03/03/2023

Friends of Franz Podcast S2 E11: Teaching Kids to Talk Back with Joanne Cazeau (Koze Speech Therapy)

The ability to communicate with others, in whatever mode or form, is truly such a gift. Whether it's through spoken words, written language, signs made by the hands, or through the use of devices, our thoughts, feelings, needs, and wants can be expressed to others. Unfortunately, this is not the truth for everybody. According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 5-10% of Americans may have difficulties in communication, ranging from speech disorders (the inability to correctly or fluently produce voice and sounds) and language disorders (impairments with understanding and sharing ideas with others). Additional statistics, such as about 5% of children having noticeable disorders with speech and over 3 million Americans who stutter, present the sad truth that there are those who cannot fully voice out both the joy and the pain they experience.

We are joined today by Joanne Cazeau, a certified pediatric speech-language pathologist (SLP) by The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), early interventionist, and a private practice director in Bergen County, New Jersey. She received her BS in Speech and Hearing Sciences with a concentration in Speech-Language Pathology and a Minor in Public Health from The George Washington University in 2015, and MS in Speech-Language Pathology from Howard University in 2017. She has worked as an SLP clinician at Kennedy Krieger Institute, where she assessed, diagnosed, and treated speech, language, oral motor, and swallowing disorders. In 2021, she founded Koze Speech Therapy, specializing in infants, toddlers, and children with communication delays and disorders.