Services

Speech Pathology Services with Heart.

As a licensed speech-language pathologist with almost three decades of experience, Kimberly is dedicated to supporting children of all abilities and helping them realize their greatest potential in all aspects of their lives.

Kimberly values family centered care and team collaboration. Kimberly’s approach is focused on integrating therapeutic goals within a child’s individual trajectory of development so they can be happy and successful in their home, school and community settings. In individualized therapeutic programming, Kimberly emphasizes a child’s strengths, interests, and connections to support new learning and each family’s journey.

I have had the privilege of working alongside Kimberly for over 25 years, and I can confidently say she is one of the most talented and dedicated speech therapists I have ever known. Her ability to connect with children and their families is truly remarkable. She approaches every session with warmth, creativity, and an unwavering commitment to helping her clients achieve their goals.

Kimberly has a unique gift for making children feel comfortable and confident while providing expert, personalized care that truly makes a difference. Her innovative methods and genuine passion for her work inspire not only her clients but also everyone fortunate enough to collaborate with her.

I cannot recommend Kimberly highly enough. Whether helping a child find their voice or supporting a family through the therapy process, she brings professionalism, compassion, and a level of expertise that is second to none. ~ Colleague

Speech Articulation

Kimberly assesses and treats speech sound disorders for children of all ages including those that are developmental, linguistic, neurological, structural, or sensory-perceptual in origin.

Differentially diagnoses speech sound disorder type to guide appropriate therapeutic programming.
Collaborates with appropriate medical professionals as a critical part of assessment and treatment to ensure structures and their functions are stable for therapeutic programming.
Refers as warranted to a pediatric otolaryngologist (ENT), dentist, orthodontist, gastroenterologist, neurologist, neuropsychologist, developmental pediatrician, and audiologist to support a child’s speech development.
Contributes to teams that support individuals with orofacial myofunctional disorders to guide patients’ development of breathing, speech production and swallowing skills.
Addresses articulation, phonological, apraxia, dysarthria, sensory perceptual and structural differences.
Individualizes and regularly enhances therapeutic programming to support successive gains.

We are so fortunate to have crossed paths with Kimberly. Our daughter always looked forward to seeing her, both to receive speech therapy and as part of the regular playgroup. The speech skills, socialization, routine, and opportunity to play with a diverse group of children were all invaluable. 1334 Union Street Pediatric Services is a warm, inviting, and soothing place, with friendly staff. The extras that Kimberly adds (whether yoga classes, therapy dog visits, actities, etc.) are a real gift to the community. ~ Parent

Cognitive Language

Kimberly assesses, diagnoses and treats cognitive-language disorders which may impact a child’s ability to communicate, learn and participate fully in their home, community and educational settings.

Incorporates early intervention and trauma sensitive care.
Provides strength based clinical supports for children at every developmental level.
Incorporates multidisciplinary therapeutic programming with expert collaboration.
Embraces family centered care with full parental partnership through education, coaching, training, and explicit teaching for carryover of individualized programming in the home, school and community settings.
Empowers children and families to sustain health, happiness and independence in life activities.

Kimberly played an instrumental role in confirming our child’s diagnosis of dyslexia, a language based learning disorder. In conjunction with assessments by our neuropsychologist, she helped us recognize cognitive-communication challenges that were needing individualized explicit teaching. Through a comprehensive evaluation, Kimberly supported understanding of our child’s strengths and needs across all language domains, listening, speaking, reading and writing to inform and guide educational programming. Today our child is academically flourishing and truly enjoys reading … we are eternally grateful! ~ Parent

Feeding & Swallowing

Kimberly assesses and treats pediatric feeding and swallowing disorders and dysphagia, supporting children and families at every step of the eating process from infancy to adulthood.

Supports each individual with development of feeding and swallowing skills that ensure safe, pleasurable eating that allows for positive social experiences within the home, school and community settings.
Guides development of oral sensory motor skills needed for safe and efficient eating through skilled therapeutic interventions and individualized programming.
Provides skill development opportunity with a team approach to transition children from tube to oral eating.
Supports diet expansion for adequate nutrition, hydration and overall growth.
Develops, implements, monitors and guides teams with training, coaching, and explicit teaching to deliver safe and comprehensive feeding and swallowing plans in the school setting.
Works in collaboration with inter-professional teams managing patients with diagnosed medical conditions of dysphagia, (PFD) pediatric feeding disorders, and ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) to address relative deficits that are impeding eating development for growth and nutrition. Dysphagia is a swallowing disorder involving difficulty processing and/or moving liquid and foods through the digestive system including the oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus. Pediatric feeding disorder is recognized as impaired oral intake that is not age-appropriate and is associated with medical, nutritional, feeding skill, and/or psychosocial dysfunction. ARFID is a mental health diagnosis encompassing feeding problems with related nutritional risk or deficiency without coinciding body image problems.

