Somos Bilingues, New Multidisciplinary Therapy Clinic & Sensory Gym
Exciting news from Dobbs Ferry with the opening of Somos Bilingues. Founded by Jaridy Fabré, Somos Bilingues is a pediatric multidisciplinary clinic and sensory gym. Founded in 2018 with a belief that children of all backgrounds and abilities deserve culturally responsive services.
Here, families can enjoy a range of monolingual and bilingual special education support services. This includes speech/language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, feeding therapy, as well as multidisciplinary evaluations – speech/language, occupational, physical, feeding, assistive technology (AT), augmentative & alternative communication (AAC), psychological, educational, autism, and more.
While providing services in the homes, community, and schools, Somos Bilingues opened their administrative offices in 2021. As they continued to serve children and families across the Hudson Valley, they found a common thread expressed by numerous families. There was a need for a clinic and sensory gym in the Rivertowns. Many families found themselves traveling long distances to numerous clinics and sensory gyms for some services, but never found a place to call home; where all of their therapy services could be provided under one roof.
Read on to learn more from our interview with Jaridy Fabré.
Westchester Family: How did the idea for Somos Bilingues come about?
Jaridy Fabré: The idea of Somos Bilingues came about when I was working as a bilingual speech and language evaluator. Going into the field, I knew that there was an ever growing need and shortage of therapists across the board, but never imagined how much more that shortage affected children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds who specifically need a bilingual therapist. I saw my community waiting for an evaluator for months with no hope in sight, combined with the misinformation (or lack thereof) of parent education and advocacy in both healthcare and educational systems.
I knew that these children needed someone to take action on a greater scale, in order to access their services or receive an accurate differential diagnosis. That is when I started partnering with school districts and local organizations to serve children in the highest need areas of New York. I would travel up to 4 hours, every weekend, to the most rural and remote areas of New York. Most importantly, I conducted not only evaluations, but was able to provide the necessary parent education about parental and student rights in the educational system to ensure that my families could advocate for themselves.
Westchester Family: How were these evaluations done in the past?
Jaridy Fabré: At the time, I was one of very few evaluators who traveled to these high-need areas. This created the opportunity to make many connections with families and school districts who eventually would request me by name. It was an honor.
That is when the idea to create Somos Bilingues was born and I began to build a team that could help me work towards my mission on a larger scale. There is an African Proverb that beautifully illustrates my WHY for creating this organization. “If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together.” That is exactly what I did.
Westchester Family: What can people expect at Somos Bilingues?
Jaridy Fabré: At Somos Bilingues, people can expect a culturally and linguistically responsive team that is committed to respect, diversity, transparency, and ingenuity to provide services to children of all backgrounds and abilities. We are a holistic, neurodiversity affirming practice that considers the whole-child and family structure, in everything that we do.
Westchester Family: What are some of the services you offer?
Jaridy Fabré: Somos Bilingues is a multidisciplinary organization that offers monolingual and bilingual (multiple languages) evaluations and therapy services. Our therapy services include speech therapy, feeding therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy. Our evaluations cover a wide range of domains. This includes speech/language, feeding, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), assistive technology (AT), occupational, physical, psychological, educational, autism, and more.
Westchester Family: How will you reach people throughout Westchester?
Jaridy Fabré: We are committed to providing access to services by partnering with various local and state funded programs. Currently, we partner with the Department of Health for CPSE (Preschool) related services in Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, Ulster. We are also an approved New York State Education Department 4410 Preschool Multidisciplinary Evaluation program. We provide evaluations for preschoolers through their district. Additionally, we partner directly with numerous school districts across the state to provide a variety of special education support services. Essentially, we work with children from birth to 12th grade.
Somos Bilingues is currently in the process of becoming a NYS approved Early Intervention Agency and a NYS Special Education Itinerant Services (SEIS) Program. I hope to have these programs running for families in late 2024.
Another way we work to provide access is by partnering with local universities to train graduate clinicians. This helps families that may not qualify for services, access affordable therapy at a nominal clinic fee.
Lastly, our multidisciplinary team provides private 1:1 therapy sessions and enrichment classes throughout the year.
Westchester Family: Who Does Somos Bilingues Work With?
Jaridy Fabré: Somos Bilingues serves children of all backgrounds and abilities. While initially founding Somos Bilingues to primarily serve the bilingual/bicultural community, I discovered something so special. The extensive clinical training and expertise required to effectively serve bilingual/bicultural children, is actually the missing piece [in treatment and assessment] needed to serve all children. Humans are so beautifully complex and have the right to be served holistically. Thus, standardized testing and outdated EBP is not the answer. A shift in our educational and healthcare system is coming. We are proud to be a part of the change. This is why we also focus our efforts on parent education for families that visit us both locally and internationally. This journey is incredibly meaningful for my team and I, on both personal and professional levels.” –
Westchester Family: What is cultural responsiveness?
Jaridy Fabré: Cultural responsiveness involves understanding and appropriately responding to the unique combination of cultural variables and the full range of dimensions of diversity that the professional and client/patient/family bring to interactions. Clinical approaches—such as interview style, assessment tools, and therapeutic techniques—that are appropriate for one individual may not be appropriate for another. It is important to recognize that the unique influence of an individual’s cultural. Additionally, linguistic background may change over time and according to circumstance, necessitating adjustments in clinical approaches.
Additionally, we strive to reduce the historical disparities that exist in special education. In particular, the over-identification of historically marginalized groups, which includes bilingual and bicultural students.
Westchester Family: Tell us about your team.
Jaridy Fabré: Incredibly, our team consists of speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, psychologists, special educators, and social workers that specialize in providing culturally and linguistically responsive assessments and services- using the latest evidence-based practice, extensive case-history review, parent and teacher interviews, observations and work-samples, dynamic assessment measures, non-standard administration of standardized assessments, and clinical judgement.
Somos Bilingues Details
50 Hamilton Street
Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522
The hours for Somos Bilingues are Monday-Friday from 9:00am-6:00pm and Saturday-Sunday (By Appointment Only)
[email protected] | 914-306-0863
For additional information, please visit somosbilinguesslp.com
