About ME
Personal
In addition to her work as an educational advocate and consultant, Tara is a full-time mother of 5 and a dedicated wife of 24 years. Her work as an advocate began when she finally secured an IEP for her oldest son after many years of trying. Tara learned that the “average of the road learner” who does not have attentional issues or behavior problems is the one that suffers the most. She knows the challenges of balancing work and family life, caring for loved ones, and parenting children of different needs and challenges. Her family and mentors have taught her not to strive for perfection, but to work hard to overcome challenges and succeed at the life that you want, the goals you value.
Professional Experience
Tara has a Master's in Special Education from The University of Massachusetts and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication disorder from Queens College. She is a certified Special Education teacher, a Speech Therapy Assistant, and a Reading teacher with over 20 years of small group and classroom teaching experience at all levels.
Tara's career began as a speech therapy assistant. While working with kids with language impairments in various public schools, she pursued her degree in special education at night.
She discovered a passion for advocacy working with children with special needs. Tasked with supporting a wide variety of ability levels in inclusive programs in public schools as well as a substantially separate private school program, Tara understands the foundations of education and empowerment that are necessary for educational teams to work collaboratively. She has also administered and scored many of the standardized, formal assessment tools used by schools to determine eligibility for special education programs. Tara's expertise lies in diagnosing students with specific learning disabilities in reading and writing and creating remediation plans. Tara is trained in many of the reading programs that she recommends including LindaMood Bell and Wilson. She also has a strong background in supporting students with ADD/ADHD, Executive Functioning Disorder, Emotional Impairments, Complex Childhood Trauma, Autism, Health Impairments, and Neurological Impairments.