About Eb Pediatric Resources

EB Pediatric Resources is located in Chicago, IL. We provide a variety of home-based and center-based services to families with children under 5 years old, including Speech Therapy, Developmental Therapy, ABA Therapy and other Pediatric Therapy services, Global Developmental Evaluations, home-based Infant Massage Instruction, Family Counseling and Support, training workshops such as "Undercover Speech Therapist for Parents," and a home-based educational service called Therapeutic Play Interactions™.

The Learning Through Play™ Center for Child Development in the Lakeview area offers Playgroups and Classes for children ages 2-5 years. These classes were designed by developmental therapists and early learning specialists to help children transition effectively to preschool and kindergarten. They are small (6-7 children max), provide a teacher/child ratio of one adult for every 2 children, and are taught by experienced therapists. The classes are formatted to provide a playful but structured forum for children to learn socialization and language skills, to separate from their parents in a gentle and positive way, and learn to be comfortable and confident in a structured classroom setting. The classes are particularly helpful for children who may still be learning language skills or have difficulty socializing with their peers.

The Center also provides a pleasant, environment where parents can socialize and browse through books and parent resources. Therapists are available to consult with parents, as needed, and discuss their concerns and goals for their children.

Children learn through play!

Our philosophy is that all children have an amazing capacity to learn new skills and all children learn best through play. Our therapy approach involves assessing a child's areas of challenge — whether cognitive, social, sensory, motor or language-related — and providing them with tools to overcome these challenges through play-based interventions.

Our therapists are multidisciplinary and are trained in therapeutic and educational models including DIR/Floor Time, ABA/discrete trial/TEACCH, RDI, Play Project, and PECs.

Affiliates

Claire M. Halloran, MA CCC-SLP CIMI
Shari Lenz, MOTR/L

Courtney Allen, DT

Courtney is a Developmental Therapist and Evaluator for the Illinois Early Intervention Program. She received her undergraduate from Illinois State University in Special Education. She has worked in the school system with special needs in the suburbs before acquiring her Developmental Therapy credential. She has experience working with children of all ages in many different settings and with a variety of disabilities and diagnoses. Her most recent experience has been working with children diagnosed with Autism. Her professional experience also includes social skills training for children, IEP development, curriculum development, and lesson plans.

Farah Bacchus, MA, BCBA

Farah Bacchus is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst passionate about helping children reach their full potential. Farah has worked at schools, clinics, and in-home settings servicing families and their children with developmental disabilities. As a doctoral candidate, Farah is up-to date with recent research and innovations in behavior analysis. As a new member of EB Pediatrics, Farah is accepting clients seeking behavior analytical services, or new approaches to address behaviors of concern and help them reach their desired goals. Farah aims to provide her clients with individualized attention, and due care to ensure the success and effectiveness of all her recommended behavioral techniques and programs.

Elizabeth Benney, MA DT CIMI

Elizabeth is a Developmental Therapist and Evaluator for the Illinois Early Intervention Program as well as an IAIM-certified Infant Massage Instructor. She is the founder of the Illinois Developmental Therapy Association and current Chair of its Professional Development Committee. Her practice specializations include certification in the Interactive Metronome program, Therapeutic Listening program ("Core/Listening with the Whole Body"), and Infant Massage Instruction. She has had extensive experience addressing atypical sensory integration and her practice specifically addresses sensorimotor stability and organization. She utilizes various modalities including DIR® model of Floor-time as well as ABA protocols to tailor her sessions to each individual child as appropriate.

Elizabeth earned her graduate degree from University of Chicago and collaborates with graduate schools to provide child development graduates and interns with supervised clinical experience and training. She opened the Learning through Play Center several years ago as a forum in which she and her staff could design a unique style of developmental playgroup, which utilizes structure in conjunction with various modes (art, music, movement) tailored specifically to help children organize, adapt, socialize, communicate, and learn effectively in group settings.

Catherine Byrnes

Catie earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a minor in Art Studio from DePaul University. She will earn her graduate degree in Child Development with Infancy concentration from Erikson Institute and plans to receive her Developmental Therapy credential by June 2015. Her experience includes working with at-risk children and adolescents through after school programs for Chicago Public Schools. She has been working for the Learning through Play Center assisting with running the therapeutic playgroups.

