Ascend Rehab Services

In-Home Services with Infant Development Specialist, Desiree Malone (Antioch/Brentwood/Oakley): Desiree was the first provider that our daughter felt comfortable with in the very early stages of her autism diagnosis. Desiree eased us in, as it was a big step for our daughter to engage with others that were not family. Upon our first meeting with Desiree, she encouraged us to welcome the uncertainty and anxiety we felt after learning of our child's diagnosis and truly supported us with providing comfort, advice, & great empathy. She listened to our concerns and affirmed that we were taking all the necessary steps to ensure our child grows & succeeds on her new path forward. After a few more sessions, our daughter made amazing progress with saying more words and performing tasks that were asked of her, in addition to developing "first-then" skills in communication & play. We were grateful to Desiree for helping our journey along before starting ABA Therapy and would absolutely recommend Desiree as a provider for families that start their journey with autism. We felt better prepared for the upcoming therapy services and have seen our child make great strides since starting ABA. Thank you to Desiree & Ascend for the early intervention services! We truly believe it was the key to our daughter's readiness in building her confidence & trust with the community around us.

My son has been working with Ilea for the past 5 months, and I'm here today to share how much progress he has made, thanks to her. When my son first started speech therapy, he was struggling to communicate. He could only say a few words, and he often had trouble being understood. But Ilea was patient and understanding. She created fun and engaging activities to help my son learn new words and communication skills. I'm so grateful for her hard work and dedication, he has made significant progress. One of the things I appreciate most about Ilea is her ability to connect with my son.She always took time to get to know him and what interests him. This makes the speech therapy sessions more enjoyable for and it helped him to learn more effectively. Thank you Ilea! for everything you have done for our family.

Ms. Ilea has been such a huge blessing to my son and our family. We honestly couldn’t have asked for a better speech therapist for our son. Before she started working with him he was completely nonverbal and solely relied on non verbal communication. After she started working with him not only was she able to get him to start imitating and vocalizing but she was also able to give him a new avenue to communicate which has helped tremendously. Ms. Ilea went above and beyond for our son not only connecting with him but also connecting with me as a mom which was nice. She took the time to hear our concerns, empathize and teach us how to best help our son with speech development and the issues he is facing. Not only that but she was his biggest advocate so he could receive much needed help/resources. We are going to miss her greatly and we wish her the best!

Our family is beyond grateful to have found Ascend, my daughter has received OT and Speech with their amazing specialists for the past four years. During this time we have seen tremendous improvements. Ms. Ilea my daughters Speech Therapist has done an amazing job with expanding her communication while providing parent training. The staff is professional and extremely helpful especially when we converted to private pay. They make our lives a little less stressful. Thank you so much Ms. Illea and the Ascend Team! We hope to continue with you for years to come.

This review is LONG overdue. My daughter attended their Little Miracles program and also received speech(Ilea & Sophia) and occupational therapy(Robin) through Ascend. Each and every single one of the staff members we came across were amazing. The staff, from therapists and admins, are passionate about what they do and treat the kids so well. They all nurtured and taught my daughter so much, even through virtual learning during the early stages of COVID! She was always happy to go to school and therapy to play/learn. It’s been almost a year now since she stopped going to Ascend; she still talks about Ms Ilea and Julienne randomly when we talk about teachers. She is all caught up and thriving now. We wouldn’t be here without Ascends help. Thanks so much guys!

Seeing our daughter excited about Third grade and even making friends in school reminds us how Ascend services have been life-changing to our family! Our daughter was 3 when she came in for OT and SLP with Ms. Cecelia and Ms. Chris, and Ms. Sheryl. We came once a week for both services and everything we learned from a year and a half at Ascend has helped us get to where we are today. They are so knowledgeable on individual differences and are such a pleasure to work with, every session was a joy and working through problem areas was just a matter of time. There was no task that was too big, and I have not seen better therapy for our daughter anywhere else. Time here was so well spent, thank you so much!!

Our son has a rare neuro condition, “as rare as winning the lotto twice” we were told by doctors. We were blessed with Mary Lou from Ascend Rehab to come in home with our son as his development specialist. She has changed our sons life forever; she was the reason our son beat the odds and opinions of tops doctors in this area. She is an angel. The thought of her love, compassion, and the fight she has for my son is beyond words. Mary Lou will forever be part of our family and forever the reason for of my sons success.

I really struggled with doing this review for a few months now. I wanted to give credit where warranted but on the other hand the office staff was a completely different experience. This review is for the therapist that helped my child and not for the customer service I received from the office staff at Ascend. (Ilea saved you from a bad review!) Ileanexcis was my child's Speech therapist. She is fluent in Spanish and knows sign language. Which was a tremendous help because my child knew a few words in English, Spanish and Sign language. My sitter only speaks Spanish and my home is 90% English and I had started teaching my child Sign language early on. I was worried that the therapist he would be paired with would not know all 3. My child loved his visits with Ilea and would always look forward to them. He went in (roughly 2.5 years old) knowing 20 words and aged out (3 years old) knowing his colors, counting to 10 and naming body parts. I am so grateful to have been paired up with such an amazing therapist who loves her job and shows!!! My son built a rapport with her so well that when Ilea went on vacation and someone else filled in. He did not want anything to do with the sub therapist. I am so sad that they no longer have sessions together. My son misses her and will ask about her. She is such a great asset to have. I hope that Ascend realizes how amazing she is!! THANK YOU ILEA FOR ALL THAT YOU DO WITH THE KIDS!! 💗💗