Testimonials From Our Parents
"Our daughter has seen Jenny at ITS since she was in preschool for a range of gross and fine motor challenges. For six years now, we have seen Cora thrive and exceed our expectations in developing new skills and confidence. We are continually surprised at how Jenny's warm but firm encouragement pushes Cora to new limits. We have had many therapists over the years, but it is Jenny who knows Cora best and we rely on her for advice on things from academics to camps to extra-curriculars that best serve Cora's needs."
- Emma, parent of a 9-year-old girl
"Teri Kozlowski and the team at TeeKoz Kids has set the gold standard for expertise, compassion, professionalism and thoughtful and tailored service when it comes to pediatric occupational therapy. We are so grateful to Teri and her team for their continued assistance with our young son. We were referred to Teri when our son was about 20 months old, after we received reports from his daycare that he was an extremely active toddler, with difficulty controlling his excitement at times and trouble being calm during the day. Our wonderful child development specialist, Claire Lerner, observed our son at his daycare and then referred us to Teri.
We participated in Teri's 3-week intensive session with our son and, by the end, had witnessed remarkable progress, both for us, and our son. Our son went from being extremely busy with difficulty channeling his high energy into appropriate channels, to being able to respond to our redirection, and understand the boundaries we set for him. Additionally, when he started to get more in control of his own body, his language developed by leaps and bounds. While some of that might be age-related, he just turned 2 and is now counting, saying his ABCs and talking all the time! As parents, we developed a tremendous tool kit to deploy with our son to help him grow, learn and flourish.
We've continued some maintenance sessions with other therapists at the center in the recent months, and just couldn't be more pleased with his progress. As we await the birth of our second child in a few months, the skills that we learned from Teri and her team at TeeKozKids, will undoubtedly continue to help us with our son and our new child as she grows up, as well."
- Laura, parent of a 2-year-old boy
"Our daughter (4) had been demonstrating ongoing challenges when it came to food and eating, since a very early age. These issues were behaviorally, emotionally, socially and sensory based. When she turned 4, we felt that we needed assistance from an OT who could specialize in feeding to help us understand these components and provide us tools and education to help our daughter progress.
Sami makes learning about food and the feelings around eating less scary and overwhelming for my daughter. She has given her the words to express the feelings she is experiencing, which we can now translate to our home. She has helped break down some barriers when it comes to exploring new foods in different ways. She has educated us as parents and allowed us to put on the lens of our child and really understand what she may be experiencing in her own world. My daughter loves going to food school!
Although we continue to work hard, the improvement and progress is very visible in our daily lives. Our daughter is not melting down when presented with foods, she has the words to express how she is feeling and uses the language and tools provided to her. Our daughter still struggles to find comfort in eating out in public settings. With that, we are working beyond the therapy setting and trying to now implement these concepts in not only our own home but out at restaurants. The fact that we are able to have a customized OT experience based around my daughters own unique needs really sets Sami and this practice apart.
Typically insurance doesn't cover much of these services and that can be a burden, but I have felt that it has been worth every penny. I think at a certain point, it is nice to know you can move beyond the therapy room to meet the needs of the child in the outside world as well. I could easily see these services implemented naturally in a school or any other setting, if that was more appropriate for the child."
- Parent of a 4-year-old girl
"Our daughter was diagnosed with a rare genetic and neurodevelopmental disorder which causes severe global developmental delays, including fine motor delays. Her developmental pediatrician and other parents highly recommended intensive therapy with Teri. In addition to global and fine motor delays, our daughter has motor planning issues. At that time she was shaky in her arms, legs, and core which are characteristic of her disorder. She also has sensory and auditory processing issues and was terrified of moving in space.
The intensive therapy model that Teri employs is a several week intensive daily therapy at different intervals, determined based on the progress and needs of the child. We started therapy with Teri when our daughter was a year old. Since then, we’ve had many intensive therapy sessions over the course of 2 years and are seeing good changes and great gains with her skills after each session. We noticed that shakiness in her body is gone as her core became stronger. In addition to fine motor gains, she has improved globally. She is more comfortable with where her body is in space and has improved her motor planning and coordination. Her body awareness has also improved.
