About Us
Talking Child, LLC was founded by two speech-language pathologists in 2002.
Friends and colleagues since graduate school, Amy Chouinard and Cory Poland
wanted to develop products that would promote speech in children and equip
parents with ideas to do the same at home.
Through their work, Amy and Cory realized that there were no early childhood
products that incorporate age appropriate sounds and words along with
pre-speech nonverbal skills into entertaining videos. They wanted to share
their speech and language tips with parents and caregivers who can directly
influence a child’s communication in their daily lives. This was the
inspiration behind the child’s video with a parent tutorial.
"Through this video," said Cory, "I can continue to positively influence
communication in children's lives, and hopefully share my enthusiasm for
encouraging communication and sound development at home."
"I feel that this video incorporates the most important aspects of child
language development," said Amy. "The video teaches basic sign language and
provides an introduction to early developing sounds and first words, encourages
imitation, and introduces children to music."
Amy Chouinard, MA, CCC-SLP
Amy is a pediatric speech-language pathologist. She received her undergraduate
degree in speech pathology at Marquette University and her graduate degree in
communication disorders from the University of Minnesota. She completed her
master’s thesis on the importance of maternal-child interaction. Amy also owns
a private speech therapy practice in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Cory Poland, MA, CCC-SLP
Cory is a mom and pediatric speech-language pathologist. She received her
undergraduate degree from Purdue University and her graduate degree in
communication disorders from the University of Minnesota. Cory completed her
master’s project on the best way to promote collaboration between
speech-language pathologists and teachers in the classroom.