Little Talkers, LLC
Speech and Language Therapy
ABOUT
As Early Intervention therapists, I believe we play a crucial role in the future of children and families we are privileged to work with.
Since starting my business in 2007, I have become a mother of four boys and being a parent has made me appreciate my career on a different level. As a business owner, I want to provide a working environment that can be flexible for all people, including parents. This means the therapist is able to set his/her own schedule, and working as many (or as little) hours as he/she wishes. I know that personal circumstances change, which is why I never require a certain hours of work, and am flexible with the amount therapists want to work over time.
I want to provide each therapist with the independance they desire while also providing the support needed to grow and be successful. One of my main goals at Little Talkers is to keep the company small enough to maintain the caring and collaborative culture our employees appreciate. We hold regularly scheduled meetings to provide ongoing support to therapists by discussing individual clients, providing professional development, and staying on top of the latest changes in Early Intervention.
I'm proud to say that Little Talkers provides regular and consistent income for therapists in a time when payments from the state are often untimely and inconsistent. Our financial backing has allowed me to never miss a payment to my therapists admidst financial concerns in Illinois.
Jessica Patnoudes, MS, CCC-SLP/L
Speech Language Pathologist
Owner at Little Talkers LLC
Marquette University BS 2000, MS 2002
About Me
​Upon graduating from Marquette University in 2002, I was thrilled about the prospect of a career as a speech language pathologist. My first job was with a special education co-op, working in schools with children ages 5-21 with severe to profound special needs in an Educational and Life Skills program. This job sparked my love of working with children to develop functional communication skills as my primary goal. I experienced the joy that children felt when, despite having significant communication difficulties, were able to express themselves to get their needs and wants known, share information, and be social with others.
Soon I realized I was passionate about helping children communicate in whatever way they could, be it verbal language, sign language, or augmentative and alternative communication devices of all kinds. Also, I found fulfillment in helping teachers and teacher assistants discover new ways to utilize various communication systems. My favorite was going on community outings with students to watch them apply thier new communicative strategies and skills in a variety of functional situations. As rewarding as all of this was, it occured to me that something was missing. Only so much could be accomplished within school hours and I saw great potential in the impact I could have if I were also able to work with the families of these students.
After several years in the schools, I found a position in therapy clinics where I worked with a wide range of communication disorders as well as families of the kids I was serving. However much progress was made in the clinic, it was difficult to sustain gains made in the therapy room at home and in community environments. That's when I found Early Intervention! It turned out to be a perfect marriage of functional language skills in the home environment and working closely with the families of the children I treat. In 2007, I decided to make Early Intervention and home-based therapy the main focus of my career, and Little Talkers, Speech and Language Therapy, LLC, was born.