About Expressions
At Expressions, we believe the “why” behind the symptoms should drive treatment. Why does your son have trouble with certain speech sounds? Why is your daughter a picky eater? These are the questions we’ll ask at the evaluation and continue to ask throughout the course of treatment. By treating the cause, symptoms such as speech sound errors, food aversions, and difficulty communicating can improve.
We believe the treatment of your child’s speech, language, and feeding issues is a team approach. Doing work at home is vitally important to success of your child. We will give activities and exercises for homework, as well as offer strategies to create an environment that will increase your child’s success. You will feel welcomed and cared for at Expressions!
Meet Our Team
Lauren Hughes M.S. CCC-SLP, COM® founder/owner
Lauren, a Mississippi native, moved to Birmingham in 2009 after attending the University of Southern Mississippi. She’s worked in a variety of settings including skilled nursing facilities and a local school system. Lauren founded Expressions Pediatric Therapy to provide specialized speech, language, and feeding therapy and begin seeing patients full-time through Expressions in 2018.
Lauren has a passion for working with patients to find and treat the root cause of issues to improve quality of life. She’s also passionate about working with picky eaters, drawing from her own experiences as a lifelong picky eater. Lauren is a Certified Orofacial Myologist (COM®) through the International Association of Orofacial Myology (IAOM).
Lauren loves learning and is always eager to soak up more knowledge through continuing education opportunities, such as:
Understanding The Orofacial Complex
The STONES Approach: Advanced Myofunctional Therapy
Beckman Oral Motor
Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol (K-SLP)
Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cuing (DTTC)
SOS Approach to Feeding
TalkTools: Oral Placement Therapy
TalkTools: Sensory Motor Approach to Feeding
Tethered Oral Tissues (TOTs) Specialty Training
GOMAP Infant & Toddler Feeding
Lauren has a healthy obsession with books and tea, and enjoys spending time at local events around Birmingham. She loves to travel (especially to anywhere that’s historically significant) and enjoys spending time with her family (especially her very cute niece).
Contact at Lauren@expressionspediatrictherapy.com.
Danielle Allen M.S. CCC-SLP
Danielle Allen is from Calera, Alabama and received her Bachelor’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from The University of Montevallo in 2017. In 2019, she received her Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Midwestern University in Glendale, Arizona, but returned home to the Birmingham, AL area after school. She gained experience working with pediatric clients at Midwestern University’s Speech-Language Institute and completed an internship studying beneath two certified Speech-Language Pathologists in the Shelby County School System.
Additionally, she completed an internship here at Expressions during her graduate school studies and officially joined the Expressions team after graduation. Danielle enjoys working with children who have Childhood Apraxia of Speech and orofacial myofunctional disorders, and has sought out additional trainings in those areas. Danielle has completed several trainings to better serve her patients including:
Beckman Oral Motor
Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP)
TalkTools: Oral Placement Therapy
TalkTools: Sensory Motor Approach to Feeding
Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cuing (DTTC)
Danielle likes reading, making lists, and drinking coffee. She has one daughter, Carina, and a spoiled rescue kitty named August. She honors the memory of her late husband, Chase.
Carissa McGuffie M.S. CCC-SLP
Carissa grew up in Georgia, but made her way to The University of Alabama where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Communicative Disorders in 2008 and Master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology in 2009. Following graduation, she returned home to Georgia to complete her Clinical Fellowship, where she developed a love for working with children with feeding difficulties and multiple disabilities. Carissa later moved to Nashville, TN and worked at Vanderbilt University Medical Center practicing Feeding Therapy full-time by serving infants, toddlers, and adolescents with a variety of feeding and swallowing difficulties, including dysphagia, Failure to Thrive, feeding-tube dependency, oral-motor difficulties, and food/oral aversion.
In 2015, Carissa and her husband moved to Birmingham, where she worked with patients with speech, language, feeding and oral motor impairments in a multidisciplinary pediatric outpatient setting. Carissa has fourteen years experience working in pediatrics and has received training in a variety of methods and areas of interest including:
Beckman Oral Motor Assessment & Treatment
SOS Approach to Feeding
GOMAP Infant & Toddler Feeding
TalkTools: A Sensory Motor Approach to Feeding
Tethered oral tissues
Carissa and her husband, Cory live in Hoover and have two children, Parker and Ella. Carissa enjoys hot yoga, coffee, the beach, and making memories with her family.
MaryBeth Wagner M.S. CCC-SLP
MaryBeth Wagner is from metro Atlanta, Georgia, but she made her way to Birmingham to attend Samford University, where she received her Bachelor’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. She loved Samford and the Birmingham community so much that she stayed there to finish her Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology.
During her time at Samford, she gained valuable clinical experience through a variety of externships at the Samford University Literacy Clinic, Homewood City Schools, The Bell Center for Early Intervention Programs, and UAB Spain Rehabilitation. These clinical externships gave MaryBeth hands-on experience assessing and treating patients ages birth to 99 years old! It was through these experiences that she found her passion for working with the pediatric population. Since graduation, MaryBeth has gained additional training in the following areas:
Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP)
DIRFloortime
Tethered oral tissues
MaryBeth enjoys spending time with her family and friends, trying new local restaurants, spending time outside, and traveling. She is passionate about serving children and their families.
Alexis Holland M.S. CCC-SLP
Alexis Holland is from Clearwater, Florida and received her Bachelor’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders and Master’s degree in Speech- Language Pathology from Samford University. During this time, she had a variety of clinical experiences including externships at the Woolley Institute for Spoken Language Education, Cullman City Primary School, and Expressions Pediatric Therapy where she was able to learn under the mentorship of certified speech-language pathologists. Each of these clinical experiences provided Alexis with in-depth assessment and treatment experience with children ages birth to 18- years- old.
Additionally, Alexis gained experience in several treatment methods during her externships including Auditory Verbal Therapy, Beckman Oral Motor Assessment, SOS Approach to Feeding, Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP), and also has experience with language and speech impairments. Since graduation, she has pursued various training in feeding therapy and dyslexia treatment methods including:
Feed the Peds
Training in the Orton Gillingham method
Tethered oral tissues
Alexis enjoys reading, going to the beach, and making sweet memories with her family and friends. She and her husband, Parker, adopted a sweet golden retriever puppy named Bennett in February 2020. Alexis and Parker welcomed their baby girl, Lilly, in July 2023.
Shannon Lamar M.Ed. CCC-SLP
Shannon is a Georgia native who recently moved to Birmingham. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Communicative Disorders from the University of Alabama in 2018. and her Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Valdosta State University in 2020.
Shannon draws her experience from both the school and private practice settings, where she found her passion for working with the pediatric population. Shannon has experience treating a variety of patients across the lifespan including Childhood Apraxia of Speech, pediatric speech and language disorders, social thinking, and ongoing training in orofacial myofunctional therapy.
Shannon has a passion for building rapport with children and families. She appreciates working in private practice, as she has the opportunity to treat patients one-on-one using a holistic approach, while working closely with families to carryover those skills at home. Shannon strives to help each child find and embrace their unique way of communication.
Shannon has completed several trainings to better serve her patients including:
AEIOU Course Certified - An Integrated Approach to Pediatric Feeding
Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC) Training
Pam Marshalla’s “Pam's Place Cues” Training
Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol
Lindamood Bell Visualizing and Verbalizing
Model and Grow Language AAC training
One on one training in Orofacial Myofunctional therapy
When she is not working, Shannon enjoys spending time with her husband, Jackson and their puppy, Pepper. She enjoys traveling, spending time with family and friends, and reading.