Pronunciation: LOR-uh  MARE-iss

Hello, I am one of the speech-language pathologists at Harding High School. This is my 11th year working in SPPS, and I'm excited to be working with staff and students at Harding. When I'm not at work, I'm busy adventuring with my family.

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) work to prevent, assess, diagnose, and treat speech, language, social communication, cognitive-communication, and swallowing disorders in children and adults. 

Speech disorders occur when a person has difficulty producing speech sounds correctly or fluently (e.g., stuttering is a form of disfluency) or has problems with his or her voice or resonance.

Language disorders occur when a person has trouble understanding others (receptive language), or sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings (expressive language). Language disorders may be spoken or written. Social communication disorders occur when a person has trouble with the social use of verbal and nonverbal communication. Cognitive-communication disorders include problems organizing thoughts, paying attention, remembering, planning, and/or problem-solving. SLPs also provide augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems for individuals with severe expressive and/or language comprehension disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder or progressive neurological disorders.

(https://www.asha.org/students/speech-language-pathologists/)