Progressive Speech and Hearing

I wish Unilocal let us rate with zero stars. We went here to get my 1 ½ year old evaluated. The main person in charge evaluated her — and it was first time with a therapist (Dawn– the owner) and man did she make me feel terrible for being there. It was far from being supportive or compassionate. My daughter was in the office and went exploring. She snatched a toy from her and my daughter did not react — I think she was just puzzled with it, she claimed this was not natural and expected her to protest (ehhh)She placed my daughter at a 6 month level and urged us to start therapy right away and not lose time. We panicked and cancelled our vacation. A vacation we were planning since 3 months. Later when we spoke to the pediatrician we felt at ease. The speech therapy room is so empty and very cold and not play like — which is what one can expect at a place that is expected to help kids who are speexh delayed. We went for two sessions because we were looking for other therapists and they have some weird cancellation policy) and all we did was try to say pop at the bubbles. Thats it. We moved. We have been to other therapy places and now know what to look for. I would highly recommend parents to steer clear of this place — or atleast go to other therapy places before you commit to starting here.

I don’t blame the others for their bad reviews on Dawn Boston. However, even though her personality and bluntness may turn people off, she is an awesome Speech Therapist and is darn good at what she does. My child has been going to her for several months now, and we have seen significant improvement in her speech. Dawn runs her practice independently, so she only accepts cash or check as methods of payment. (We all know that credit cards are costly and charge a percentage to use them.) At the end of every session, she gives out a toy/​prize from her surprise bin. She will easily work with a schedule that is convenient for you. Not only does she work with children, but she works with adults as well. My child is excited to see Dawn every week, and that’s all that matters.

I just went to Progressive Speech for both of my sons to be evaluated by a therapist. I WISH I would have checked Unilocal first! Do not waste your time going to the place! After having alot of confusion over paperwork/​billing (the staff does NOT know what they are doing OR talking about) we then saw Dawn the therapist. She told us both parents were NOT allowed to come in for the child to be evaluated. One parent would have to wait in the waiting room… weird if you ask me, but I did not know at the time that is NOT standard for speech therapy! She first evaluated my youngest son (2 yrs old) I felt like I did more of helping him get warmed up (he is a shy 2 yr old as is MOST!) to talk and read along with a book. After evaluating him she then saw my 4 yr old son. This session went okay. We then were asked to come in together as a family to talk about everything. She explained to us that my 2 yr old is on a 12 month level (crazy) then during our meeting my 2 yr old pooped his diaper (he JUST turned 2 for crying out loud) She asked” Ummmm. did he just Poop?” with an attitude… my husband said Ya– thats what TWO year olds do! She said I’m sorry, I need fresh air and opened the door– again with attitude, NEVER took a second to let us go change him, etc. My 2 yr old then was digging thru our diaper bag trying to keep himself busy, and found his pacifier– which we use at bedtime (AND IS BESIDE THE POINT ANYHOW) she saw this and immediately says «You also need to get rid of that, it’s only going to keep him behind with talking». We didn’t ASK you your thoughts DAWN on a pacifier!!! This is our very first EVALUATION; maybe you could have saved your opinion for a later date!!! We were completely being rushed. Dawn didn’t even ACT like she liked KIDS in general!!! My kids never warmed up with her at all, during this visit. After leaving, I called back and asked for them NOT to look into my insurance in regards to how many visits we can get authorized and that we were NOT coming back… It’s been weeks. and we NEVER got even a call back!
wow…

Where do I begin? Speech Therapists were great, owner and office staff, horrendous! If you decide to take your child/​ren here, BEWARE and be prepared to know what your insurance will and will not cover and hold your ground because this office does not seem to understand how to bill your insurance. And, if you’re planning on using your medical flex spending account, FORGET IT. This office refuses to acknowledge the fact that a reciept must be issued the day services are rendered in order for you to submit it for flex spending reimbursement. Their policy is to issue a reciept only at month end and upon request only (and they give you alot of hassle when you do ask). They claim that all medical offices issue reciepts like this, which is a blatant lie. They have some of the oddest policies and procedures of any medical office I have ever worked with. Unprofessional, rude, unknowledgeable of medical billing and medical flex spending accounts, I’d give them ZERO stars if I could.
If you’re looking for speech therapists, there are many others here on Unilocal who have great reviews.

Very unprofessional and difficult place to deal with. This place does not care about a childs wellbeing from the top down. The owner — Dawn is a piece of work. Do not go here.

Both my son and daughter came here for speech therapy. We had come here for 3 years. Our experience here overall has been positive. We mainly picked this place because our insurance covered it. We liked the therapists. The problem was that the therapists kept changing every few months, which made the kids have to adjust to new people. Two of the therapists relocated to new cities to follow their spouse’s job. While the kids were attending, my son reached his speech goals after 2 years and graduated from their program. My daughter was still in the program when her latest therapist had to change to a morning schedule instead of afterschool. We stopped after that because there wasn’t a therapist available for the specific day and time we could come. At that time, she had been going there almost 3 years and she did make significant progress on her speech. We are very glad that we decided to do private speech therapy and that we were able to afford private therapy because Progressive was the one our insurance company did cover.

Where to begin? After waiting 3 months for our son’s speech assessment, I finally took him today and was treated in a way that I still can hardly believe. In the course or mere minutes, Dawn Boston:
(1) told me to «go next door to 7-Eleven’s ATM and get cash» for payment;
(2) accused me of trying to avoid payment despite my offers otherwise (see below);
(3) claimed that her poor Unilocal reviews were nothing more than people who didn’t want to pay her;
(4) stated that she was reported to the Better Business Bureau by these same people; and
(5) REFUSED TO RETURN MY PAPERWORK TO ME after I told her that I was not interested in working with her. Keep in mind that services were never rendered (thank goodness) so she had no reason to keep the paperwork, which obviously contained sensitive information. Only after I continued to insist on my paperwork being returned did she offer to shred the papers and «allow» me to witness this.
Dawn kept insisting that her cash upfront payment policy had already been stated and was visibly irritated that I wasn’t running to 7-Eleven’s ATM for cash. I explained that while that may have been explained 3 MONTHS AGO in November when I made the appointment, I did not have my checkbook. I offered my credit card number. She refused. I offered the cash I had ($ 90) and suggested they bill me for the remainder ($ 85) since I was not comfortable taking my 2 young children with me to 7-Eleven’s ATM. She again refused.
Dawn was rude, accusatory, and unprofessional in every sense of the word. And refusing to return my paperwork? Incomprehensible, as confirmed by our peditrician’s office that referred us to Progressive Speech.
Please, please do not take your children here. Trust the Unilocal reviews.

Here is an update with Progressive Speech. Originally, my child was approved for 30 visits, then Progressive was suppose to send an evaluation to the insurance company to get additional visits approved, so when the 30 visits was near we went to Sara to make sure that part of things was taken care of. Sara told us «your insurance is paying for it, I wouldn’t worry about it. If their paying the don’t even bring it to their attention.» Now months later our insurance has caught an additional 31 visits that were never approved. Progressive Speech is now trying to bill us for the 31 visits that they neglected to have approved. Progressive Speech has proved to be very unprofessional and a huge pain to deal with. Hopefully those who are with Progressive Speech never have an financial issue down the line because you will be on your own just when you thought they had your best interest in mind.

This place has got to be the most unprofessional, difficult, unresponsive place I’ve ever dealt with. Terrible customer service!!! The front office is completely confused — in their defense I don’t think they are provided with enough information. Don’t waste your time here.