Hi, I’m Desi Peña! Bilingual speech-language clinician & educator
I’m committed to culturally responsive assessment and clinical service delivery. My areas of expertise are multilingual language development, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), and pediatric language disorders. I hold the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC-SLP) and I’m licensed to practice in the states of Maine, Vermont, and California. I’m bilingual in English and Spanish and have evaluated children who speak/are exposed the following languages at home:
- Haitian Creole
- Jamaican Patois
- Arabic
- Japanese
- Brazilian Portuguese
Specialized Training & Recognition
- Advanced Certificate in Bilingual Speech-Language Pathology, Teachers College Columbia University
- Advanced Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) Workshop, Child Apraxia Treatment & Dr. Edyth Strand
- Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP)
- ASHA Award for Continuing Education, 2021 & 2023
- ASHA Distinguished Early Career Professional Certificate, 2022
Professional Development Offerings
Multilingualism & Culturally Responsive Services
- Typical speech and language development for multilingual children
- Culturally responsive multilingual assessment for SLPs
- Cultural-linguistic considerations for SLPs when working with multilingual children
- Second language acquisition
- Supporting multilingual learners with complex communication needs & AAC
School-Based Topics
- Establishing collaborative educational teams for serving multilingual learners
- Building relationships with culturally and linguistically diverse families
- Empowering multilingual learners & leveraging supports (e.g., translanguaging, universal design for learning)
- The role of SLPs in multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS)
Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)
- Day-to-day implementation of AAC in educational settings for educational teams, including educational technicians, SPED teachers, and SLPs
- School-based implementation for multilingual AAC users
- AAC assessment and treatment considerations for multilingual children
Panorama Speech 