Avid
/ˈæv·ɪd/ adjective 1. Having a keen interest in or enthusiasm for something.
Treatment Approach
At Avid Speech Therapy, we provide personalized pediatric speech and language therapy in a fun, engaging, and encouraging environment. Sessions are tailored to your child’s age, strengths, interests, and individual goals—using play, movement, conversation, and structured activities to build clearer communication, stronger language skills, and greater confidence in everyday interactions.
Our therapists use a neurodiversity-affirming, evidence-based approach that respects each child’s natural communication style while helping them develop new skills and greater confidence. Rather than focusing on changing what makes a child unique, we build on their strengths and support communication that is functional and meaningful in everyday life.
Parents and caregivers are an important part of the process. We provide practical strategies and guidance that families can use at home, helping children practice and generalize their skills beyond the therapy room.
Treatment Approach
At Avid Speech Therapy, we provide personalized pediatric speech and language therapy in a fun, engaging, and encouraging environment. Sessions are tailored to your child’s age, strengths, interests, and individual goals—using play, movement, conversation, and structured activities to build clearer communication, stronger language skills, and greater confidence in everyday interactions.
Our therapists use a neurodiversity-affirming, evidence-based approach that respects each child’s natural communication style while helping them develop new skills and greater confidence. Rather than focusing on changing what makes a child unique, we build on their strengths and support communication that is functional and meaningful in everyday life.
Parents and caregivers are an important part of the process. We provide practical strategies and guidance that families can use at home, helping children practice and generalize their skills beyond the therapy room.
Clinic Director & Founder
Clinic Director & Founder
Narissa Ventress, M.A., CCC-SLP
Narissa founded Avid Speech Therapy in 2016 to create a more flexible, responsive model of pediatric speech therapy -one that gives clinicians the support to understand each child more fully and helps families feel closely connected to their care. With more than 15 years of clinical experience across pediatric and school-based settings, she brings a broader perspective to how children communicate, learn, and grow.
She also serves as a Faculty Lecturer at California State University, Long Beach, where she helps prepare future speech-language pathologists and brings current clinical and educational perspectives back to the Avid team.
Narissa Ventress, M.A., CCC-SLP
Narissa founded Avid Speech Therapy in 2016 to create a more flexible, responsive model of pediatric speech therapy -one that gives clinicians the support to understand each child more fully and helps families feel closely connected to their care. With more than 15 years of clinical experience across pediatric and school-based settings, she brings a broader perspective to how children communicate, learn, and grow.
She also serves as a Faculty Lecturer at California State University, Long Beach, where she helps prepare future speech-language pathologists and brings current clinical and educational perspectives back to the Avid team.
Clinical Team
Avid’s clinical team includes experienced speech-language pathologists and speech-language pathology assistants who share a passion for helping children communicate more effectively and confidently. Our clinicians bring experience across speech sound disorders, articulation and phonology, receptive and expressive language, early language development, fluency, social communication, AAC, and complex communication needs.
Our team’s specialized training includes approaches such as PECS, the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol, and Hanen’s It Takes Two to Talk® program. We also have clinicians who speak Spanish and Japanese. Across specialties, our approach remains consistent: therapy should be individualized, engaging, evidence-based, and meaningful to everyday life.
Care Coordination Team
Behind every child’s therapy is a team helping make care easier for the family. Jenny Nyhus, B.A. in Communicative Disorders, leads Avid’s Care Coordination Team, bringing more than 15 years of experience in pediatric speech therapy settings and a strong understanding of both clinical and administrative care.
Jenny and the Care Coordination Team support families with scheduling, authorizations, communication, and ongoing treatment needs. By working closely with clinicians and families, they help create a smooth, responsive experience so parents can focus more on their child and less on the logistics of therapy.
Qualifications and Training
“The greatest sign of success for a speech therapist … is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist.”
