situations . The career toward speech-language pathology was birthed , but it was not a straight forward journey . She was a biology major at Fairleigh Dickinson University , New Jersey , en route to becoming an otolaryngologist . While visiting her speech-language pathologist cousin , Mona decided to shadow her at work for a few days . Career-curious discussions with her ensued and Mona then realized conclusively that she wanted to diagnose , play an integral part in the intervention , the turnaround and provide help holistically and meaningfully to people who needed speech-language pathology remediation . But she was already three years into her biology program , it was difficult to change her major and the university she attended did not even offer speech-language pathology ! That fire , however , was now lit , and fueled with determination , she found another university that offered the prerequisites for speech-language pathology and did an overwhelmingly taxing credit overload . It was difficult , but she persevered and succeeded . Her Master ’ s Degree in Speech Language Pathology was thereafter obtained with distinction from the University of the West Indies , St . Augustine , Trinidad and Tobago . In 2016 she then returned home to Antigua and opened her private practice .
CHATS is housed in what was once just a building with a wide-open hall . Mona ’ s vision for a functional , therapeutic , accessible space was brought to life by Antiguan Interior Designer , Charmaine Werth . Visual , sensory , therapy and observation rooms were all expertly designed to cater to the needs of her clients . Observation rooms are both visual and audio so parents do not have to sit in therapy sessions with their children as this can sometimes be a distraction . But Mona likes them to see what is being done so they can continue the therapy at home , so the rooms are inviting , comfortable , practical and functional . Her building is also fully accessible .
The range of services offered by CHATS fills just a small portion of the speech-language pathology void on Antigua & Barbuda . Families come to her directly but referrals are also sent from schools , pediatricians in the hospitals and private clinics , the Special Needs unit of the Ministry of Education and also Social Services department will identify families in need and send them to her . There is a lot of people to be helped and with her being the only practice on the island , many are not able to receive her services directly , but she tries to assist as best she can . She would go into the classroom of her clients to see how the environment can be made more language-rich . She ’ ll coach the teacher on ways to support the children and
Building before CHATS Antigua moved in
To Table of Contents
CHATS Antigua After Mona ' s vision was