(331) 207-4350
Hello, my name is Anya Darling and I am a licensed and certified pediatric speech-language pathologist and owner of Darling Speech Therapy. I live in Montgomery, IL with my husband and four exotic pets (i.e., potbelly pig, cockatiel, and two bunnies). We have a 20-year-old son who is attending the University of Illinois at Chicago.
My family and I lived in Arizona for 20 years before we decided to move to the Midwest in 2020. I received an undergraduate degree in education and taught third grade for six years in an Arizona public school. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching but felt I could help children in a different capacity, so I returned to graduate school and received a Master's Degree in Communication Disorders from Arizona State University in 2015. With over seven years of experience, I have had the privilege to provide therapeutic interventions to children with a variety of diagnoses in outpatient clinical settings, teletherapy platforms, home based, and public-school settings. My evaluation and therapeutic experiences include working with children who present with the following disorders/difficulties:
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Expressive language
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Receptive language
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Executive functions
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Articulation
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Phonological
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Childhood Apraxia of Speech
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Stuttering
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Social communication
My experience working with autistic children and their families was highlighted in an interview by Chicago Parent. During my interview, I explained how speech therapy can support autistic children in a variety of ways. I use a multi-sensory (e.g., tactile, visual, auditory) approach to treatment by finding each child’s different learning intelligence in order to provide various ways to practice and understand communication skills.
Additionally, I pair my personal background experience and expertise when working with families to help identify and provide interventions for their child’s disordered executive functions. I know the true impact that disordered executive functions can have on a child and family. My son has disordered executive functions secondary to an epilepsy diagnosis so I have the unique position to provide both insight as a parent and speech-language pathologist. I am excited to announce that I have presented a continuing education course on “Disordered Executive Functions in School Age Children” through the DuPage County Speech Language Hearing Association (DCSLHA) in order to increase awareness of how disordered executive functions greatly impact daily life and academics in the pediatric population.
