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.

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 began practicing as a speech language pathologist (SLP) in 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 and horses.  Tina grew up and attended school on Long Island.  She received 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 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.  Her continuing education has included training in animal assisted interventions, AAC, hippotherapy, PROMPT, DIRFloortime, The SOS Approach to Feeding, NDT, LAMP, PECS, TEACCH and leadership development.  She received the ASHA Award for Continuing Education (ACE) in August 2012, December 2015 and August 2018. 

In addition to her SLP license, Tina holds a Teacher of Students with Speech and Language Disabilities (TSSLD) certificate with the New York State Department of Education.  She is a certified member (CCC) of the American Speech-language and Hearing Association.  She is also a Lifetime member of the American Hippotherapy Association Inc.  Tina currently serves as the AHA Inc. Board President.  She is a member, Registered Therapist and Certified Registered Instructor with PATH Intl.