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Harlan now has a new local option for occupational and speech therapy for children and young people. Kidabilities Pediatric Therapy Center held a grand opening recently to celebrate the facility’s arrival to Harlan.
Sarah Veillon, Kidabilities co-owner. shed some light on what types of services are available.
“We provide pediatric occupational and speech therapy from birth to age 21,” Veillon said. “We have over 30 years of combined experience, we have school-based experience as well as outpatient therapy experience.”
According to Veillon, there is also a Kidabilities clinic located in Middlesboro which has been in operation for approximately seven years.
“We provide occupational and speech therapy for a number of diagnoses and disabilities ranging from autism to genetic disorders and basic developmental delays and disabilities,” Veillon said.
Kidabilities has been in operation in Harlan for approximately four weeks.
“Right now, we plan on being open in Harlan on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Veillon said. “We’re hoping to serve a lot of school age children, so we’re trying to make afterschool appointments available for that reason.”
Veillon mentioned business hours may expand depending on need.
Both Veillon and her partner, Leigh Roark, are both natives of southeast Kentucky.
“I grew up in Pineville, Leigh is from Barbourville, we’ve both grown up near Harlan County and we know there is a need for pediatric therapy services, so we hope to be here for the long haul,” Veillon said. “We’ve had several patients who were driving from Harlan to our Middlesboro location, so we knew there was a need here for pediatric therapy.”
Roark, a speech/language pathologist, provided some additional information.
“We’ve serviced a lot of children from Harlan and Cumberland,” Roark said. “We wanted to bring services closer so parents can have easier access, less transportation costs and still be able to get the services their children need.”
Roark mentioned there are multiple reasons a child may require speech therapy.
“We do offer free screenings, that’s also something you can talk to your doctor about,” Roark said. “I can see children as young as a couple of weeks old if they have feeding issues… and up to grade school age if they just have trouble with speech sounds and anything in between. We serve a lot of children on the autism spectrum, if they need help with language development. If you have any speech and language concerns you can always call us for a free screening.”
For more information or to schedule an appointment, call Kidabilities at 606-621-0247. Kidabilities is located inside the Harlan Professional Building at 120 Professional Lane next to the former cinema building.