My Story.
When I was in high school, I observed a speech therapy session at a close family friend’s private speech therapy clinic. I watched as a mother and her 5 year-old autistic son sat in a tent with a toy car. The speech therapist coached the mother to use affect to engage her child. The boy looked at his mother, a huge grin on his face and spoke his first word. The look of joy on the mother’s face lead to my knowing, right in that moment, that this was my life calling - to support parents of neurodiverse children in fostering communication and connection with their child..
I went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from San Diego State University and a master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from San Jose State University. While in graduate school, I worked as a behavioral aide for an autistic child in their home and school. Dr. Pat Rydell lead this child’s team and provided me with direct mentorship implementing the SCERTS curriculum. This experience deepened my understanding of how emotional regulation impacts social communication and gave me hands on experience implementing assessment, goal development and treatment through the SCERTS framework.
Since earning my speech-language pathology license and ASHA Certificate of Clinical Competency, I worked on the autism intervention team at Oakland Children’s Hospital (CHAI), at a cutting edge private practice in the East Bay and, most recently, I helped a mother of an autistic child build a non-public school in Marin County. I have been a speech and language director, Clinical Director, consultant to schools, Hanen Program Facilitator, Curriculum Director, Head of School, and Director of Admissions. I am very grateful to have been directly trained by experts in the field including Dr. Mimi Lou in DIR/Floortime, Fern Sussman in Hanen More that Words, Dr. Barry Prizant in SCERTS, Sarah Ward in Executive Functioning Treatment, Leah Kuypers in the Zones of Regulation, Lynne and Robert Koegel in PRT, and Michele Garcia Winner in Social Thinking. I have worked with a number of interdisciplinary teams and have learned from special education teachers, occupational therapists, psychologists, behaviorists and resource teachers. Most importantly, I have learned from neurodiverse individuals what they want to learn and how they want to learn it - the lens that is most important to me and that continues to drive the way I teach on a daily basis.
When I am not working I can be found engaging with my two inspiring daughters through imaginative horse, puppy dog and fairy princess play, drawing, storytelling, cooking, practicing yoga, spending time outdoors and lots and lots of singing and dancing.
“I have worked with Liz Weldon since 2015, just six months after founding The Helix School. From the moment we met, it was clear to me that she was passionate about working with children. She has a cheerful and playful personality that quickly engages the children, parents and professionals she works with. She has a great deal of experience working with children and families, and approaches every child and family with great care and thoughtfulness.”
-Marjorie McMorris, Mother and Founder of The Helix School