Roxanne K. Batezel is The Youth Clinic’s May Provider Spotlight. After working in a private practice and a University clinic in Texas, this Colorado State University graduate moved home to join The Youth Clinic in 2000 as a Speech/Language Pathologist.
Describe your perfect day.
A perfect day for me is unlike most. I love when my young patients arrive at their appointment on time, cooperative and eager to work!
What are your hobbies?
I spend my extra time walking, scrapbooking, reading, crafts and traveling with my husband and two sons.
What is your dream vacation?
Vacations for me are time away from my daily routine and rediscover my love of traveling. A dream vacation for me would be spending a week on Mykonos Island in Greece.
What is your favorite season of the year and why?
Springtime is by far my favorite season of the year. This season brings new births – I have a wall of windows in my office so we track the new number of baby goslings, ducklings and bunnies each year.
Why you chose your profession?
I knew at a young age I wanted to pursue a career that would allow me to work with children and their families. As a teenager, I worked with children with different disabilities this is where I discovered my passion.
What is your favorite part about working at The Youth Clinic?
The fact that we are a family that supports each other through the tough times and rejoices with the victories. I love the culture at The Youth Clinic and the fact that we are all passionate about supporting parents and their children and helping them live healthy and fulfilled lives.
A success story.
I have had several children with a motor planning problem called apraxia that have started therapy between two and three years of age that have learned to talk much more intelligible. I have used visual and tactile cues to help them learn various functional words or phrases and have expanded that to help them become effective communicators.
What advice do you have for your patients/audience?
I would encourage parents to start communicating with their little ones when they are young and not stop! Babies can start imitating facial movements very early on and as they do that they are learning the turn-taking that they will need to be effective communicators. Parents should just keep up a running monologue about what is happening and respond to each attempt their child makes to communicate with them as if it is clear as a bell. I would also encourage parents to make reading to their children a regular part of each day’s schedule.