Lanni is a speech-language pathologist who is passionate about working with neurodivergent children, teens and young adults and has done so for over 20 years in the public system. She is also a mom to two awesome teens, one of whom has ADHD. Her extensive clinical and lived experience with helping kids and young adults to thrive socially drove her to create a strengths-based, parent and child service focused on friendship and Connections SLP was born in 2020.

Lanni has worked with Child Development Programs at Oak Valley Health since 2000. She is part of the management team for the York Region Preschool Speech and Language Program (YRPSLP), working as the Clinical Leader for Autism Services. In this role, she is responsible for developing and overseeing innovative social communication services for children and their families, including supporting YRPSLP speech-language pathology staff working within the Ontario Autism Program Entry to School, Urgent Response and Caregiver-Mediated Early Years programs. Lanni is also a long-time member of the Developmental Autism Consultation Services team for Children’s Treatment Network, one of Ontario’s five Autism Diagnostic Hubs. At DACS, she partners with a developmental pediatrician to provide developmental assessments for older school-aged children and teens. During her many years as a front-line speech-language pathologist at YRPSLP, Lanni facilitated More Than Words® and TalkAbility™ programs for hundreds of families of preschoolers in addition to her work developing and offering therapeutic services for young children.

In addition to her work with families, Lanni has provided consultation services to childcares, public and private schools and other allied health professionals. She was a consultant for The Hanen Centre® and one of three instructors internationally for TalkAbility™ certification workshops for SLPs for many years. She developed Hanen’s Connecting the Dots and Creating Conversations workshops and webinars for supportive personnel. She is certified to provide TalkAbility™ and TalkAbility™ Offered via Telepractice.

Lanni’s special interest in her practice is in supporting children and teens with strong language and thinking skills who are struggling with social learning and friendship. She attends numerous training sessions each year in order to keep current with relevant research and clinical practice as well as to translate this into our programs and services at Connections SLP. Lanni became a certified PEERS® and PEERS® Telehealth Provider in 2020.

In addition to her clinical work, Lanni has represented her SLP colleagues at the system level provincially and most recently served as the speech-language pathologist member of the Ontario Autism Program Implementation Working Group. She is a frequently invited speaker and has provided training for numerous agencies including the York Simcoe Autism Network, the Centre for ADHD Awareness, Canada, the Warren Estabrooks Speakers Series, the York Region District School Board, the Toronto District School Board, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab and the Pediatric section of the Ontario Medical Association.

Lanni was recognized by the Ontario Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists for outstanding contributions to the association and the profession and was the 2020 recipient of OSLA’s Honours of the Association award.

When she’s not wearing her SLP hat, Lanni enjoys doing pilates and spending time with her husband and two very theatrical teenagers. She and her family can often be found singing along to musicals, reading, travelling and finding great places to eat ice cream.