both EASY and QUICK to use. That's where the name comes from. I believe communication is already happening for every person. The job of every tool I make is to make it visible.