Sarah Van Dusen, MS, CCC-SLP is the president and founder of Progressive Speech Therapy, LLC. She enjoys working with a variety of students, but her greatest passions are working with families affected by childhood apraxia of speech and training other professionals in apraxia techniques for assessment and treatment. Because of this desire, she has completed the highest level of training in apraxia and become CASANA Recognized for Advanced Training and Expertise in Childhood Apraxia of Speech.

Sarah began her career in the Dallas Regional Day School Program for the Deaf (DRDSPD) through Dallas Independent School District where she gained valuable experience working with children who have auditory impairments and the professionals who serve them. Her focus was on improving the language skills of these children, but the longer she served them, the more aware she became that she and many of her fellow speech-language pathologists struggled to affect change in the areas of articulation and phonological disorders. Sarah attended many conferences and workshops on the topic but still did not feel adequately prepared to help her most severe cases. It was at this time that she began her quest for knowledge and training in how to correct severe articulation and phonological disorders.

Sarah left her beloved children in the DRDSPD and began training at a small, private practice that specialized in articulation, phonology, and childhood apraxia of speech. During her near three years of training, she came across innumerable parents who were frustrated by the amount of time and money that had been wasted with ineffective treatments for their children and almost as many speech-language pathologists who were begging to be taught what to do with these difficult cases. It did not take long for her to realize that one, small, private practice could not serve the number of families in Dallas who needed this type of intervention, so she struck out on her own to help more families and train more professionals. And thus, Progressive Speech Therapy was established.

Sarah graduated magna cum laude from the University of Texas at Dallas with her bachelor of science degree in speech-language pathology and audiology. She went on to earn her Master of Science degree in Communication Disorders from the same institution. She holds a speech-language pathology license from her home state of Texas. She is CASANA Recognized for Advanced Training and Expertise in Childhood Apraxia of Speech. She has collected her Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association and is an active member of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA), the Texas Speech-Language Hearing Association (TSHA), and the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America (CASANA).

Sarah's time in a private practice setting has been spent working with clients who have mild to severe articulation and/or phonological disorders, language disorders, childhood apraxia of speech, auditory impairments, and a variety of other syndromes or disorders. She enjoys training parents to work with their children at home and other speech-language pathologists to work with these children in their own professional settings. She also enjoys working with adults who are in need of accent reduction.

Sarah's passions and professional goals are to give families the best services available for speech and language disorders and to consistently add to the knowledge base of her profession.