Metro East Therapy, Inc.

11/21/2025

Awareness Changes Lives - DLD is 50 times more prevalent than hearing impairment and five times more prevalent than autism.

11/19/2025

put together a 💙NEW definition of dyslexia, and we finally feel like a discussion of the CRITICAL role of oral language skills is HAPPENING ⭐️

10/29/2025

🎶Spooky scary skeletons send shivers down your spine 😱

Occupational therapy with Ms. Chanel is CREEPY fun 🕸️🎃

10/22/2025

💡💡💡

It doesn't seem possible, but it is already time for parent/teacher conferences for many area schools.😱 If you are a parent worried about your child, you are anxiously waiting to ask his/her teacher the most important question to date, "Is my child making progress?" 🤔

And guess what your child's teacher will say? "Yes.”

Teachers are with your child every day, so YES they will see growth and we always want to share as many positives as possible with families. Not to mention, your child inevitably WILL be making some progress.

Why do we NOT recommend JUST asking if they are making progress? We refer to this as the "developmental effect," which means that children by the very nature of growing WILL learn. This unforunately means that there is a tendency to attribute a child's progress to what is really just a child growing and developing, but it has less to do with meaningful progress made through actual instruction.

🗣Here are some questions that we recommend asking that may give you a better idea of growth instead of "Is he making progress?”:

👉🏻"Are they making progress at the same pace as their peers?"
👉🏻"Are you finding they need lots of repetition?"
👉🏻"Are they retaining information or do you have to reteach it a lot?"
👉🏻"Are they avoiding doing any of the work?"
👉🏻"Are they learning in some areas more easily than others?"
👉🏻"Can you tell me about specific skills you see that are still difficult?"

By asking these types of questions, you may feel more confident in understanding whether or not your child is where they need to be.

☑️One last tip. If your child has dyslexia, "Keep practicing reading, it will just click" does not apply to them 😉

10/20/2025

📣📣📣Our office is on the hunt for an eager, certified TEACHER to add to our office personnel. This person would work alongside our speech language pathologists and occupational therapists to help provide educational support. Do you think you may be a good fit? We welcome teachers that feel confident working with kindergarten and up, in all content areas! An ideal candidate would love to work after school an extra 4 hours/week! ✏📚📓

Please send your resume to steffany@metroeasttherapy.com. We look forward to learning more about you!

10/17/2025

Friends we are sold out! If you missed out, don’t panic! Email Miss Steffany and she can help find an appointment that will work for you! We had an overwhelming amount of interest. But please know, if you missed out on this event, we can still help!

📣📣📣Last call for this amazing event! There are only TWO spots remaining!

Don't miss this opportunity to have your child screened for any reading or witting concerns you or their teachers have and hear from our experts on what to do next!

We are over halfway full and now is crunch time to get your kiddos signed so you don't miss out.

🎪Come one, come all! 🍿

We are so excited to bring you our FALL READING & WRITING SCREENING EVENT!!!

Email Miss Steffany (steffany@metroeasttherapy.com) today to get your appointment booked for your Child's screening.📚✏
These screenings are ideal for kids who:
👉Are slower to learn
👉Are not reading on grade level
👉Are receiving additional help at school
👉Are failing weekly spelling test
👉Have a family history of learning disabilities
Don't miss this opportunity to come see our office, meet our owner, Dr. Maggie Block and our wonderful team, get your child screened and have some fun!

10/15/2025

📣📣📣Last call for this amazing event! There are only TWO spots remaining!

Don't miss this opportunity to have your child screened for any reading or witting concerns you or their teachers have and hear from our experts on what to do next!

We are over halfway full and now is crunch time to get your kiddos signed so you don't miss out.

🎪Come one, come all! 🍿

We are so excited to bring you our FALL READING & WRITING SCREENING EVENT!!!

Email Miss Steffany (steffany@metroeasttherapy.com) today to get your appointment booked for your Child's screening.📚✏
These screenings are ideal for kids who:
👉Are slower to learn
👉Are not reading on grade level
👉Are receiving additional help at school
👉Are failing weekly spelling test
👉Have a family history of learning disabilities
Don't miss this opportunity to come see our office, meet our owner, Dr. Maggie Block and our wonderful team, get your child screened and have some fun!

10/14/2025

✨✨This week we are continuing our discussion about dyslexia awareness!✨✨

Today, we are going to tell you more about another fantastic evaluator in our office, our amazing Meagan Wright!