Kimberly worked with our family for about 10 years. She worked with 3 of my 5 children but impacted my entire family. She’s responsible for teaching one of my daughters how to eat and swallow food and not gag on anything thicker than liquid. She’s given my children the confidence to speak and articulate what they’re feeling and thinking, giving them the ability to form friendships and talk freely. Kimberly supported me as I learned to navigate the roads my children traveled and helped me guide my children to success. She became more than a service provider in our home. She was a life saver, a confidant and a friend. Someone the kids and I trust, love and enjoy spending time with. ~ Family

Consulting

Kimberly provides consultation speech language pathology services to school districts in the capital district of NY and surrounding areas serving as a support to their students with medically complex profiles.

Completes Independent Educational Evaluations on behalf of the family and or school district, guides Individualized Education plan enhancements and provides follow up treatment for children in private and public preschool, elementary, and secondary schools.
Educates and trains educational teams to implement therapeutic interventions for cognitive-communication and swallowing programs.
Specializes in school-based feeding and swallowing services to ensure programming is established for students to safely and efficiently access nutrition and hydration for learning throughout a school day. Consultation services may include assessment, direct services, training, development and enhancements of feeding and swallowing plans, education, coaching, staff training, progress monitoring, and medical team collaboration to ensure student health and success.
Offers expertise support for children with medically complex profiles inclusive of pediatric feeding disorders, dysphagia, apraxia, autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, traumatic brain injury, and other neurological disorders inclusive of cognitive-communication impact.

Kimberly has a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge in supporting medically complex children in the educational setting. She completed an Independent Education Evaluation for our child and collaborated with the educational team to enhance the IEP. Kimberly was highly regarded by the educational team and imparted knowledge in a respectful and supportive manner that fostered the opportunity to coordinate private and public therapy programming. We are so grateful for Kimberly’s expertise, invaluable support and recognize her authentic dedication and how it has had a life changing impact on our child’s life. ~ Family

Assessment

Kimberly completes comprehensive assessments to support diagnosis and treatment of speech, language, cognitive-communication, and feeding and swallowing disorders.

Completes individualized assessments using evidence based practice to understand strengths, needs and guide therapeutic programming.
Collaborates with family, medical and educational teams to provide a holistic assessment.
Incorporates assessment with medical and educational record review, interviews, standardized and non-standardized testing, clinical observation, identification and trial of potential interventions.
Discusses findings with family and provides recommendations.
Informs medical and educational referrals to support holistic and comprehensive individualized care.
Develops a comprehensive treatment plan with individualized therapeutic programming, progress monitoring, and counseling.
Provides team support for medical and educational team care as deemed appropriate.
Implements individualized therapeutic services developed from the comprehensive assessment.

My daughter has been blessed to be a client of Kimberly Banker-Jefferson for the past fifteen years. Her expertise in working with children with feeding challenges, executive function, learning disabilities and autism, along with her passion for helping children communicate is second to none. She was directly responsible for identifying a medical issue that was affecting my daughter’s ability to speak and advocated to ensure that she qualified for an IEP during her school years. Kimberly has tirelessly supported our family through many speech and language challenges, and has guided us through the special education maze, which can be overwhelming at times. I would not consider working with another speech-language-pathologist in the Capital Region. ~ Parent

Treatment

As a Speech-language pathologist, Kimberly works to prevent, assess, diagnose, and treat speech, language, social communication, cognitive-communication, and feeding and swallowing disorders for children birth to adulthood.

Speech therapy may include production of speech sounds, articulation, phonological skills, motor praxis, voice and resonance.
Language therapy may include receptive and expressive skills (understanding and sharing of thoughts, ideas and feelings). Language incorporates all aspects of spoken and written communication and encompasses phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics.
Social communication therapy integrates use of nonverbal and verbal communication with contextual social rules.
Cognitive-communication therapy supports executive functioning skills, organization, attention, reasoning, planning, problem-solving and all skills required for storage, retention, retrieval and application of learned information.
Feeding and swallowing therapy covers all aspects of taking in nourishment through oral and/or non-oral eating or drinking. Feeding includes communication and social experiences surrounding eating, gathering and preparing food and liquid for intake, sucking or chewing, and swallowing.
Pediatric feeding disorders (PFD) as well as oral-pharyngeal-esophageal dysphagia are clinically treated with consideration of medical, nutritional, feeding skill, psychosocial and anatomical-physiological dysfunction.

Kimberly is a perfect candidate to support school teams with medically complex children. Swallowing/feeding was an area I didn’t have much experience with. When Kimberly joined our team she provided the support and guidance that truly made a difference to not only myself but the lives of my students. Her collaboration has helped me to be more confident with swallowing/feeding! ~ Colleague