Terrible business. The therapists were great but the company isn't responsive or ethical. They ended up dropping my son saying they didn't have a clinician after 3 months of no services and only ONE choice given for scheduling. Talk about client abandonment! Multiple scheduling issues without much communication or effort to make things right. As an educator I would never refer this company to any student, family, or friend. Look elsewhere for better and professional businesses. read more

I definitely feel this is the best in our town.Miss Palwasha was very helpful as my daughter was not able to produce k and g sounds ,And after some days of practising with palwasha ,she was able to produce those sounds.I really appreciate her and also the Supervisor of Language Essentials .She was there for help in most of the classes. I really like how they help each and every child with the therapy and I would definitely recommend to the people who are looking for best therapy in town. read more

My daughter has been going to lisa since she was two years old.. Lisa has been teaching her for over a year in a half and I just wanted to cry.. just seeing how my daughter's speech is improving.. I cant Thanks Lisa and the staff enough.. read more

My son went to Language Essentials to receive language therapy on April 28, 2021. His first class was in a room full of toys. What the teacher did was to simply using to the toys in the room to trick my son to talk (as I often did as an unprofessional) : she moved her arms with the toys in her hand while my son chasing the toy. But my son's focus was 100% on the toys, so he just tried to grab the toys instead of speaking. I was there witnessing all what happened. The whole thing awkwardly lasted 35 minutes and the class ended prematurely (The full class was supposed to last 45 minutes). In the end, my son spoke one word in this class. At the end of this first class, the teacher herself realized that that was not the right way to get my son to speak. She promised to use a different way of teaching: change to a different room, using a white board and some cards with pictures/images to get my son to talk. But the teacher did not do what she promised at the end of the first class. In the second class, she led my son to the same room, using the same toys and the same old approach: moving the toys with her arm and making my son grab, to a point where my son became mad. The second class only lasted 25 minutes, ended even more earlier than should. My son did not speak a single word in the second class. After we left, I sent them an email asking "Is there a need to go there next Wednesday?" So we terminated the service from Language Essentials. I had a lot of blame on the Language Essentials' incompetence, but I did not know what they said about my son had even worse consequences until recently, which had become a disaster for my son to receive language therapy from another school. They told Kaiser my son was "Discharged", something 100% untrue. I terminated their service seeing their incompetence. They told Kaiser my son had behavioral problem instead of language problem: Not true, rather I only saw the teacher and the school's incompetence problem. Now Kaiser declined my son to receive language therapy in a different school because Language Essentials' irresponsible and false words of my 5-year-old son. My son's biggest problem had always been language problems. His behavioral problem is minor if there is. Avoid Language Essentials if possible. There may be unexpected bad things afterwards. read more

This review is only for a speech evaluation and not for speech services. After the terrible evaluation, I decided to take my daughter else where for services. I did not write this review until I had another speech clinic to compare Langugae Essentials against. Langugae Essentials was recommended time by my daughter's pediatrician at Stanford so I thought they would provide decent services. I was wrong. It took about a month and a half for us to get an evaluation date for our daughter. When we arrived at the appointment the front desk staff were nice. The entire evaluation process was horrible! The speech therapist hardly interacted with my daughter and when she did the interactions were forced. My daughter did not enjoy interacting with the speech therapist. The speech therapist spent 90% of her time asking me questions. She also asked if my daughter had autism because she seemed "overly" excited and flapped her arms for 10 seconds. When the speech therapist suggested my daughter be tested for autism after she had met my daughter for 30 minutes. I was completely taken aback my her suggestions but told her I would look into it. Overall, she could have had better bedside manner and not make such a hasty observation. The speech therapist's hasty observation caused my family a lot of heartache, time, and money. My daughter's pediatrician never thought my daughter had autism and being good parents we paid lots of money to have our daughter evaluated by a developmental psychologist. Our daughter does not have autism. I understand the need to have to rule everything out that may be causing speech delays; however, to make such hasty observations is not right. After you have genuine interactions with my child for a few hours, then maybe you might be able to make a suggestion that my child has autism. To top it all off, we we received the evaluation 75% of the report was the observations I shared with the speech therapist. Overall, we wasted a lot of time and money by going to Langugae Essentials. On the other hand, we went to another speech clinic and they were great! During the evaluation, they played with my daughter and make really helpful observations in their report. As a parent, if you don't want to waste your time and financial resources, stay away from Langugae Essentials. read more

