Dr. Julie Ray is the director and owner of Speech, Language, and Learning for Life, PC and has been a practicing speech-language pathologist since 2005. She has been involved in the communities of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Deafness since 2000.
Dr. Ray completed her BS degree at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in Little Rock, Arkansas where she majored in audiology and speech-language pathology and minored in sign language studies. Subsequently, she attended Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana where she obtained a MA degree in speech-language pathology.
Dr. Ray began her career as a speech-language pathologist in a Texas public high school setting providing services to students with various disabilities. At the same time, she provided speech services to students in a Regional Day School Program for the Deaf.
In 2007, she was selected to be a part of a grant-funded doctoral program in special education at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas entitled Project STARS – Systematic Training for Autism Researchers and School Personnel. She defended her dissertation, “Knowledge and confidence of speech-language pathologists regarding autism,” receiving her PhD in 2010. While enrolled in the PhD program, she began a private practice providing individual speech therapy to clients with autism.
In addition to having a significant clinical background, she has worked as an adjunct instructor for the University of North Texas. She has taught courses regarding autism, parent-professional communication, and learners with exceptionalities and has worked as a speech-language pathology graduate student supervisor. She continues to pursue her role as an educator and researcher, and has presented at state, national, and international conferences. Please see her curriculum vitae for further information.
Dr. Ray has an extensive history in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior (VB), and English and American Sign Language Systems. She is currently pursuing her certification as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) and as a sign language interpreter. Dr. Ray has authored and developed a program, SVO POWER (Subject-Verb-Object POWER) currently being used on the iPad in an effort to meet the needs of students who struggle to develop language beyond one-word utterances.
Based on her unique combination of experiences, Dr. Ray is able to provide her clients with highly-individualized intervention plans which are proving to redefine success.
