Director of Center for Speech and Sound

Lori Riggs, M.A., Speech Pathology

Lori Riggs is a Certified Speech/Language Pathologist with over a decade of experience in providing speech therapy, cutting-edge oral motor therapies, and auditory training programs. After graduating from Baylor University in 1990, Lori obtained her Master’s degree from Kent State University in 1992. For the next several years she provided acute care and rehabilitative speech therapy to children and adults in hospitals, outpatient clinics, nursing homes and Home Health settings.

Throughout her career, Lori has pursued additional specialized training in Speech/Language Pathology and related fields. She has taken a number of courses in oral motor techniques pioneered by Justine Joan Shepherd and Sara Johnson Rosenfeld, and has trained in therapeutic auditory programs including Samonas Sound Therapy, Digital Auditory Aerobics, and Hemisphere Specific Auditory Stimulation.

In 1996, Lori became interested in the advanced rehabilitation strategies offered by NACD. She pursued the Consultant Training Program offered by NACD at the time, which required her to undergo an evaluation by Bob Doman and do an individualized home program to build sequential processing skills and improve her neurological organization. Lori says of this experience, “It really was very useful. I had to work on digit spans; I occluded my ear and my eye; I did the Samonas listening program - the whole bit. It was a good thing to do—it made me more empathetic toward the kids I work with now.”

After completing the Consultant Training, Lori returned to her full time Speech Pathology practice until 1998, when NACD hired her to supervise clients using the Samonas Sound Therapy program.

When NACD collaborated with other professionals in 1998 to create The Listening Program, Lori was a member of the development team. She also coordinated the field testing conducted at multiple sites around the nation before The Listening Program was released in September of 1999. Once The Listening Program was released, Lori became the primary supervisor of its use with NACD clients.

In addition to supervising The Listening Program, Lori designs individualized oral motor protocols for NACD clients to improve feeding and speech. Having two young children of her own helps her keep in touch with the parental perspective on implementing programs at home with children. She says, “Motherhood has certainly changed my approach to my professional work as well as just given me a better understanding. I can empathize with parents because I know it can be challenging to implement some of these techniques with kids.”

Lori currently lives in Texas with her husband and two children. She is actively involved in researching the effects of auditory programs on auditory perceptual skills and speech/language. Having seen both the Samonas and The Listening Program yield outstanding results in her own experience, she is currently collaborating with a team at the University of S. Dakota conducting an independent research study on the effectiveness of The Listening Program Level I.