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Erin Long is the President and founder of Worldwide Speech. She developed the idea for the company after opening independent practices for expatriate children in both Mexico and Brazil. Through her experience with these practices Erin became aware of the large, but dispersed demand for native English-speaking speech pathologists among the expatriate community and realized that the key to meeting this demand was teletherapy. Erin is certified by the American Telemedicine Association in telepractice and for the last five years, she has been a leader in teletherapy within the speech-pathology community. Erin is an active member of the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association's (ASHA) steering group for the development of teletherapy policy and training. Because of her experience and expertise in telepractice, Erin has also been asked to present at seminars on special education at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute.
For Erin, finding a way to provide speech therapy and other special education services to children abroad is not only a business opportunity; it is a personal passion. As a member of the U.S. Foreign Service community, Erin has a unique understanding of the challenges that expatriate families have when trying to find appropriate educational support for their children outside the United States. This is why Worldwide Speech's primary focus has always been on expatriate children, and what drove Erin to eventually expand the company to include occupational therapy and reading intervention.
Erin is currently licensed to practice speech-language therapy in California, Virginia and Maryland. She is the recipient of the ASHA’s prestigious Continuing Education Award for her dedication to training above and beyond the requirements for maintaining her credential. Erin also has experience working in U.S. school districts in multiple states as well as in private clinical settings. Erin is a graduate of UCLA and California State University of Los Angeles.
“As part of our continued dedication to helping children everywhere, Worldwide Speech is reaching out to expat families to make our services known and available to them. Like FIGT, Worldwide Speech grew from recognizing the needs of families living outside their own countries. We began offering online therapy in response to the needs of children living abroad and away from the education services they needed. It has been our great privilege to provide online speech therapy, OT, PT, Reading Support and special education services to children around the world.”