Real families • Individual experiences
Small Steps Can Create Meaningful Change
Every child’s needs, pace and progress are unique. These family stories offer a glimpse of what thoughtful, individualized support can look like.
Stories shared with care
In Their Own Words
Explore reflections from families by the kind of support their child received.
Family experiences
Speech Sound Disorders, Motor Speech & Apraxia
After years of traditional speech therapy with little progress, finding Dr. Shelley has been a complete game changer us. Her approach is truly inspirational and magical. She works tirelessly to uncover the root of the issue and create solutions that are specifically tailored to each child. She is passionate about her work and also instills such pride in the children she works with. Myu child leaves each session with Dr. Shelley beaming and motivated like never before. In just a few short months, already there is already a significant improvement in my child's speech. Dr. Shelley was able to identify the underlying motor-based challenges and provided targeted exercises that finally addressed the core of my child's difficulties. His school teacher even reached out to share how much improvement she's seen, not just in my child's speech, but in terms of confidence in the classroom and with peers. Watching my child go from frustrated to confident and happy has been incredible. We are beyond grateful for Dr. Shelley and the life-changing impact she's had on our child.Read full storyShow less
Our family absolutely adores Shelly. She’s one of those rare people who can take something that feels like “work” and turn it into pure fun. Her engaging personality draws my son in every time. Within minutes, she has him laughing, participating, and actually wanting to practice.Read full storyShow less
What makes her stand out is that her methods truly work—not just for speech progress, but for confidence, too. After three or four sessions, my son has improved more than he has after two years with the school speech teacher.
Lastly, Shelly has this wonderful way of celebrating effort, not just results, so my son feels proud of even the small wins. You can see it in how he carries himself after a session: a little taller, a little more sure of himself.
We highly recommend Shelly; she's a true gem.
Shelley has changed my sons life! She is a magician. We sought her out at the recommendation of a staff member at our public school, and have been seeing her for about 6 months now. Our son, who is 8, has transformed his confidence with his "R's" but also in general in working with her. She has so many strategies that are creative and well tested. She is a delight to be around. He looks forward to his appointment every week and always comes out better and happier. We couldn't recommend her enough.Read full storyShow less
Shelly is the BEST!!!! . My son has severe speech apraxia and did not say a single word for many many years. He started to make some progress before Covid but then we stopped seeing her during Covid because with the barriers he had a hard time. So his progress halted..However, we’ve returned seeing Shelly because I knew that she is the ONLY person who can get him to talk, now 8 years old. He had many years of speech therapy with the district and made no progress. A few sessions with Shelly he started making sounds. He has now progressed to saying a few word sentences, which is incredible! Shelly can get him to say things, I have a hard time getting him to say! But at the same time, it has given him confidence so now he actually echo reads and makes word attempts! She uses very unique approaches I have never seen any other Therapist use and they work ! She is fantastic! Her office may be a little bit outdated however, her excellence is far superior and that’s why you go to a speech therapist not for the office space. She has fun toys my son loves and very creative approaches! She’s AMAZING I recommend to any parent of a child with apraxia without hesitation!!Read full storyShow less
When our daughter was approaching school age, we knew it was time to really address her speech. As she entered Kindergarten, it was impacting her writing and reading and it was difficult for new people to understand her. Even for us at home, it was hard for us to sometimes understand her and this caused some frustration from her. We reached out to Shelley right before the Pandemic hit and even had our first meeting setup but then we went on lockdown. Two months later, I asked Shelley if she was doing Zoom lessons and she said yes. We were both unsure how it would go but were willing to give it a go. I think we can both agree that we are glad we did. She started in May and we just ended our lessons. We had met every week and l was there to assist with any part of the lesson as necessary. Due to the lessons, our daughter went from average on her reading and writing to top percentile. We believe her growth was driven strongly by her speech ability. Her phonological awareness connected letters in reading and the words in the books helped with her speech. Thank you Shelley for supporting our daughter and teaching her life long skills that have boosted her confidence and kick started her love of reading. Now she sleeps with 10 books and spends each night reading in bed.Read full storyShow less
I can't say enough how much I appreciate Shelley and all that she has done to improve my son's speech. Shelley makes the lessons fun for the kids and is creative, flexible and patient in her approach. I have especially been impressed by her ability to adapt to teaching over zoom in the last few months. My son has continued to learn and improve even without in person sessions. In addition, it has been an education for me because of her inclusion of the parent in the learning process. If you are looking for someone who clearly cares about your child's learning in a fun and creative environment then you can not go wrong with Shelley.Read full storyShow less
Family experiences
Early Language, Late Talkers & Social Communication
Rochelle Greenbaum (aka Shelley) is hands down the best speach therapist in Santa Barbara. We started seeing Shelley 1.5 years ago, my daughter was 3 at the time and non verbal. From day 1 Shelley was really hands on and gave our daughter a very individualized therapy session. We have now lost track of her word count and is now sequencing 4-5 word sentences.Read full storyShow less
Shelley is very experienced and is continuesly keeping on top of research in her field by attending conferences and training.
