Danielle Pacholski, SLP, CFY

Speech Language Therapist, Clinical Fellowship Year

Brief info

During my time at Indiana University, I became very involved with the IU Dance Marathon, which raises money for Riley Hospital for Children. As a child who was in and out of doctors’ offices and children’s hospitals growing up, I understand how hard it can be on both the child and the family, and IUDM gave me the opportunity to support kids and families at Riley during their time of need. When I first became involved with IUDM I was a neuroscience premed student, but after mentoring a peer who stuttered and empowering him to embrace his stutter and not let it stop him from achieving his dreams, I quickly fell in love with speech-language pathology. These experiences made me realize how important it is for individuals to be able to communicate successfully with others and opened my eyes to the many factors that could get in the way of meaningful communication. I knew from that point on that I wanted to become a speech-language pathologist so I could help kids communicate more successfully with their family, peers, and everyone else around them.

After switching majors, I completed my Bachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Sciences with a minor in Psychology at Indiana University and went on to earn my Master of Arts in Speech and Hearing Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Throughout graduate school, I had the opportunity to work with kids in a variety of settings, including the University clinic, elementary schools, and an ABA clinic working with kids on the autism spectrum. I have experience working with kids with communication impairments in the areas of phonological awareness, receptive and expressive language, articulation, fluency, and social communication.

I am now embarking on my Clinical Fellowship experience at Mini Minds and am excited to continue to grow as a speech-language pathologist! I was drawn to Mini Minds by their “whole brain, whole child, whole family” approach. I believe that children will see the greatest improvements when teams collaborate to treat the whole child, and when families can be a part of the child’s treatment. Each child is unique in the way they communicate, and I am eager to be a part of the team that helps foster each child’s communication skills in a natural and fun environment. I look forward to working with you and your child and to creating a space that helps improve your child’s ability to communicate with the world!

When I’m not working, I love to spend time with my friends & family, read (I read 100 books last year!), work out, and eat chips & salsa!