Teri is very dedicated to her work with children. The therapy that she’s been doing with Teri has been life changing for our daughter and we've seen several breakthroughs that otherwise would take years to achieve. What's unique with Teri is that she has a very individualized approach to each child. She looks at the child as a whole, not just focusing on one symptom, and is able to determine the best ways to focus the treatment. She also has an amazing and unique ability to connect with children and get their attention in a way that helps the treatment progress. Teri is truly wonderful and we are very grateful for her time and dedication.
Additionally, Teri also teaches us and gives suggestions on activities and exercises to carry over the skills at home, which is very important, because it allows our daughter to continue the progress. This is has been a very effective approach for our daughter and allows her to continue improving in her daily life.
We highly recommend Teri Kozlowski and TeeKoz Kids. We've had a great experience with her team. They have a truly integrated approach to therapy that has our daughter's best interests in mind. We are very grateful to Teri for working with our daughter. She helped her immensely and we look forward to our next intensive therapy session."
- Anna, parent of a 3-year-old girl
"Our son, who has always had a magnetic personality and a hug for everyone, was struggling upon entering preschool with the big transition and was disrupting the classroom and having issues with peers even though we could see he considered them all friends.We knew we needed to do something to help our son, ourselves, and his teachers and classmates. When the behavioral therapist recommended Occupational Therapy and talked us through the potential benefits, we jumped at the chance to change the trajectory.
Specifically, our son was having issues where he would become overstimulated as the school day progressed and would become physical with peers and would start throwing objects or using very loud outdoor voices inside. We were struggling with how to handle our son's behavioral challenges at home and school in a way that didn't leave us frustrated, exhausted and embarrassed, and help him keep those peer relationships that we knew he valued.
Teri helped us to know that we were not alone and there was hope for our son. As parents, we actually learned what felt like a new language. We were given the tools that unlocked a new way to communicate with our child that was more productive, that didn't require him to change his personality but allowed us to direct his energy and provide him positive feedback which changed the dynamic of the interactions and create an environment where he was better able to receive the positive direction. Teri gave us, our son and the teachers/administrators at his school the tools to more confidently handle his sensory and regulatory challenges. She imparted us with the knowledge we needed to be better advocates for our son. Teri also reminded us that his sensory and regulatory challenges are not his fault, and attention to his self-esteem should be of high concern.
The impact of your work can be measured in days and minutes...the number of days between phone calls from the principal's office has increased, and the frequency and duration of sensory and regulatory challenges has decreased. Our son feels better about himself, we feel better about our relationship with our son and more confident about expressing his needs to his school. The quality of our home life has dramatically improved as well as we spend much less time regulating/re-regulating our son, are much better equipped to be out in front of and even prevent potential sensory issues, and our communication has achieved a whole new level."
- Bradley, parent of a 4-year-old boy
Our family has had the opportunity to work with Teri and her colleagues over the last eight months. Our 3.5 year-old daughter was having some significant challenges at school with socialization and group engagement. When we began our work with TeeKoz Kids, it was a total game changer. Teri and Julie taught our daughter self regulating skills that she quickly began to implemement in school and in other social situations. We also learned how to better support our daughter in different environments, including by taking on "just right challenges." Teri also visited our daughter's school and worked with them so they could also support the work we were doing in the therapy sessions. This holistic approach was really effective and transformative. Our daughter is like a new kid, more socially confident, engaged, and comfortable. Finally, the TeeKoz Kids team could not be more pleasant. The are gentle but challenge everyone to develop the skills that allow us to bravely step out of our comfort zones and grow as kids and people.
- Christian, parent of a 3-year-old girl
We came to OT after being referred by our son's developmental pediatrician when he was 1 1/2. Notably, his doctor didn't give me a list of names....she gave me one name. He had gross motor delays and was developmentally delayed with speech but Teri was also able to uncover previously undiagnosed sensory issues that prevented him from interacting with his environment and developing the skills needed to progress.
