Achieve Speech Therapy

03/06/2026

We've spent the last 3 weeks exploring some of the classics:
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The Three Little Pigs
The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Check out the houses our kiddos built out of straw, sticks, and bricks! Among other things, we described the straw (weak, fragile, light, breakable), sticks (long, skinny, sharp), and bricks (strong, heavy, sturdy, rectangular).

We love using books in our treatment sessions because we are able to target nearly every speech and language goals that our patients have across the board, including sound production, word structures, grammar skills, sentence length, vocabulary enhancement, social/conversation skills, verb tense, and story retell.

02/23/2026

Today is the day! Bundle up and go grab a FREE Playtime Companion at the Quincy Children’s Museum from 9-12! These are a quick reference to give you fresh ideas to use during playtime with your little one using normal, everyday toys and items. The guides include speech and language targets and specific ways to focus on these skills while playing with your child.

If you have questions or concerns regarding your child's speech, language, feeding, or social skills, this is a great time to have a chat with our Speech Language Pathologist, Sam Haley. She will be there today to support you and provide guidance.

We are so grateful that Sara Thomas Meyer with Ready. Set. Grow. and the awesome staff at QCM welcome us each month, allowing us to provide information and resources about various topics within our areas of specialty.

Above all, we want to emphasize that your presence and attention in your child's life is more important than playing perfectly. Give them your eyes and ears, and follow their lead. Enter their world and be present - THAT is doing it right!

02/14/2026

Valentine Fun 💕💘💗
We had so much fun this week celebrating all things lovely.

Valentine Sensory Bin: we explored using our touch and smell senses (the Cheerios smelled like berries 🍓) while playing a fun cupcake categorization game.

Valentine Bingo: We gave clues (targeting object description and object function), using conversation heart candies as tokens! 💕

We read "Little Blue Truck Valentine" and discussed the similarities and differences between the various Valentine cards that Little Blue Truck delivered to his friends. The kids then got to choose their favorite valentine card from the book to make using special shiny paper! 💌

Everyone got to take home fun Valentine squishies and heart glasses! 😎

02/13/2026

Come see us during Ready. Set. Grow. on Feb 23rd! Another free resource coming your way.

Dropping an updated February calendar with a few added capacity alerts + extend hours added this Saturday! 🩷♥️

01/04/2026

My sweet buddy, Owen, graduated from speech just before Christmas. I'm so proud of the hard word and consistent effort that he and his family put in week after week towards his articulation goals. We have definitely seen the fruit of that labor and Owen is now able to communicate very clearly with everyone he encounters. This is very different from where his journey began! Hear what his parents, Adam and Lisa, have to say about their experience:

"Is speech worth it? Yes! We don't question glasses or braces, we trust what is best for our children. When daycare first mentioned my son needed speech, I knew that we needed to investigate. They gave me Mackenzi’s information, and I reached out to her right away and she got him evaluated. We knew he had some speech delays, and he couldn't say his brother’s name. She worked with insurance and fit him in her schedule right away. She was able to go to him at daycare and do visits multiple times a week. That was the highlight of his day. She would send pictures and updates on what they worked on. She would even send videos we got to hear his progress and hear how excited and proud she was as well. He can say his brother’s name and he has reached all his milestones. We are so blessed to have had Mackenzi work with our son to get him to where he is. If you are on the fence, do it. I recommend Mackenzi at Achieve Speech Therapy to everyone that is thinking about speech. It is an investment in your child's life, and she does it with so much passion and the results are amazing. We can’t say thank you enough. We will miss Mackenzi."

Thank you for trusting me with your son's speech and for your constant support along the way! Owen's story is truly a success story in every way.

12/08/2025

Let’s talk oral development!

Let us help you navigate the topics of pacifiers, sippy cups, and thumb sucking. We know there is a lot of information out there and endless products to choose from.

We have developed a helpful handout and will answer your questions, as pediatric speech pathologists AND moms of little ones.