I'm only giving this rating "two stars" as I feel most people who leave a score of "one star" simply can't be pleased no matter how much you extend yourself in both product and/or service. All in all, it's above average in terms of their services but they shuffle instructors frequently and send nasty grams to you if you're unable to accommodate or be at their beckon call when it comes to make up sessions. As if that's our fault that "YOU" canceled on us and not the other way around :-). We had a recurring meeting once a week which fit us perfectly as it was the one day neither of our 3 kids had sports and/or activities. However, they kept changing appointments (days/times) which made it very difficult to maintain consistency. This of course is very important with this type of coaching. In short, there are several choices in the areas so make sure you exhaust your alternatives before you give this place a try. read more

I've been taking my son to the San Ramon office for the past 4 years and have had a positive experience with all the SLPs. Each SLP that worked with my son has been great about utilizing his strengths to make each session as effective as possible for him without him feeling like it's "work" and he always leaves with a smile on his face. He looks forward to his weekly session and greets all the staff there. The entire office staff are very welcoming and it's a positive environment for all. I want to especially acknowledge Language Essential's office manager, Flo Skitch. Flo is extremely knowledgeable and oversees multiple LE office locations and does a wonderful job managing the business and insurance operations of the business. She is very responsive in her communication to all the clients if any need arises and always has the client's best interests at heart. Thanks Language Essentials for always being there for me and my kids. read more

Our Speech Therapist was great but she left for another job. We really like them, they're really professional. The only reason why I'm giving it four stars is because they are extremely busy and seem a bit scattered. Finding availability and someone getting back to you seems to take forever but I'm sure most Therapy places are like this. read more

My 2 year old daughter has been at Language Essentials for the past year working with both Ms. Nori and Ms. Lily on her speech delay. I found Language Essentials after leaving the speech services we were receiving at Valleycare (in Livermore) because I found the pediatric services there inadequate. I can't say enough good things about Language Essentials. My daughter has increased from 2-4 sessions per week due to her speech issues and so I am there in the office quite a bit. The receptionist Melissa is very approachable and kind. She is always available to answer my insurance questions and to help with scheduling. While there I see all the therapists come into the waiting room to meet their clients of varying age ranges and everyone seems in good spirits to be there. My daughter can always be found waiting with her face practically at the door for Ms. Lily to come for her. I love that all the children including my daughter think they are there to play and they don't realize how hard they are working. My daughter thinks we go to see and play with her friends and in a way she's right but she has no idea how much they are helping her achieve her goals in ways I couldn't and wouldn't begin to know how to. I have no regrets choosing Language Essentials and I tell all my fellow therapy moms and dad's at my daughters preschool (School of Imagination) and now we see some of them in the waiting room too! And now that I've told you the Pros, just so you know there are a few Cons. They are in no particular order: 1) if you have a kiddo in diapers, the bathroom for the main office building doesn't have a changing table (so we just have to go to the car), 2) the waiting room has lots of seating but only 2 out of the 8 chairs are sofa like and if you are a therapy mom like me and spend a lot of time in waiting rooms then you can appreciate a nice chair! I'd love to see more of those but for now we just try to get there a little early so I can stake my claim in a comfy spot while my kiddo works on chatting it up with her buddy/therapist Ms. Lily! read more

Language Essentials Speech and Occupational Therapy - Always waiting at the door for her session with Ms. Lily! - Speech Therapists Near Me - San Ramon, California

My son has been seeing ST's (most time spent with Lisa and Anna) at LE since last 2.5 years for speech delay . during this time he has improved a lot. I have personally sit during some of the session on-site (Pre-Covid) and now virtual (teletherapy) and most I liked is program is well structured and fine tuned to meet individual goals. it's great team of professionals including ST's, office staff (Melissa, Janice, Maggie and front desk staff pre covid) and owner Renne and my interactions has been positive. sometime it is bit frustrating when we are not able to get choice of our schedule trying to align with school and other services (if any) or being put on waiting list due to family vacation etc but in the end it has worked out with some patience. read more

