I’m Ilana Shydlo, mom to a bilingual child and expert in bilingual childhood language development. My expertise in bilingualism stems from my background in Speech-Language Pathology. In my career as a Speech-Language Pathologist, I’ve worked with bilingual clients of all ages with a variety of speech and language disorders including aphasia, language delays, articulation disorders, and fluency disorders. I have also worked as a speech therapist in New York City public, private, and charter schools, as well as at a preschool serving children with developmental disabilities.

Why did I become a Bilingual Parenting Consultant?

My move towards working in the field of Bilingual Parenting Consulting happened organically as my career path unfolded. It has been my pleasure to work with parents to answer their questions about bilingual issues throughout my entire career, ever since I interned as a graduate student clinician. My area of focus was bilingual issues, and I speak several languages including Spanish, Russian, and French, so I often worked with bilingual children at my internships and externships. Concurrently, I began working in Accent Training, giving me the opportunity to interact with multilingual adults from all over the world.

I moved forward in my career as a Bilingual Speech-Language Pathologist and began working in schools. During this time, many of my friends started becoming parents. I started noticing that I was often asked questions related to bilingualism such as: “What’s the best method to raise my child to be bilingual?” or “Would it be ok for my child who has a speech/language/developmental disorder to be exposed to more than one language?” When I realized that my passion and professional expertise intersected where parents had a need, Polyglot Parenting was born.

My approach to working with families is warm, friendly, and highly personalized. I stick by families as they navigate the tough and sometimes perilous terrain of bilingual upbringings, taking on whatever role the family most needs at that stage in their bilingual journey: expert guide, consultant, researcher, advisor, cheerleader, or advocate.

Credentials:

  • MS from Columbia University in Speech Language Pathology
  • Speech-Language Pathology License (New York State)
  • American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Certification of Clinical Competence