Today we’d like to introduce you to Meghan Zeller, CCC-SLP.
Meghan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
As a child who struggled in school, I would never have imagined I would one day become a speech-language pathologist and co-own a business dedicated to helping children with disabilities.
In elementary school, I struggled with reading and writing, I had to work twice as hard as my peers. I would study and study for weekly spelling tests and barely pass. Reading aloud in class was extremely embarrassing and a continuing source of anxiety growing up. I grew up in Connecticut at a time when not much was known about learning disabilities and it would take many years before I would learn that my struggles were due to dyslexia.
However, I never gave up. I owe a lot of my resilience to my parents, especially my mother who struggled in school with undiagnosed dyslexia when she was a child. My mother pressed the school to do Specific Learning Disability testing which revealed a reading/learning disability. She was determined that my reading and writing skills would not define my intelligence or my ability to succeed.
My parents never gave me any reason to doubt my ability to be successful. There was always the expectation that I would go to college. When I graduated high school, I knew I wanted to work with kids, especially kids that struggled in school. After observing a speech-therapy session, I was hooked and I knew this was the career for me. In college, I developed creative strategies to study and learn to overcome setbacks from dyslexia, but I never told anyone about my learning disability. In 2001, I graduated with a Master’s Degree in Communication Disorders and became a Speech-Language Pathologist.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Today, we know that dyslexia is genetic. If one parent has dyslexia, there is a 50% chance their child will inherit the disorder. After becoming a mom and discovering one of my sons had dyslexia, it was an “aha” moment for me and I made a paradigm shift. I realized I had spent my entire life masking and not telling anyone that I had dyslexia. I looked at where I had come from and where I am now and realized I could be an advocate. If others could hear about someone who has overcome the setbacks of dyslexia, then perhaps it would help them to know they are not alone.
My biggest takeaway is that as a parent, the most important thing you can do is be supportive and let your children do activities they are good at. Children with learning disabilities are reminded every day at school of the things they are not good at doing and it can be very defeating. Let them build upon their strengths and gifts so they can experience success and build self-confidence whether it be in music, sports, art, etc.
After graduation, I moved to Arizona and met JoAnn Ridge, an excellent and established Speech-Language Pathologist. JoAnn and I worked together and she became my mentor. I then started mentoring other Speech-Language Pathologists. Eventually, our names became known and we both saw a need in the community for the consistency and high-quality therapy we provided and in 2008, we formed Ridge Zeller Therapy.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Ridge Zeller Therapy?
Today, Ridge Zeller Therapy has grown to an award-winning group of Speech-Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, and School Psychologists committed to professional excellence in improving the quality of life for children with disabilities and their families throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area. We provide therapy services in schools, homes, via teletherapy, and at our clinic in Chandler.
Because we are SLP-owned and not business investors, we bring our unique backgrounds, training, and experience to our clients and staff. As our company has grown over the past 15 years, my role has evolved to include mentorship and training. Our business was built on the idea that great mentorship and training, produce the very best providers and the highest quality of care for our clients. I think this is what sets us apart from other therapy groups.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
It is a privilege for me to bring my perspective as a person who has struggled with a learning disability and as a parent of a child with a learning disability to my role as a Speech-Language Pathologist and has enabled me to connect with our clients and their families in a unique way.
Ensuring that children with learning disabilities are evaluated and receive treatment and the highest quality of care is something close to my heart.
Ultimately, it is important that families and the children themselves understand their disability and that accommodations can be made to strengthen their success and most importantly, that they know they are not alone.
Contact Info:
- Website: RidgeZellerTherapy.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/ridge_zeller_therapy
- Facebook: Facebook.com/ridgezellertherapy
- Twitter: Twitter.com/RZTherapy
- Youtube: Youtube.com/c/RidgeZellerTherapy
- Yelp: Yelp.com/biz/ridge-zeller-therapy-chandler