Meagan graduated with her Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2015. After completing graduate school, she began her career at a private clinic in Texas before returning home to O’Fallon, Illinois. There, she spent five years working for the Triad School District, where she gained valuable experience supporting students with language and communication needs.

In 2020, Meagan began working after school at Metro East Therapy and quickly discovered her passion for literacy intervention. A year later, Meagan transitioned to Metro East Therapy full-time, where she now focuses on helping children strengthen their language and literacy skills through evidence-based, systematic intervention. As her own children began learning to read, Meagan became even more fascinated by the process of reading development and how speech-language pathologists can play a vital role in supporting struggling readers. She is passionate about educating parents and educators on the science of reading and empowering them with strategies to help children become confident, successful readers. Under the guidance and mentorship of Dr. Maggie Block, she received extensive training in completing comprehensive language and literacy evaluations.

Meagan frequently supervises graduate students and loves contributing to the future of the field by helping emerging speech-language pathologists develop a strong understanding of literacy and its connection to language.

Outside of the clinic, Meagan and her husband have 3 kids (Kennedy, 8, Lincoln, 6, McKinley, 3). Like Dr. Block, Meagan is a huge Disney fan. You can often find them chatting about all things Disney! When she’s not working or spending time with her family, Meagan enjoys running and is currently training for her second marathon—at Disney!

10/13/2025

✨✨This week we are continuing our discussion about dyslexia awareness!✨✨

Today, we are going to talk about Dr. Maggie Block. Dr. Block is our owner, lead evaluator and resident expert in all thing's literacy, language and dyslexia.

Why is Dr. Block important to dyslexia and exploring a dyslexia diagnosis?

Dr. Maggie Block graduated with her clinical doctorate in speech-language pathology from the University of Kansas Medical Center in the Spring of 2024. During her time at KU Med, she focused on dyslexia, student learning, and implementation science. She was mentored by Dr. Mindy Bridges, who is a renowned researcher in the field of literacy and is the lab director for the university's Reading, Language and Learning Lab.

Dr. Block began Metro East Therapy in 2016, dreaming of being able to identify and work with children with suspected reading disabilities. When she first launched her practice, there was not much community awareness of dyslexia. She is most proud of how her office has grown with local support. She is serious about providing help and guidance to families in systematic, evidence-based ways. Dr. Block is also a strong advocate of schools, often providing professional development and working with school teams to address implementation planning barriers. She is one of the most knowledgeable resources in the region on dyslexia, and to have an opportunity to speak with her and have her evaluate your child is priceless.

In her "free" time, she is a mommy to Sam (age 6), August (age 4), and Charlee (age 2). She loves being in her camper with her family and being outside in the fresh air. She also loves going out to eat spur of the moment with her family! Please do not mention Disney World to her, unless you want for her to hijack your travel plans and talk about "all the things".

Dr. Block offers screenings, consultations and literacy evaluations. If you are interested in booking with Dr. Block please email Miss Steffany @ steffany@metroeasttherapy.com

10/10/2025

✨✨It's Dyslexia Awareness Month and you know that is near and dear to us! Join us this month as we share more about dyslexia. ✨✨

If you have concerns that your child may have dyslexia, we can help! Our office provides comprehensive literacy evaluations and can provide a dyslexia diagnosis if applicable. This testing will confirm or rule out dyslexia, disorder of written expression (dysgraphia), or a mixed receptive/expressive language disorder.

To learn more about our evaluations and screenings email Miss Steffany at steffany@metroeasttherapy.com and she will be more than happy to give you more information.

10/08/2025

✨✨It's Dyslexia Awareness Month and you know that is near and dear to us! Join us this month as we share more about dyslexia. ✨✨

What is dyslexia? No, it is not seeing backwards!

Dyslexia is a brain-based LANGUAGE learning disability. It makes it difficult to process sounds, understand the structure of how words are built, and learn sight words. Individuals with dyslexia are also notoriously poor spellers, and have trouble expressing their thoughts in written form. IQ testing does not predict reading outcomes, instead, oral language skills should be discussed! A child with dyslexia has strong oral language skills, but poor reading and writing skills. Even though dyslexia is life-long, there is hope for remediation with early detection and intervention!

Tomorrow we will talk more about how to know if your child is dyslexic!

In the meantime, feel free to contact our office with any specific concerns. Miss Steffany will be happy to help. Email her at steffany@metroeasttherapy.com