Lisa Brennan, M.Ed. DT LPC

Lisa Brennan is a Developmental Therapist and a Licensed Professional Counselor. She received her M.Ed. in Counseling with a specialization in Early Intervention from DePaul University and a B.A. in Psychology from Wayne State University. Lisa has completed coursework in sensory integration, treatment options for children with autism, Theraplay, and Floor Time. Before Early Intervention, Lisa worked with at-risk children and their families, led social skills groups for young school-age children, and taught preschool.

Heather Copeland, MSW DT

Heather is a Developmental Therapist who received a second Master's degree in Infant Mental Health and Child Development from Erikson Institute, earned her Master's in Social Work from University of Chicago, and has an undergraduate in Psychology from University of Michigan.

Heather joins our staff after several years of conducting Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy privately for children diagnosed with Autism. She has supervised and managed preschool classes for three-year-olds using the Reggio Emilio approach to early childhood when designing the daily curriculum. Her professional experience also includes counseling, social skills training for children, IEP development, child development and scholastic assessments, and data collection/reporting for ABA programs.

Sarti Doshi, MS, CCLS, DT

Sarti is a Developmental Therapist who completed her undergraduate degree at Central Michigan University in 2006 and her Masters degree in Child Development and Child Life from the Erikson Institute in 2010. Prior to becoming a DT, Sarti worked as a Certified Child Life Specialist at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital where she worked to help normalize the hospital experience for children through medical education and developmental play. She also has several years of experience teaching at daycare facilities and summer camps. Sarti has been working as a DT since August of 2012.

Elissa Garcia, MS MSW DT

Elissa is a Developmental Therapist and Evaluator for Early Intervention Program. She received a Masters in Child Development with a Specialization in Infant Studies from Erikson Institute, and a Masters in Social Work from University of Chicago (degree completed 6/2011). During her child development studies, Elissa interned with an Early Head Start home visiting program and a program that provides specialized early education for children on the autistic spectrum, where she received training in Greenspan's "Floor Time" approach. As a social work intern, Elissa has worked with pregnant and parenting teens, as well as an agency that serves children and teens impacted by trauma.

Samantha Grzesik, MS

Samantha received her Masters in Mental Health Counseling from Purdue University Calumet in June 2011 and is a LPC-candidate. She studied Clinical Psychology at California State University and earned her BA in Psychology from the University of Denver. Her clinical internship year in mental health counseling was spent working with at-risk children/adolescents as well as with adults. Samantha has also worked as a psychiatric technician and a forensic research assistant. She spent time in Denver as a research assistant for a Family Stress & Coping Center. She has been working for the Learning through Play Center for more than three years as Office Manager/Early Intervention Coordinator, and she also assists with running the therapeutic playgroups.

Laura Holmgren, MS DT

Laura is a Developmental Therapist who completed her MS in Child Development with a specialization in infant studies at Erikson Institute in 2008 and earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Miami University in 2005. Laura has been an Early Intervention provider for several years working with at-risk children and special needs children under 3 years old. She also has had several years of experience of Head Teacher at St. Chrysostom's Preschool where she managed the staff, led a classroom of 10 preschool age children, and organized a play-based curriculum for use in the entire preschool. She also worked at Educare, an early childhood center through the Ounce of Prevention Fund, where she designed and implemented an attachment-based playgroup for two-year-olds.

Laura is certified in infant and child CPR, completed child abuse/neglect prevention training, and is trained in the administration of various assessment tools including Bayley III and ASQ-SE. She is familiar with various teaching approaches, including Reggio Emilia approach and she uses family-centered, strengths-based approach in her individual therapy sessions.

Alyson Hu, MA LSW DT

Alyson is a Developmental Therapist who earned her dual graduate degree in child development/social work from Loyola and Erikson Institute and she specializes in children and families. She has experience working in the public school system in elementary and preschool classrooms where she has developed curriculum and counseled children with special needs and children with Individualized Education Programs (IEP's). She has had extensive experience with parent support and student/classroom behavioral interventions.

Brandi Neuberg, M.S. CCC-SLP/L

Brandi is a Speech Language Pathologist. She works full time in the public schools and part time providing Early Intervention Services at the Learning Through Play Center. She has been working as a speech language pathologist for 8 years and studied Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson where she received a Bachelor of Science Degree.

