Neurodiversity-Affirming Speech Therapy for Kids in Scotch Plains, NJ
Individualized, play-based speech and language support provided in your child’s home, daycare, or preschool throughout Central New Jersey.
Schedule a free Consultation
Welcome to Speech Playhouse!
At Speech Playhouse, your child’s interests, strengths, and unique way of connecting are the starting point for therapy. Through play, connection, and genuine curiosity, we help children build communication skills in ways that feel safe, meaningful, and authentic.
We take the time to understand how your child learns, connects, and moves through their world. Looking beyond labels and surface behaviors helps us determine where they need support. Therapy may include building early interaction and play skills, supporting language development, or finding communication tools that help your child share what they think, need, and feel.
By prioritizing trust, co-regulation, and play, we follow your child’s cues and adjust our approach to find what helps them feel safe, engaged, and ready to communicate. Sessions are playful and child-led, but always intentional. Speech, AAC, signs, gestures, facial expressions, and behavior are all recognized as meaningful communication. I’ll explain what I’m noticing, why it matters, and what you can try at home, so you feel informed and supported as well.
Speech Therapy for Kids in Central New Jersey
Early Language & Play
Using a DIR/Floortime approach, we follow your child’s interests to build foundational communication skills, including engagement, shared attention, gestures, and reciprocal and pretend play skills.
Gestalt Language Processing
We provide neurodiversity-affirming support for children who communicate through scripts and gestalts, helping them develop more flexible, self-generated language.
Speech Sounds & Childhood Apraxia
Using individualized, evidenced-based approaches such as DTTC and PROMPT, we help children communicate important words and become easier to understand.
AAC & Multimodal Communication
We provide AAC evaluations, device procurement and support, customization, and caregiver coaching.
Parent & Caregiver Coaching
Because communication doesn’t only happen in the therapy room.
Virtual coaching sessions give us time to look at what’s happening in your child’s real life: during play, routines, transitions, communication breakdowns, or moments that just aren’t working.
Together, we’ll identify what may be getting in the way and develop practical, individualized strategies you can begin using right away.
Meet Your Speech Therapist
Holly Gersher, M.S., CCC-SLP
Owner, Speech-Language Pathologist
I’m Holly Gersher, a pediatric speech language pathologist with more than 18 years of experience supporting children in early intervention, preschool, and elementary school settings.
My approach is playful, individualized, and neurodiversity-affirming. I focus on building a trusting relationship with each child because children learn best when they feel safe, understood, and connected.
As both an SLP and the parent of neurodivergent children, I get how vulnerable it can feel to seek support for your child. My own family’s journey profoundly shaped the way I practice, teaching me to meet children where they are, honor communication differences, and build upon each child’s unique strengths.
No two children communicate, learn, or connect in exactly the same way, and I don’t believe in one size fits all therapy. I believe in looking beneath the surface, and am informed by Steven Porges’ work on neuroception - the way their nervous system determines whether situations feel safe or threatening. The foundation of my therapy practice focuses on understanding your child, their sensory needs, their executive functioning needs, and their ability to engage and regulate.
Therapy may include movement, use of AAC, speech practice, executive function support, and plenty of play with a purpose. Above all, I want families to feel hopeful, supported, and confident about their child’s future. Every form of communication matters and every child deserves to feel safe, seen, and understood.
Advanced Trainings & Certifications:
Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) Advanced Training Workshop - Once Upon a Time Foundation
DIR 101 and DIR 441 - DIRFloortime® Interdisciplinary Council on Development and Learning, Inc.
It Takes Two to Talk® Hanen Certification Workshop The Hanen Centre
Introduction to PROMPT: Technique - PROMPT Institute
ASD from the INSIDE OUT trained therapist
“There needs to be a lot more emphasis on what a child can do instead of what he cannot do.”
- Temple Grandin
Getting Started with Speech Playhouse is Easy!
Speech Playhouse travels to serve children in homes, daycares, and preschools near Scotch Plains, NJ— including Fanwood, Westfield, Cranford, Springfield, and surrounding towns.
Step 1
Free Phone Consultation
Share your concerns, ask questions, about your child's speech and language development to help you determine the next best step.
Step 2
Comprehensive Evaluation
Your child’s speech and language skills will be evaluated to develop meaningful, individualized goals. If your child is minimally-speaking or non-speaking, we will provide access to AAC.
Step 3
Begin Therapy
Therapy will be tailored to your child and scheduled around your family’s needs. Progress will be monitored regularly so strategies and goals can change as your child grows.
Insurance & Billing
Speech Playhouse is a private-pay clinic. We are happy to provide superbills that can be submitted for out-of-network reimbursement upon request. Please visit our Helpful Information page for more information!