We've seen a few speech therapists in town and Shelley's approach is very different. She uses different mouth tools, food textures and special toys to help get kids speak.
We couldnt speak more highly of Shelley as we see results after every session my daughter has with her.
I cannot express enough gratitude for Shelley Greenbaum's exceptional dedication and expertise as a speech therapist for my five-year-old daughter. Thanks to Shelley, my daughter has made remarkable progress in less than a year. Prior to therapy, my daughter struggled with social communication and experienced difficulty with pronunciation, particularly with sounds like "s" and "th."Read full storyShow less
Under Shelley's guidance, my daughter's transformation has been nothing short of astounding. She now confidently communicates in full sentences, even mastering complex structures with ease. Her ability to engage in conversations has blossomed, and she navigates social interactions more actively and confidently than ever before.
Shelley's approach to therapy is very fun, child-led, and innovative. She has a knack for turning every moment into learning opportunities, making each session both educational and entertaining. She comes prepared with a teaching agenda for every session but remains flexible, tailoring activities to my daughter's needs, interests, and energy levels.
Beyond her professional expertise, Shelley's warmth and genuine care for her young clients are evident in every interaction. She also maintains open and clear communication with parents, keeping us informed about the progress and goals of each session. She has had an incredibly positive impact on my daughter's development, and for that, we are truly grateful.
10/10 recommended!
Shelley has been working with our son for almost a year and what an improvement! He had a speech delay and has had almost a 180 improvement. She individualizes her methods specially for him and he is always engaged, even for the full hour! That is not easy with a 5 year old. He even asks to go see her on days we are not scheduled to. She really is a great therapist.
Very safe. Very professional. Very energetic and motivating for child. Clear and concise instructions for accompanying adult.Read full storyShow less
After the assessment alone we saw dramatic improvements. More words. Longer sentences. More syllables. After first therapy session, dropped syllables and sounds started showing up more consistently. New independent ideas bubbling out. Not just parroting me. More people can understand our child.
Very happy and grateful. Highly recommend.
Family experiences
Myofunctional Therapy & Tongue Position
Dr. Shelley was recommended to us by a friend. I was looking for help with my son’s “r” pronunciation. I had tried another speech pathologist, but saw no improvement. My experience with Dr Shelley has been tremendous! Where the other person just had my son try pronunciations over and over, Dr. Shelley actually showed him the tongue muscles, how to use them, and the right placement to produce the correct sound using fun, kid-friendly strategies. We saw improvement even after one session. Using unique techniques that she developed, my son was able to produce accurate “r” sounds in every word position in a matter of a handful of sessions. She knows what she’s doing! She not only has the expertise in speech pathology, but she is also skilled in making sessions fun, engaging, and confidence-building for her clients. We came to help my son’s speech, but Dr. Shelley is also a myofunctional therapist and saw that my son’s resting tongue position was pushing his top front teeth forward into an extreme overbite. I thought his teeth were just like that, but she showed us that his tongue placement was contributing. We started working on myotherapy and retraining his mouth muscles and have seen a huge difference. My son’s mouth would mostly be open at rest, but his tongue now rests in the correct position at the roof of his mouth and he has a natural closed mouth at rest. Even though he will still need braces, we’ve seen his overbite decrease simply because the tongue is no longer pushing against the back of his teeth. If we hadn’t corrected the tongue placement, his teeth would be continually pushed forward by his tongue, which would reverse any orthodontic work done. I would have never known that had it not been for Dr. Shelley. Dentists don’t mention this because myotherapy is not their field. I can’t recommend Dr. Shelley enough. She is so knowledgeable, kind and gentle, cares about her clients, works really well with kids, works hard to help clients reach their goals, and has techniques you won’t see with other speech therapists.Read full storyShow less
Family experiences
General
Shelley is the best! She cares so deeply and loves what she does. From the first time meeting my daughter she believed in her and most importantly made my daughter believe in the process. We saw improvements in her speech almost immediately!! She thinks outside the box and brings years of experience- the perfect combo. Thank you Shelley!
Dr. Greenbaum is an amazing speech therapist, and an amazing person. She puts her whole heart in helping her patients build the confidence and skills they need to improve their speech. She goes much deeper and further than just speech pathology. She learns about their nature, their sense of humor, their likes and dislikes, and figures out how to connect with them. She goes above and beyond to use creative ways to achieve results with some of the more challenging communication problems. It's truly a gift she has. She has a gentle and patient soul and takes her time to touch their lives. She has made a huge impact to our family, and in all of her patients lives.Read full storyShow less
A note about outcomes
Every child is different. Experiences and outcomes vary based on individual needs, circumstances, participation and many other factors. A family story is not a guarantee of results.
A reassuring first step
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