Meet Stacy

Hello, and welcome! I’m Stacy, and I’m so glad you’re here. I hold MN Department of Education teaching licenses as a Speech-Language Pathologist (CCC-SLP) and an Autism Resource Specialist/Special Education Teacher. With 26 years of experience in the school setting, I’m a lifelong learner, a creative soul, and an open book who loves developing and sharing resources that make life easier for others.

As an empath with a heightened sense of compassion, I have a unique ability to observe, interpret, and connect with others. I use these skills to help children, families, and educators navigate the complexities of communication and behavior, particularly in the realm of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and speech-language development.

"I am passionate about building authentic partnerships with the adults in children’s lives—whether that’s parents or educators—to foster understanding and collaboration."

As a parent of a beautifully sensitive child, I’ve used my intuition, training, and experience to understand her, advocate for her, and empower her to navigate her own sensitivities. This personal insight fuels my commitment to supporting children with anxiety, sensitivities, autism, and other neurological differences, as they often learn in ways that differ from their peers.

I believe that behavior is communication, and understanding how children process information is key to finding the strategies that work best for them. I’m dedicated to creating tools and resources that support children’s growth and helping those in their environment better understand their needs.

Throughout my career, I've honed a deep understanding of children's communication development and how their environment shapes their feelings and behaviors. My expertise in special education allows me to support children with unique needs in ways that are practical, effective, and compassionate.

What Families Are Saying

Stacy has a way of understanding my child and what he needs. He's 2e and a fast thinker. Stacy's experience, intuition, and creativity helped give us tools that we were able to use right away. Stacy is down to earth and practical. I felt like I was supported and knew she genuinely cared about our family.

Minecraft Lover

We have learned different approaches to help our daughter navigate challenges in school, including brainstorming age-appropriate social situations and discussing how best to engage with our daughter’s school. Stacy has also helped us understand how we may best support our daughter with uncomfortable subjects negatively affecting her at school. For example, when our school district ended our daughter’s IEP, Stacy helped us understand how we could best handle the situation without upsetting the school administrators while still advocating for our daughter.

Anthony

Stacy understands how to talk to children in a comfortable way. She is sincere, kind, and knows her stuff. She was able to tell us why our daughter was acting the way she was, and gave us some easy ideas to help her and us. She made some great worksheets for us to use at home and school. She made it so easy for us!

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Oakdale Family

We were so confused with the evaluation report we got from the doctor's office. Stacy walked through it with us, and highlighted what we needed to know. I understand more now after one visit with her, than I did throughout the entire evaluation process! Ask her your questions, it will save you time! It's nice to have someone on my side.

Allison and family

Stacy was an amazing support with my son. He was diagnosed with autism in First grade and Stacy guided, supported, partnered with us as we navigated this new world. Stacy was always willing to listen to our struggles and offer advice for what we could do immediately, but also a future task. She created social groups where my son could have life experiences with other students. Stacy has a wealth of knowledge and experiences to draw on, which enriched and expanded our experiences. I believe my son's success and high functioning abilities he has now is because of his early experiences working with Stacy. I would highly recommend working with Stacy to support the child and family.

Berwald Family

Stacy has been a wonderful source of information and support that we have not otherwise been able to access through medical services. She also provides a different perspective about how to best support our child and provides educational materials to support our family. Her experience in the schools has been invaluable to answer our questions about the Special Education process. We are very happy that Stacy is part of our support system for our child.

Anonymous

We find Stacy's work with our daughter extremely beneficial. Unfortunately, our school district does not offer services in an academic setting to help our daughter with her social skills. Stacy is able to find creative ways to foster her development of these skills. We have seen how Stacy uses her background as a teacher and speech and language pathologist to support our daughter’s development by understanding and addressing her mental health in the classroom. For example, she helps our daughter with social speech and how to read a social scene in school. Stacy knows how to set up sessions that keep our daughter engaged and happy. Stacy also meets with us separately which we find extremely helpful as parents of a daughter with special needs. She helps us navigate the IEP and 504 processes and is very receptive to our concerns. More generally, she helps us understand how to best advocate for our daughter at school.

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Main

So thankful for this lady and the time she poured into our son in Kindergarten-2nd grade. She gave us the tools to survive and help him thrive.

Ternbergs

As both a teacher and speech and language pathologist, Stacy is uniquely qualified to address a need that we think so many parents have that schools and therapists cannot offer – developing social skills in an academic environment. Schools have such tight budgets and limited resources, and with so many children in every classroom, there is only so much that teachers and school support staff can do. Stacy is able to help our daughter with what happens in the classroom and how as parents we can best support our daughter’s social development in the classroom.

Anonymous

Our family had the privilege of working with Stacy when our son, who has Asperger’s, was is his first few years of elementary school. Not only did she provide us with amazing resources, tools, and vocabulary to use with our son at home; but she really understood how his mind worked and was able to help him understand his own emotions and use his words so he could advocate for himself in the classroom. Her help was invaluable to us, and we still use the skills we learned from her even though our son is now in middle school.

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Robinson Family