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SPEECH
LANGUAGE
LEADERSHIP
SERVICES
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Dr. Kotas is a renowned bilingual pediatric speech language pathologist who has transformed the lives of many children and associated professionals. She completed her undergraduate training at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, her Master degree at San Diego State University with a certificate in Professional Services Bilingual/Multicultural studies and her Doctoral Degree in Educational Leadership also at San Diego State University. Dr. Kotas has been highly sought-out by families and organizations both locally and internationally to share her expertise. She built a pediatric private practice that is uniquely family-focused, research-driven and results-oriented. Beyond therapy and assessments, she offers educational coaching/trainings to professionals, students and parents. While she is most known for her work with bilingual/multicultural speakers, she also serves children and families who only speak English.
Over the last 20 years, Dr. Kotas has provided clinical services to pediatric populations within a variety of settings including public schools, hospitals and a university clinic. She has served children with a range of communicative challenges such as:
- Early Childhood Language Development
- School-Age Language Development as well as language-literacy interactions
- Speech Sound Disorders including articulation and phonology
- Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)
- Pragmatic and social communication disorders including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Dr. Kotas has also taught undergraduate and graduate academic courses as well as supervised numerous university students during clinical rotations and clinical fellowship year practicums. She has multiple peer-reviewed publications, presented at local, national and international conferences and her work has been funded by competitive grants. Her areas of research and clinical interest relate to early intervention, school-based services, bilingualism, response-to-intervention, dynamic assessment, educational leadership, and language disorders across various clinical populations including language-literacy interactions.
Dr. Kotas has received prestigious awards including the California Speech Language and Hearing Association (CSHA) State Level Diversity award, CSHA award for Outstanding Achievement, San Diego State University Outstanding Faculty Award, San Diego Unified School District Outstanding Services and, the San Diego Unified Related Services Certificate of Recognition. She is a former CSHA chair of the Diversity State Committee as well as the former director for CSHA’s District 9.