The Mid-Peninsula Speech and Language Clinic is dedicated to personal and professional integrity, excellence in all endeavors and positive growth and development for our patients and staff members.

Our goal is to serve individuals and families directly through evaluation and therapy or indirectly through parent and community education. Our vision is to be a standard of excellence in our clinical field.

We aim to provide the highest levels of:

• service to our patients and their families
• professional expertise and development
• interaction with the Bay Area community
• accountability and fair business practices.

The Clinic was originally founded as the outpatient Stanford Speech and Language Clinic, part of Stanford University’s School of Medicine. From the beginning, the Clinic served the Stanford Medical Center and the general community. It also provided one of the few training programs for prospective clinicians and teachers which was affiliated with a school of medicine.

In the late 1970s, following the closure of many of the Medical School’s professional training programs, the hospital-based Clinic continued to provide in-patient and out-patient services under the direction of Dr. Kathryn R. Beadle, PhD.

In 1980, the Clinic separated from the University and became an independent, private community practice, operating as the Mid-Peninsula Speech and Language Clinic. Directed by Dr. Beadle in association with Donna J. Dagenais, M.A., the Clinic established an ongoing affiliation with the Children’s Hospital at Stanford as well as the Palo Alto Medical Clinic. Although the Clinic focuses primarily on patient care, it also provides one of the nation’s premier training programs for speech and language therapists. Clinic staff members also work closely with physicians, psychiatrists and the public schools to provide family-friendly therapy and support programs for patients of all ages.

The earlier a child gets help with speech and language difficulties, the lower the likelihood of future learning and communication problems.