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Please complete the form below to initiate a clinical consultation. Our team will review your inquiry and contact you within one business day to discuss next steps for evidence-based speech pathology or clinical literacy intervention.

Practice Information

Your Visit to Our Point Pleasant Lab

Clinical Hours

Our Location

Insurance & Superbills

Our lab operates Monday through Saturday. All sessions are scheduled by appointment to ensure dedicated, focused clinical time.

Point Speech Pathology & Literacy Lab is conveniently located at 3820 River Road in Point Pleasant, NJ, at the intersection of Route 70 and River Road in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, (across from Crystal Point Yacht Club) serving families across Monmouth and Ocean counties.

We participate with Horizon BCBS of NJ, and we provide comprehensive intake documentation and superbills for direct submission to your insurance provider for potential out-of-network reimbursement.

Meet Danielle (from both sides of the IEP table)

In 2020, during the back-to-school rush of the COVID-19 pandemic, I sat across from a kindergarten teacher at parent-teacher conferences.

My son was six years old.

She told me he was “just a bit behind.”

Forgetting sight words was normal. Tapping out sounds but not blending them accurately was normal. He would catch up.

I nodded. I listened. I made the sight-word cards.

I taped them to our refrigerator. To our walls. We practiced them in the car.

And he didn't progress.

That was difficult for me to reconcile because I wasn't new to this world.

I was a speech-language pathologist with an undergraduate degree in linguistics, including coursework in the science of reading, and a master's degree in speech-language pathology with a clinical focus on language disorders.

I understood how language develops. I understood how the brain processes language. I understood that reading isn't simply a matter of memorizing words.

And I knew that something wasn't right.

When my concerns still weren't being heard the following year, I made a difficult decision: I pulled my son from public school.

Three days a week, I drove him to a Wilson-trained reading specialist.

At the same time, I pursued my own training in structured literacy and multisensory reading instruction so I could better understand what he needed.

And it helped.

Then I brought what I had learned back to the school system.

I asked for a Child Study Team evaluation.

Years later, after attending and hosting hundreds of IEP meetings as a school-based speech-language pathologist, I found myself sitting on the other side of the table.

I listened as the team discussed specialized reading instruction, a pull-out resource program, multisensory reading instruction, and an LLD placement.

And I nodded.

This was what I had fought for.

This was what my child needed.

And then I cried the entire way home.

Because I knew exactly what those words meant professionally.

But this time, they were about my child.

Being on the parent side of a school meeting is different.

It is frightening to hear that your child is struggling academically- especially when the difficulty involves something as foundational as learning to read, understanding what they read, expressing what they know, or keeping up with the language demands of school.

And it can be incredibly difficult to know when to wait, when to ask more questions, when to pursue an evaluation, and when your child needs support beyond what the school is currently providing.

I understand that because I've been there.

Why I Became an SLP

I became a speech-language pathologist because I wanted to help children become confident in their ability to communicate with the people and world around them.

My clinical training taught me how language develops, how the brain processes and uses language, and how to support children and adults with difficulties involving spoken, read, and written language.

My years as a school-based SLP taught me something equally important:

The language demands of school are enormous.

Children are expected to understand increasingly complex directions, learn new vocabulary, make inferences, identify the main idea, explain their thinking, organize information, understand what they read, and express what they know in writing.

Sometimes a child who appears to be “fine” on the surface is working incredibly hard to keep up.

Sometimes a child can decode the words on a page but cannot explain what they mean.

Sometimes reading difficulties are rooted in phonological processing, decoding, spelling, or orthographic skills.

Sometimes the primary difficulty is comprehension, vocabulary, language processing, inference, or written language.

And sometimes it is a combination.

Understanding the reason behind the struggle matters.

Why Literacy Became Part of My Specialty

My expertise in structured literacy, dyslexia support, and multisensory reading instruction grew from a very personal place.

I wanted to understand what my own child needed.

I wanted to know why the strategies we had been trying weren't working.

And I wanted to learn how to help him become a reader.

That experience changed the way I practice.

Today, I bring together my training as a speech-language pathologist, my background in linguistics and language disorders, my experience with structured literacy, and more than 15 years of experience working within school systems.

I understand both the language underneath reading and learning and the realities of the schools where children are expected to use those skills every day.

I Know Both Sides of the IEP Table

For years, I sat beside teachers, Child Study Team members, administrators, and families as we looked at evaluations, classroom performance, standardized scores, IEP goals, recommendations, and data.

I know what school-based speech-language therapy can provide.

I also know that not every child who is struggling qualifies for school-based services.

Some children are struggling with reading comprehension but don't meet criteria for an IEP.

Some can read the words but cannot understand increasingly complex text.

Some have difficulty with vocabulary, inferencing, organization, or written expression.

Some appear capable but are using enormous amounts of effort simply to keep up.

And some children don't begin to struggle noticeably until the academic and language demands become much more complex in the upper elementary and middle school years.

These are often the children and families who find their way to my practice.

At Point Speech Pathology & Literacy Lab

I work with school-age children and adolescents who need support with the language and literacy skills that make learning possible.

My practice focuses on areas including:

Reading & Literacy

Phonological awareness, decoding, spelling, structured literacy, and reading development.

Reading Comprehension

Vocabulary, inferencing, main idea, summarizing, understanding complex text, and explaining what has been read.

Language & Learning

Language processing, following complex directions, organization, verbal reasoning, and the language skills needed to learn in the classroom.

Written Language

Organizing ideas, understanding questions and prompts, developing written responses, vocabulary, grammar, and expressing knowledge in writing.

Executive Functioning

The language and organizational skills involved in planning, initiating, organizing, remembering, and completing academic tasks.

My goal isn't simply to help a child get through the next assignment.

It is to help identify why learning has become difficult and which underlying skills need support.

Because I've been on both sides of the table, I know what I want families to hear.

You don't have to wait until your child is failing.

You don't have to wait until a teacher tells you that something is “wrong.”

And you don't have to know exactly what the problem is before asking for help.

If your child is struggling with reading, reading comprehension, spelling, writing, language processing, vocabulary, or the increasing language demands of school, it is worth asking why.

Sometimes the answer is straightforward.

Sometimes it requires a closer look at the relationship between language and literacy.

Either way, you deserve to understand what is happening.

And your child deserves to feel capable of learning.

Danielle Malkmus, MS, CCC-SLP

Owner & Lead Speech-Language Pathologist

Point Speech Pathology & Literacy Lab

Point Pleasant, New Jersey