Children learn in play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn." -O.' Fred Donaldson

Founded in 2011, SLPIM has grown to become one of Long Island's most trusted speech language pathology practices.   We have offices in Islandia and Hauppauge, NY and serve clients from Nassau and Suffolk County, with clients traveling to us from as far away as NYC and the East End.    

We are passionate about helping families meet their communication and feeding goals.  Your success is our success!  Our treatment plans use evidence-based practices that balance client/family preferences, research, and clinical experience.  

We specialize in movement and play based therapy and incorporate a variety of tools, strategies and approaches including animal assisted therapy, DIRFloortime, hippotherapy, PROMPT, the SOS Approach to Feeding, and more.

SLPIM is a leader in the use of hippotherapy in speech treatment, offering support and mentoring to therapists throughout the United States.  We are the only American Hippotherapy Association Facility Member on Long Island.

Our mission is to help our clients reach their highest potential in the areas of communication and feeding, through innovative speech language pathology services, that are effective, family centered and fun.  

In addition, we strive to support learning and professional growth for future SLPs through mentoring and internship opportunities. 

Children learn best when they are having fun.  We believe it is important to create positive experiences with food, and to make communication motivating, internally driven and meaningful.  We do this by incorporating movement and play in a purposeful way.  This means that we work to find what our clients love and we use that to encourage improved feeding skills and optimal communication skills, rather than telling clients what to do and how to do it.  This helps to foster independence and generalization of skills across contexts and environments.  We believe that keeping client preferences and interests as well as their sensory, motor and cognitive abilities in mind during all sessions is critical to success.  

Our philosophy helps us bridge the gap between ineffective and effective skills while increasing independence and maximizing potential. 

Tina has been a New York State licensed speech language pathologist (SLP) since 2007.   In 2011, she opened SLPIM, to pursue her dream of helping children with speech, language and feeding difficulties by combining her two passions: speech-language pathology and horses.  

Tina grew up and attended school on Long Island, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree from Molloy College in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology in 2005, and a Master of Arts degree from Long Island University - C.W. Post in Speech-Language Pathology in 2007.

Tina is a holds a Certificate of Clinical Competency (CCC) with the American Speech-language and Hearing Association (ASHA), and she holds a Teacher of Students with Speech and Language Disabilities (TSSLD) certificate with the New York State Department of Education.  Tina has been recognized as a board certified hippotherapy clinical specialist (HPCS) since 2011 and is one of only ten SLPs in the United States to hold this credential.  

Tina received the ASHA Award for Continuing Education (ACE) in August 2012, December 2015 and August 2018. Her continuing education has included training in animal assisted interventions, AAC, hippotherapy, PROMPT, DIRFloortime, The SOS Approach to Feeding, NDT, LAMP, PECS, TEACCH, ethics and leadership development.  She is a graduate of the 2018-2019 ASHA Leadership Development Program (LDP).  

Tina received the "Barbara Glasow Therapist of the Year Award" from the American Hippotherapy Association in 2019.  

Tina currently serves as the board president of the American Hippotherapy Association (AHA Inc).  She also serves as the Chair of the AHA Inc. Ethics & Advocacy committee, and is an active member of the organization's Reimbursement Committee and Social Media and Marketing Committee.

 Professional memberships:

• Certified Member of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA)
• Member of the New York State Speech-Language Hearing Association (NYSSLHA)  
• Member of the Long Island Speech-Language Hearing Association (LISHA).  
• Lifetime professional member of the American Hippotherapy Association Inc.  
• Member, Registered Therapist and Certified Registered Instructor with PATH Intl.   

Kate joined the SLPIM team in 2017.  She became passionate about working with individuals with special needs after her youngest brother was diagnosed with Autism.  Kate noticed incredible improvements in her brother’s communication skills when the family adopted a dog from a local animal shelter. This sparked an interest in the positive effects of animals on children with Autism and lead Kate to a position at Pal-O-Mine Equestrian, Inc. Kate provided a variety of Equine Assisted Activities for children and adults with special needs at this comprehensive equine facility, including adaptive horseback riding.  

During her time at Pal-O-Mine, Kate began to foster a love for working with children with communication difficulties while assisting with speech sessions incorporating hippotherapy as a volunteer.  Kate was inspired by Tina to return to school to pursue a Master of Science Degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders.  In her academic and professional pursuits, Kate has developed experience with individuals from birth to geriatric populations who have difficulty with a variety of speech, language, and feeding difficulties and even returned while in graduate school to complete a clinical externship with Speech Language Pathology in Motion.  

Kate holds a current New York State License in Speech-Language Pathology and is a Teacher of Students with Speech and Language Disabilities (TSSLD) with the New York State Department of Education. She is also a certified member (CCC) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and a member of the American Hippotherapy Association Inc.