Come see Sam Haley this morning from 9-11 or Mackenzi Tallcott Wednesday 12/17 from 9-12 during Ready. Set. Grow. at the Quincy Children’s Museum!

12/04/2025

Thanksgiving and Christmas has us feeling ALL the feels. Helping kids communicate better is cool, no doubt about it. But an incredible bonus and possibly the very best part of this whole thing is the relationships that are formed with our families. One moment, you're strangers, and then not too far down the road, you've formed an unbreakable bond. There's just something about uniting with a common goal and working together to get there that is truly special. Please take a moment to read the words from one of our finest families, Bre and TJ Neisen:

"On April 10th, 2024 at 12:56, I sent my first text to Mackenzi Tallcott, marking the beginning of our incredible friendship. Our son, Walker Neisen, was just 5 years old and needed some help with sounds, articulation, and enunciation. He was attending the Crossing PreK at the time. I asked his teacher if she had any recommendations for a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP), and she gave me Mackenzi’s number. Amazing how God works! She made the process of getting started so easy, and his first speech session was on April 15th, 2024, at the library. When school started, she was incredibly flexible and met him at school and later at her new office. Her approach and natural talent for helping kids made his progress so obvious, and his speech improved significantly over time. I’m so grateful that God brought Mackenzi into our lives. She truly cares and is deeply invested in the children she works with. The bond we formed during his speech journey will forever be etched in my heart. Even though Walker has been discharged from Speech, I know that if I ever needed anything, Mackenzi would be there for us!"

Walker, you're one of the most kind, polite, and conscientious boys I've ever met. I'm thankful that my own sons have had the privilege to be influenced by you. I'm so proud of the progress you've made! Congratulations, buddy!

11/27/2025

Like many other kiddos in the area, our speech kids worked hard to disguise their turkey in an effort to save him from Thanksgiving Day scaries!

We read the book "Turkey Trouble" and had so much fun recreating the costumes we read about in the book - a cow, horse, pig, sheep, rooster, and pizza delivery guy! Turkey's plan worked out in the end and he had the best Thanksgiving ever.

11/26/2025

Look how many feathers our Thankful Turkey gained over the month of November! So much to be thankful for, and what a great, tangible reminder of that truth.

11/22/2025

This is a bit overdue, but we are excited to celebrate another graduate! Andrew worked hard to master the "R" sound and months after his discharge is still maintaining the skills he learned in speech therapy. Thanks to his hard work and determination, the support from his family, and our guidance, he has experienced success. His mother, Julie, shares a bit of the journey below:

"We had a wonderful experience working with Mackenzi Tallcott for my 11-year-old son's speech therapy. She was always organized, professional, and clearly very knowledgeable in her field. We appreciated how she used a variety of therapy techniques to keep each session engaging and effective. She made my son feel comfortable and confident, which made a huge difference in his progress. We're so grateful for her support and would highly recommend Mackenzi at Achieve Speech Therapy to any family looking for a skilled and caring speech-language pathologist."

Thank you for your kind words, Julie! Thank you for trusting us with Andrew's care and for your dedication to his future in every aspect of life. We are thankful to have had the opportunity to partner with you! Congratulations, Andrew!!

11/14/2025

Our thankful turkey is filling up with feathers as we approach Thanksgiving! Add a virtual "feather" in the comments to join our speech kiddos as they express gratitude.

11/10/2025

We have a special treat for you today! We are sharing gift guides with games and toys that will help facilitate growth in all areas of development. Our friends at Eat Say Play have curated a list of the top toys and games for specific age groups that will benefit your child's speech, fine motor, gross motor, cognitive, and social development! We are so excited to share these incredible resources with you just in time for Christmas shopping.

As wonderful as these toys can be, the absolute best things you can give your child are your time and attention, which doesn't cost a dime. We will also be at the Quincy Children’s Museum on Wednesday 11/19 if you can't stop by today! We will be set up from 9-noon. Hope to see you there!