About Fundamental Kids
A small Minnesota clinic built around personalized care, with talented clinicians, evidence-based therapy, and measurable progress.
Learn More
A small Minnesota clinic built around personalized care, with talented clinicians, evidence-based therapy, and measurable progress.
Learn More
A fuller, happier life for children of all ages and abilities.
The Twin Cities has many wonderful pediatric clinics, each with its own strengths. Fundamental Kids Therapy is intentionally small — focused on personalized, high-quality occupational therapy and speech-language pathology for children and families. But our skills, technology, and results are anything but small. Read on to meet our team and learn about our philosophy.
Our recently expanded clinic was purpose-built for the work we do — more room to play, more private spaces for focused sessions, and Fundakids Cafe for feeding, food related therapy, and fun!
Private, comfortable spaces built for focused one-on-one therapy sessions.
Room to run, jump, and swing — with equipment for gross-motor development.
A welcoming, relaxed spot for parents and siblings between sessions.
A dedicated space for food therapy, social eating skills, and group activities.
We may have a lot of fun, but we also work hard! From working on fine-motor skills (as pictured above), to learning speech sounds, to honing handwriting, our therapists are committed to teaching kids the fundamentals they need to navigate their world.
We are one of the few clinics in Minnesota with an interactive projector wall (up to 150 inches), a therapeutic massage chair, and a state-of-the-art 3D printer for sensory tools, incentives, and about anything our therapists can imagine!
Our sensory gym gives kids a fun, colorful space where therapists can work on coordination, balance, and bilateral skills.
Therapists who not only know your child's strengths and needs but also their favorite color! Julie founded the clinic on a simple idea: small, attentive, and individualized.
Julie is one of the few practicing speech-language pathologists in Minnesota whose master's thesis research has been published in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology — the flagship clinical research journal of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the national professional body for the field.
The study, conducted with her University of Minnesota graduate thesis advisor Dr. Benjamin Munson and his colleague Dr. Jan Edwards, examined how experienced speech-language pathologists hear subtle differences in young children's speech that untrained listeners miss. The findings demonstrated, with measurable evidence, that clinical training meaningfully sharpens a clinician's ear for the fine acoustic details that underlie accurate diagnosis and tracking of progress in therapy. The research also illuminated something about young children themselves: many kids who appear to be "missing" a sound are actually producing subtle, measurable distinctions on their way to mastery — distinctions a trained clinician can hear and build on, but that simple right-or-wrong scoring misses.
Her paper has been cited more than 70 times in peer-reviewed research and continues to be referenced in 2026 — in studies on cleft palate intervention, cochlear implants, ultrasound biofeedback therapy, and cross-linguistic speech development from Sweden to South Korea. The methodology Julie helped validate is now part of how researchers around the world evaluate young children's speech production.
That same trained ear and commitment to skillfull listening is what Julie brings to every child she works with and every therapist she mentors at Fundamental Kids Therapy.
Nicole brings nearly a decade of experience as a speech-language pathologist in school settings to Fundamental Kids Therapy. She earned her master's in Communication Disorders from Minnesota State University.
Most recently, Nicole spent more than five years serving students with complex educational and behavioral needs from elementary through transition ages. Earlier in her career she worked with upper elementary and middle school students. Across both settings she has supported students using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and trained staff in communication and behavior interventions.
Nicole has particular interests in literacy development, AAC, and supporting children with blindness and visual impairments. At Fundamental Kids, she brings the depth that comes from years of school-based caseload work to families who value an experienced, collaborative clinician.
Laney earned her master's in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Wisconsin–River Falls. Her clinical training included an inpatient and outpatient rehab rotation at Mayo Clinic Health System in Red Wing, and clinical fellowship work with children on the autism spectrum and with complex co-occurring conditions including Down syndrome, auditory neuropathy, and PANDAS. She brings a particular strength in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) — the speech-generating devices and apps that help children with limited verbal speech access language.
At Fundamental Kids, Laney works closely with families and the broader therapy team to make sure communication tools and strategies carry beyond the therapy room — into homes, classrooms, and everyday life.
Tiffany joined Fundamental Kids Therapy as an occupational therapist after five years of pediatric school-based practice and acute hospital experience. She earned her Doctorate in Occupational Therapy from St. Catherine University, where she also completed her undergraduate degree. In addition to working as an OT with elementary and middle school students, Tiffany also brings hospital-based experience where she worked with patients across a broader range of needs.
Earlier in her career, Tiffany spent five years as a lifeguard and adaptive swim instructor at Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Center, designing swim lessons for children and adults with a wide range of disabilities. That early experience shaped her approach to pediatric therapy: meeting each child where they are, adapting to how they learn, and building competence through activities they actually want to do.
Tara joined Fundamental Kids Therapy as an occupational therapist after earning her Master's in Occupational Therapy from St. Catherine University, where she also completed her Bachelor's in Public Health.
Her experience working with children began before her OT training, spending several years as a PCA for a young child with autism spectrum disorder and sensory challenges, integrating prescribed OT goals into daily routines at home. During her graduate program she also supported preschool-aged children with ASD on motor and sensory development in a clinical setting. Across both, she focused on the practical translation of therapy goals into the rhythms of everyday life.
Outside the clinic, Tara is an experienced runner with a long-standing commitment to functional fitness — a personal investment in how the body works and moves that informs her appreciation for what pediatric OT does for kids: building the strength, coordination, and confidence to engage fully with the world.
