About Us
Breaking Barriers has made this its mission to provide quality care to underserved populations and has done so over the past nine years. Since 2014, Breaking Barriers has committed to providing top notch therapy services and support to students and staff in over 16 villages. Breaking Barriers provides on-site support, district wide training, staff development, collaborative intervention services, coaching, telehealth as well as mass hearing screenings among other specialized educational services.
Breaking Barriers LLC is a small Alaskan business established in 2014 and is therapist owned and operated. - BB understands the unique needs and challenges that presents itself for our rural school districts and has innovative therapy solutions designed to break the barriers and bridge the gaps in access to quality care for all regardless of where they are or who they are.
Kristine Beard, M.S., CCC-SLP
Kristine is the owner/operator of Breaking Barriers LLC. She has spent the greater part of her career venturing to the corners of Alaska, caring for the children of this beautiful state. From Arctic Village to Hooper Bay, helping children create a foundation for communicating with the world for the rest of their life is her passion.
Alaska is as unique of a place as every student, and it takes truly being a part of those communities to understand what it takes to provide the best quality of care. Through Kristine’s Alaskan travels, she has come to know such a love for travel and experiencing other remote parts of the world and its people. When not traveling to her wonderful village communities she can be found somewhere most likely off grid in nature exploring.
Services
Breaking Barriers understands the unique needs of Alaska. We understand the importance of providing dynamic service delivery models in order to increase quality of care for each individual. Our model of service delivery is based on ASHA's stance on best practices, with top-tiered therapists we work together to ensure creative and results-driven strategies to help each individual thrive. See the full range of solutions detailed below, and get in touch to find out how Breaking Barriers can help.
"These communities are so kind and so welcoming. I’m extremely grateful to get to have this opportunity to learn a new culture and build relationships in this underserved population."
Leah, Speech Language Pathologists
Dynamic Service Delivery Models
Breaking Barriers understands the unique needs of Alaska. We understand the importance of providing dynamic service delivery models in order to increase quality of care for each individual. Our model of service delivery is based on ASHA's stance on best practices, with top-tiered therapists who work together to ensure creative and results-driven strategies to help each individual thrive. See the full range of solutions detailed below, and get in touch to find out how Breaking Barriers can help.
Collaborative/Hybrid Model
The collaborative model is based on ASHA’s gold standard in therapeutic services in the educational setting. It recognizes the critical on-site piece for assisting in providing hands-on training, building relationships/rapport, support, and establishing evidence-based systems that encourage learning and skill development. The utilization of the remote platform will be to provide additional support in-between on-site visits that build staff confidence, aides in accountability, better communication, capitalizing on teachable moments, determining if constructs or working or need to be modified, etc. This way the therapist can access the students' learning environment more than a few times a year, better understand the context of the situations to provide appropriate consultations and strategies based on current behavior patterns, and aid in monitoring students progress towards goals. This also helps to eliminate the "reactive effect". A hybrid model has surmounting evidence to support it along with the collaborative approach which ASHA deems as best practice in school settings.
Consultative/Collaborative Model
This model is also child centered and really puts the phrase “It takes a village” in the forefront. This model works well in small districts where more time and training to smaller classroom sizes can take place without putting a perceived strain on teachers. They work closely with skilled instructional support staff to ensure that treatment strategies are embedded throughout the child’s instructional time and focus on services being more classroom based as deemed appropriate with a child focused approach to all working together cohesively to bring about positive outcomes. **weighted approach
Telepractice Model
Breaking Barriers understands that there are always unforeseen circumstances and challenges that may arise. This model is ideal for those unforeseen situations in which travel or weather may play as a culprit and in order to continue quality of care and access to a students learning environment this model will continue to keep the doors open to such care. This model is still considered dynamic in the sense that it will continue to be primarily a coaching model with training for staff to follow through during the rest of the school time with direct intervention as well to guide in overall success. We know that skills do not develop in a vacuum and will take the team working together cohesively to bring about the necessary changes.
Contact Us
Interested in our services? Fill out the form or email us directly kristineleigh@breakingbarriersllc.info.