Meet Cindy Rodriguez | Bilingual Speech Therapist & Private Practice Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cindy Rodriguez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cindy, how does your business help the community?
My private practice provides bilingual speech therapy services to children and their families. As a pediatric speech therapist my role is to help children improve their speech and language skills; however, this is a team effort. I collaborate with parents, caregivers, and other professionals involved in my client’s care to support the child’s communication development.

As a bilingual clinician, I know firsthand that Spanish-speaking communities have limited access to speech therapy services in their heritage language. Unfortunately, Spanish-speaking families are often discouraged from using their home language or are discouraged from raising their children bilingually when their child has been diagnosed with a language delay. My goal is to debunk the myths surrounding bilingualism and speech and language delays and shed light on the benefits of being bilingual. I want to advocate for my bilingual community’s right to communicate in whatever language is best for them.

My work goes beyond providing services to my client and their families. I have presented at career day events to younger generations of bilingual speakers. My hope is that there will be more bilingual clinicians in the field so that bilingual speech therapy services are accessible to Spanish-speaking children and adults with communication and swallowing impairments. I’ve also presented for community organizations and businesses to raise awareness about communication development and inform families how to access speech therapy services.

What should our readers know about your business?
Esperanza Speech Therapy provides bilingual speech therapy services including complimentary 15-minute phone consultations, comprehensive speech and language evaluations, 30–60-minute individual therapy, and parent and caregiver coaching sessions. Services are provided in-home in the cities of Santa Ana, Garden Grove, and Westminster and virtually throughout the state of California. Areas of expertise include early intervention, speech sound disorders, receptive and expressive language disorders, bilingual speech and language development and disorders, and parent/caregiver coaching.

Esperanza Speech Therapy also offers presentations to local organizations/businesses with a pediatric clientele. The purpose of these presentations is to inform parents on a variety of speech therapy subjects such as communication milestones, identifying the need for speech therapy, accessing speech therapy services, and to teach parents/caregivers strategies they can use and activities they can implement to promote their child’s language development.

I am proud to say that I deliver my services with care and compassion. Providing home-based services allows me to build close relationships with my clients and their parents/caregivers. I truly want the best for each of my clients and am always looking out for ways to support their communication growth.

I decided to establish my business because I was ready for something new, and I was ready for a challenge. I wanted to create a niche, provide quality services, and be present for my family. Navigating business ownership has been challenging; it is something that I am still learning to handle and will continue to learn to manage as my business grows. I see every hurdle I overcome as a lesson that serves an opportunity to help me improve. Something I’ve learned as a solo practitioner is how to manage my time better. There are so many tasks to take on besides providing therapy and knowing how to prioritize my duties has been vital in running my practice (and home) smoothly.

I am looking forward to continuing to give back to my community. I want to make a difference by providing culturally and linguistically competent speech therapy services that I know are difficult to access. I want to continue to spread knowledge through community presentations to make families and other professionals aware of resources and information concerning speech therapy. I also want to continue to demystify myths surrounding bilingualism so that families can embrace their culture through their language. And lastly, I am hoping that I can inspire young generations of Latino and Spanish bilingual speakers to consider a career in speech therapy to increase the number of Latino and Spanish language service providers in our field. According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, currently only 7.2% of speech therapists identify as Hispanic and only 5.9% are Spanish-language service providers nationwide.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would take them to Las Brisas de Apatzingan in Santa Ana to eat authentic Mexican food. My favorite is their pozole verde! I’m a mom, so if my friend comes with the kids in tow, I’d say let’s go to the Anaheim GardenWalk, take the little ones to Billy Beez, and get a sweet treat at La Michoacana. For some more family fun, an evening of bowling at Concourse Bowling Center in Anaheim would be great. For a casual adult outing, I’d make a stop at Danny K’s Billiards and Sports Bar in Orange to catch a game on the big screen and indulge in their yummy wings. For a night in, I’d order takeout from Pho79 in Garden Grove or Pad Thai in Santa Ana.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would not be here without God’s blessings. I am grateful for all that He has provided and am so thankful for where He has taken me on my professional and business journey. My husband deserves a huge shoutout because he has been supporting and motivating me since graduate school. He assisted me in establishing my business; he shares great ideas, continuously encourages me, and contributes to my practice’s growth in multiple ways. My daughters have also been my motivation. I wanted to establish my practice so that I could have the flexibility and freedom to be in charge of my schedule and spend time with them. I must thank my family for laying the foundation for my success. I am grateful for the sacrifices my parents made to provide opportunities; I am thankful for my oldest brother who motivated me to not give up; and for my sister who helped me when I struggled to make ends meet as a college student. My close friends, extended family, and former co-workers have also been some of my biggest cheerleaders and I am grateful for their support.

Website: www.esperanzaspeechtherapy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/esperanzaspeechtherapy/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/esperanzaspeech

Image Credits
Kita Zuleta