Brandi earned a Masters of Science Degree at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in the Communication Disorders and Sciences Department. Brandi works with children ranging from birth thru high school and runs the summer language camp for children in early childhood at the Learning Through Play Center. She has experience with children who have a wide range of communication delays including Autism, Dysfluency, Learning Disabilities/ ADD and ADHD, Cognitive Impairments, Traumatic Brain Injury, Articulation and Phonology Delays, and Language Delays.

Lori Pelletier MS DT

Lori Pelletieris a Developmental Therapist who earned her graduate degree in Early Childhood Education and Developmental Therapy at Elmhurst College. She completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Sociology at the University of Dayton in Ohio in 2009. She tutored at Giant Steps, a transitional school for children with Autism for almost a year prior to returning for her Master's degree. While at Elmhurst College, she interned at the UIC Child and Family Development Center in Chicago for developmental therapy, student taught at Blair Early Childhood Center in an ECSE classroom, and student taught at Hiawatha Elementary School in Berwyn in a full inclusion kindergarten classroom. In addition to her work with Learning through Play, she teaches Pre-Kindergarten at Queen of Angels in Lincoln Square.

Liz Siegel, MSW
Liz recently joined the Learning Through Play team as a Social Work Consultant. She is excited to help the agency expand its behavioral therapy services into Chicago schools. Liz earned her Master's in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis, along with her Type 73 School Social Worker certificate. She has provided suicide prevention in schools, worked on a crisis hotline, been a SASS crisis worker in the community, and has worked as a school social worker in elementary, middle, and high schools. Liz is excited to use her extensive knowledge of Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (PBIS), Behavioral Intervention Plans (BIP), and Individualized Education Plans (IEP) in this role.

Christina Vestevich, M.A., BCBA

Christina is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She received her Master of Arts in Behavior Analysis: Autism Treatment from Western Michigan University under the supervision of Dr. Richard W. Malott. Christina has experience working in the Early Childhood sector, private therapy institutions, as well as consultative work for school districts. She has extensive experience conducting functional behavior assessments and analyses, developing behavioral intervention plans for severe problematic behaviors, providing Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention, staff and parent training, assessing and developing verbal behavior and learning programs, as well as Activities of Daily Living training. When she is not working, Christina enjoys painting, drawing, visiting museums, cooking and sampling many of Chicago's wonderful restaurants.

Affiliates

Claire M. Halloran, MA CCC-SLP CIMI

Claire is a Speech-Language Pathologist who has worked with young children and their families for over 20 years. She became affiliated with EB Pediatric Resources as a result of a rich and fruitful co-therapy session with Elizabeth Benney, founder of the Learning Through Play Center, three years ago. Elizabeth then invited Claire to join her Early Intervention Evaluation Team and has now invited her to become a professional affiliate to the programming and services provided by the Learning through Play Center. Claire provides speech-language and feeding therapy services at the Center to children age birth to seven. She also provides clinical and reflective supervision to recent speech-language pathology masters graduates as they complete their Clinical Fellowship Year requirements for full accreditation, licensure, and Early Intervention Credentialing.

Claire holds a Masters in Speech-Language Pathology from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Infant Mental Health from The Erikson Institute in Chicago. Claire received her undergraduate degree in History from the College of The Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. Claire's clinical specialties include: Language & Communication Delays, Feeding Challenges, Down syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Neurogenic, Neuromuscular, Congenital, Genetic & Metabolic Disorders, Preemies, Preschool Inclusion Support, Social Language and Peer Interaction, Infant Mental Health Certificate, Infant Massage Instruction Certification, Parent Advocacy and Preschool Transition Support, SSI and Due Process Evaluations. Claire's clinical work is strongly influenced and informed by the principles of Floortime/DIR and Infant Mental Health practices.

For more information, to schedule an evaluation, or to inquire about ongoing speech-language/feeding therapy, please contact Claire directly at 773-710-8304 or clairehalloran@sbcglobal.net. You can also check out her professional profile at Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/claire-halloran/8/22a/987

Shari Lenz, MOTR/L

Shari Lenz is an Occupational Therapist with 14 years of experience in Pediatrics and Early Intervention. She specializes in sensory processing, modulation and regulation disorders and has extensive experience with preemies, feeding, Failure to Thrive, ASD/PDD/ Asperger's, genetic disorders/syndromes, Down syndrome, Cerebral Palsy and neuromuscular disorders. Shari is SIPT certified and certified in Therapeutic Listening Program. Shari was an OT director for 10 years and currently provides state and private OT evaluations.