Alisa Baron is a speech pathologist who is trained in bilingual therapy. She speaks Spanish beautifully. On Smiles trips, she works with children and their parents at numerous points in the process.
At triage, she examines children for velo-pharyngeal insufficiency, a dysfunction of the soft palate, which causes speech to be so nasal that a patient is difficult to understand. Surgery can make a significant improvement in this condition.
During surgery, she advises parents in the waiting room on feeding, language, and speech development. She distributes materials they can take home as a reference when they are working to develop their children’s speech after surgery.
Post-op, she evaluates the children and recommends local therapists. She also works with the children and gives families exercises and intervention strategies to use when they get home.
Alisa’s talents are amazing gifts to the families of El Salvador!
