At Work with KidTherapy LLC
Jan. 18, 2008
Name: KidTherapy
Type of business: Provides therapy for children with certified professionals in occupational, physical, speech, and play therapy
Address: 95 W. Main Street, Chester, and 1931 Washington Valley Rd., Martinsville
Telephone: Chester: (908) 879-7067; Martinsville (732) 868-0101
Web site: www.Kidtherapynj.com
Number of employees: 16
Founded: 1998
Top officers: Co-directors and founders: Kelly Zaros Berman OTR and Shelley K. Chilton MA CCC, and Anne Marie Nixon licensed professional counselor.
How would you describe your business?
"Kidtherapy is a comprehensive pediatric practice offering occupational, physical, speech, and play therapy services," said co-director and founder Kelly Berman.
"Schools, doctors, and sometimes a family friend refer the children to us. The children can be from 0 to 14 years of age. We take children who have physical and/or mental challenges learning issues, anyone in the autistic spectrum. We treat children with cerebral palsy, Down's syndrome, attention deficit and other learning disabilities.
"We offer social skill services including sensory integration, social and language development and oral motor techniques for children experiencing difficulty relating or communicating to others.
"When they come to us the child receives a comprehensive evaluation and treatment to develop the skill to reach his or her maximum potential at school and home.
What makes your business special?
"We are a well established practice. Our therapists have very high levels of expertise. We provide the most up to date treatment with a comprehensive staff providing parents the equivalent of a one-stop shop.
"We provide a great deal of parental support. We do a lot with parent training. We want the family to be involved and to understand their child. A lot of time children have behaviors and its not that they are doing it on purpose it's usually driven by something inside of them.
"We try to figure out why it's happening and come up with comprehensive plan for us in the clinic and for the parent and anyone involved in the child's life."
What goals do you have for the business?
"Our main purpose is to provide the best service to help children function to the best of their ability and to help families cope with what they have. Our approach is to teach families on how to best care for their child to let them be the best they can be.
"We don't want the children coming to us long term. We view this as a stepping-stone to get children back into the community. Our goal is to get children into community based activities doing events like karate or yoga."
How has your business changed?
"Our business has grown. It started as a speech and occupational therapy practice and then we found we needed to expand staff and services to meet the needs of all our clients. We brought in Anne Marie Nixon a licensed professional counselor to work with children on social skills. She also sets up the individual and group sessions for these sessions.
"We started in Chester in 1998 and now have another location in Martinsville located on the right side of Test Sport Club. It's a nice fit because some of the families have older children and they can use the club activities when they are here.
"Three years ago we started a summer day camp with two three week sessions."
What was your most important deal?
"Probably moving to Martinsville was our most important deal. It was a difficult decision to decide to expand to an additional location. We weren't looking to get bigger. We wanted to provide more services. The move was made to be nearer to help the clients who were traveling to Chester. It's difficult running two facilities but we knew it was in the best interests of everyone."
What changes do you expect in the next 10 years?
"We expect to continue to upgrade and add more programming. We are now expanding aquatic therapy to the physical therapy program. We are also broadening and expanding our reading programs."
What is the most important thing you've learned in your business?
"Patience. Respecting the choices people make and where they are at and also not trying to change people from where they are.
"We went into this because this was something we were passionate about.
"The most important thing we learned was how to take what we loved and run it as a business. We had to learn how to run a business."
What advice would you give to someone considering your line of work?
"You need to make sure you start with a considerable level of expertise in your profession as a therapist. Then you must really find help legal, financial and technical to set up a business
"But the heart of the business is your ability to understand children and their families. You must be able to work with these families from many different backgrounds in a nonjudgmental manner. I always go into each case with the belief that the child is able to do it all. Communication and being sensitive is critical in providing the most beneficial outcomes for all."
Is there anything else you would rather be doing?
"No. This work has been my heart of hearts. It's just such a satisfying program that I love working here."