Daughter of an American mother (Minnesota and Iowa) and a Spanish father, Alba has always lived in a bicultural and bilingual environment. Initially brought up in Spain, her family moved to the States, where Alba confronted the difficulties of adapting to the American School System and to another culture. This is where she became conscious of the support needed by children when required to study in a different language and country.

Her first contact with Speech Therapy was as a teenager through her bilingual cousin who, after living in Scotland for a while, had difficulty pronouncing the Spanish “r” sound. This awakened an interest in language as an instrument for communication and lead her to study Speech Therapy, graduating from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid in 2009. Shortly after this she began providing at-home speech therapy services to children with language delay, and in 2011 she started working at the Centro de Rehabilitación del Lenguaje, with dysphonia patients. In the same year she obtained the Voice Pathology Expert diploma, through Fundación ICH of Alcalá de Henares University. She then began working in the Centro de Rehabilitación del Lenguaje in the Sanitas Millenium and Zarzuela Medical Centers assessing, diagnosing and treating patients suffering from language, speaking, voice and swallowing disorders.

Following her first son’s birth, and later with the arrival of her daughter to the family, Alba chose to join the world of working with schools, allowing for more compatibility with family life. She worked at the International School of Madrid, combining this work with speech therapy services at home with patients with speech, language and/or literacy disorders in English and Spanish. Her work in the educational environment has given her knowledge of how language problems hinder learning and a full awareness of how receiving help in time allows children to develop their potential.

As a mother of bilingual children, in her family she applies the OPOL (One Person One Language) system, she speaks in English to the children and her husband speaks in Spanish. This experience further enriches her profile as a speech therapist who cares for children exposed to more than one language either at home or in school.