When my oldest son was 8 years old we made the almost one hour drive each way for him to attend Language Essentials once a week. It was the only speech therapist covered by our insurance. From the first over the phone conversation, I was very satisfied with Renee. After her initial evaluation with my son, she referred him to another therapist. I was disappointed at first as I thought she would have been a great fit for my son. But we soon found out that Jill Reynolds was his new speech therapist and we couldn't have been more thrilled with her. She and Jackson "clicked" and he looked forward to his weekly sessions with her. We continued to make the drive for the next 9 months until my son "graduated" and was able to fully pronounce his R sounds. Fast forward 3 years and it was time to find a speech therapist for my youngest son who had the same R pronunciation difficulties. Our insurance no longer covered speech therapy, but we decided to make those weekly trips again, knowing the success that my oldest had. We requested Jill Reynolds and once again she worked so well with my younger son and within 8 months he "graduated"! It was well worth the 3 hour turn around time as both my sons felt comfortable and looked forward to their speech sessions with Jill. She had a very gentle way of encouraging the boys and always made them feel good about themselves when they left each session. They were always willing to do their homework so they could report back to her. read more

Ms. Isabel is very professional and patient. Already see a lot of improvement. Keep up the great work!

Renee is fantastic, effective and thorough. My two year has been working with her for 6 months, he has grown and developed very strong communication skills, both in quantity and quality. I could not thank her enough for enhancing our lives by investing so much time, care and attention in our son's language development. I would recommend her services to anyone, especially young children. read more

After seeing several therapists in my "neck of the woods" that I wasn't happy with, I decided that I would try out Language Essentials and see if it was worth the commute. For 8 months, I made the drive from Half Moon Bay to San Ramon once a week for my 28 month old to receieve expressive and receptive one-on-one therapy from Ms. Paula. It was absolutely worth it! Melissa (at the front desk) and our therapist were both very accommodating to our drive time. We found a schedule that worked with traffic and Ms. Paula extended our sessions so we could visit once a week rather than twice a week. To be honest, our initial evaulation was rough and my daughter didn't want to cooperate with the evaulating therapist. I wanted thow in the towel immediately, but I realize now that it was simply my fears speaking. Navigating the right path when looking for therapy, is scary and stressful. But Language Essentials took me under their wing. They let me sit in on sessions in the beginning so I could understand my child's delays and gain strategies to use at home. At the end of every session, Ms. Paula took 5-10 min. to go over my child's achievements and goals. After consistent work, my daughter passed her age appropriate assessment. It was with a heavy heart that we parted ways with Ms. Paula. I knew she had helped us get to where we needed to be, but speech therapy had become such a wonderful part of our week, that it was hard to say goodbye. I can't say enough positive things about our experience as a family at Language Essentials. I truly felt like they educated me as a parent, as well as my child! read more

All the staff at Language Essentials is pleasant and professional! From Melissa at the front desk, to Renee who gave my 4 year old daughter her assessment, and finally her speech therapist, Ms. Jill. Jill has worked with my daughter for almost a year and I have seen a dramatic change in her language and her sentence formation. She now catches her mistakes and corrects herself before anyone else can correct her. When I changed insurance companies and they didn't accept my insurance, they still worked with me to make sure I could continue speech therapy without a gap in sessions! I have enjoyed working with everyone as this company and would recommend them to anyone before going to Happy Talkers! read more

I would highly recommend this place. My teenage son has had speech therapy for about a year now with his speech therapist Ms. Paula. She is very caring and experienced with a variety of age appropriate material that is his level to better help him with not only his speech, but also other things such as inferencing. My son has good speech skills, but needed some fine tuning. I have already seen improvement in my son and he is really happy going to speech therapy. I was taking him to another speech therapy place before I found Language Essentials, but I thought the material was for more little kids and not the level that my son needed. The speech and language skills he is receiving here will help him in situations that are essential at his age such as looking for a job, going to college, etc. read more

Not able to engage or communicate well with young children. Our 2 year old had an awful experience for his first evaluation. He left crying and frightened. As a pediatrician, I would expect more from a medical professional. read more

My son has been going to LE for almost two years. He's from a quiet three years old to a talkative five years old boy.Also My three years old daughter had been with LE for a year, and graduated few months ago. She's a normal three years old speaker now. We are really happy with the help my kids has been getting from LE. They are professional, loving and definitely know how to work with young kids. read more

My son has been attending Language Essentials for over a year, in both individual speech and group social skills sessions. He has ASD and has been in many groups over the years (he is 11) in order to help facilitate appropriate groups interactions, understanding social ques , etc. We've been very happy with the group and have seen improvement in our son's expressive language and social interactions. This is the 4th social skills group we've participated in (4 different facilities) and by far it's been the best...goals, homework, explanations of what is being worked on, creative ways to keep kids motivated (videoing social interactions between group members, then watching and critiquing with peers). The program is well thought out with good follow up. Most important, my son likes his friends in the group and enjoys going. read more