Teri worked intensively with my son for about a year, helping him overcome his sensory issues and enabling him to engage in appropriate play with toys. She also worked on his proprioception and fine and gross motor skills so that he could manipulate toys more successfully and navigate his body more skillfully in other settings. After a year of intensive work, we transitioned OT sessions with Sami who continued to see him for 3 sessions a week, later transitioning to 2 per week. She has continued the stellar work started by Teri and built on that foundation as he grew.
We can't say enough good things about the practice. Evan's development still continues at a slower pace than other children his age, but I am completely confident that he has the support of highly skilled providers who can "meet him where he is" in the development process. His success in therapy has given him more confidence to take appropriate risks on the school playground and he has the fine and gross motor skills to join his neurotypical peers in toy play. We are so grateful to Teri and Sami for all of their work with Evan and the supportive environment they have created for him.
- Laryssa, parent of a 4-year-old boy
“It’s been 5 years since our son Sebastian had his first sessions with Teri Kozlowski. From the first interaction, Sebastian’s flexibility in motor abilities and even speech were apparent. Sebastian started with Teri at age 2 years and ten months. Fast forward to when Sebastian started kindergarten and his teachers couldn’t believe he had only said his first word at age 3, with the incredible work from Teri. It is difficult to describe the effect that Teri had on Sebastian as it was almost a miraculous “unlocking” of a child who had otherwise been resistant to a speech therapist for 6 months prior to that. As a physician myself, observing and learning from Teri about how my son’s mind works and how to tap into his strengths has been remarkable and priceless. Sebastian is a star in his class now, first to volunteer, first to correct classmates language, first volunteer for any physical activities and amazingly insists on going to American ninja warrior obstacle courses every week. He is a motor function wizard now, even breakdancing to Michael Jackson tunes! We couldn’t have imagined the progress that Sebastian has made and my wife and I, without hesitation credit Teri and the rest of the team including Anne Reynolds who provided tremendous speech support, for this achievement.”
- Leudvig, parent of a 5-year-old boy
Without knowing the underlying sensory issues, I always thought our daughter was just more "intense" than other children. Her reactions to nearly everything were incredibly strong. She threw massive tantrums at least 5-10 times per day over things such as having to sit in her carseat or accidentally getting water in her eyes during bath time. People would tell me tantrums were "normal," but I felt it wasn't normal to be having such intense tantrums so many times each day. She was incredibly impulsive and constantly reached out to touch interesting things she saw, regardless of the appropriateness (such as clothing on someone's body) or the danger (such as a burning candle). She also seemed to both seek physical input (for example, by climbing on others) while also protesting intensely to any physical touch that she didn't like (for example, an adult restraining her from an unsafe situation). She would melt down if someone else did something she wanted to do like flush the toilet, push a button, or turn on the faucet to wash hands, and she often didn't "recover" for several minutes, even an hour at times. She also had a hard time listening to and following directions, so things like getting her dressed were often very difficult.
Furthermore, I always just thought our daughter was "reckless" with her body. She was constantly taking physical risks that other children wouldn't take and had frequent injuries. She didn't seem to "learn" from a previous fall or accident. I was constantly stressed out because even the most benign play areas, playgrounds, etc. seemed to present extreme danger, and I had to keep my eyes on her at all times.
Occupational therapy has greatly improved our daughter's ability to cope with the world. Although we are still a work in progress, OT has provided us with the tools and vocabulary to work on improving our daughter's impulsivity and flexibility. It has helped us identify her threshold and what she may or may not be capable of handling at any given moment. It has helped us recognize her need for physical input as well as the calming effect of certain tactile sensations (such as playing with sand, her water table, and rice bins). It has helped our daughter practice using her body in new situations so that she can be aware of her body in space and make safer body choices. Most importantly, it has given us an explanation for many of her behaviors so that we can be as helpful, patient, and understanding as possible.
- Mother of a 4-year-old girl