Talking Child, LLC was founded by two speech-language pathologists in 2002. Friends and colleagues since graduate school, Amy Chouinard and Cory Poland wanted to develop products that would promote speech in children and equip parents with ideas to do the same at home.
Through their work, Amy and Cory realized that there were no early childhood products that incorporate age appropriate sounds and words along with pre-speech nonverbal skills into entertaining videos. They wanted to share their speech and language tips with parents and caregivers who can directly influence a child’s communication in their daily lives. This was the inspiration behind the child’s video with a parent tutorial.
"Through this video," said Cory, "I can continue to positively influence communication in children's lives, and hopefully share my enthusiasm for encouraging communication and sound development at home."
"I feel that this video incorporates the most important aspects of child language development," said Amy. "The video teaches basic sign language and provides an introduction to early developing sounds and first words, encourages imitation, and introduces children to music."
Amy Chouinard, MA, CCC-SLPAmy is a pediatric speech-language pathologist. She received her undergraduate degree in speech pathology at Marquette University and her graduate degree in communication disorders from the University of Minnesota. She completed her master’s thesis on the importance of maternal-child interaction. Amy also owns a private speech therapy practice in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Cory Poland, MA, CCC-SLPCory is a mom and pediatric speech-language pathologist. She received her undergraduate degree from Purdue University and her graduate degree in communication disorders from the University of Minnesota. Cory completed her master’s project on the best way to promote collaboration between speech-language pathologists and teachers in the classroom.