Dr. Bernadette Mullen is a New Jersey licensed Speech-Language Pathologist and Special Education Teacher. Bernadette graduated from Kean University in Union, NJ with masters and doctoral degrees in Speech-Language Pathology. She completed her undergraduate education in both Special Education and Speech-Language Pathology at Montclair State University in Montclair, NJ. Bernadette is highly qualified in her field and she is a nationally certified member of ASHA holding her Certificate of Clinical Competency. She has worked in the field of special education for 40 years. She has owned and operated Speech Start LLC for 22 years. In her practice, she specializes in providing evaluations and therapeutic intervention to children and teens with both speech and language disorders. She has extensive training in the areas of apraxia, language based reading disorders, autism spectrum disorder, behavior management and sensory processing disorders. She has worked on providing quality pragmatic therapy to children with social language disorders for many years. Bernadette is fluent in American Sign Language.

Bernadette’s recent professional foci have been social skills training as well as behavioral/sensory feeding intervention. She served as the curriculum director for SiLAS Solutions, which is a socially interactive software and curriculum for professionals to use when teaching social skills to children, teens and adults from 3 years old to 21+. This program has been implemented in multiple schools throughout NJ for the purpose of improving special learners’ abilities to socialize with their peers. She continues to focus on facilitating improvement in pragmatic language skills through interaction and community based learning.

Bernadette has also completed AEIOU’s Integrated Approach to Pediatric Feeding Course on Responsive Feeding-The Baby Cued Method. She has extensive experience in sensory/behavioral feeding and her feeding treatment employs a family-centered approach. She has worked with clients with various diagnoses including Avoidant-Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). She strives to continue to fine tune her skills in order to best help her clients and their families.

Bernadette is a Level Two – Prompts for Restructuring Oral Motor Phonetic Targets (PROMPT) trained therapist and utilizes this method when treating children and teens with apraxia and motor planning deficits.

She has also completed the Sensory Certification for Speech-Language Pathologists with the hope that this will allow for her to better treat her clients with sensory challenges and to better lead her Speech Start team!