Therapists
Briana Turner, M.A, CCC-SLP
Owner of Adventures on Your Spectrum, Briana has been a practicing speech-language pathologist for 3 years, specializing in children & adults with Autism and other disabilities. She is licensed by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and received her Masters of Arts in communication sciences and disorders from Iona College in New York. She specializes in the areas of language and functional communication skills. These areas include expressive (verbal output) and receptive (comprehension) language, pragmatic language (social skills) through play and additives of daily living. Other areas of specialty include articulation (sound production) and augmentative and alternative forms of communication (AAC).
Briana’s story
“I get asked time and time again, “Why did you become a speech therapist?” and my answer has always been the same; my passion for working with children and adults with disabilities. This passion began during my high school years when I volunteered at a basketball event. This event took place every weekend for young adults with disabilities. Being a teenager myself, I did not want to give up sleeping in on my Saturdays to volunteer, help out with coaching and assisting basketball practices and games, but I had no choice. So there I was, one Saturday morning at 9:00 am, iced coffee in hand, waiting for directives on where I needed to be and what I needed to be doing. I was quickly paired up with a teenage boy who had autism. The event was set up in centers, and at the last 30 minutes everyone scrimmaged. For the purpose of this letter, we will name my partner Tom. Tom and I worked on layups, free throws, passes and dribbling. In the beginning, I did not know what to say to Tom, and I admit, it was awkward. He was shy at first, but as time passed by and with a few jokes back and forth, we both warmed up to each other. Little did I know, Tom would be one of the funniest kids I’ve come to work with. He was constantly goofing around during drills, making jokes, and trying to make me laugh at any chance he could. The infectious smile that came over his face was all I needed to realize I wanted to work more with kids like Tom in the future. Watching Tom and all of the other kids laugh the entire afternoon, having the time of their lives playing basketball with us sparked my interest and passion for being around children with disabilities. After that weekend, I had asked to volunteer every Saturday for the remainder of the event and play basketball with Tom and the rest of the kids.”