Scenic City Speech ‘fills void’ in Ootlewah community

Jennifer Vitrano brings awareness to her brick and mortar speech pathology clinic

OOTLEWAH, Tenn. (WDEF) – Ootlewah is now home to Scenic City Speech, the only private practice with an office in town.

This full service speech practice hosted an open house to let the community know they’re ready to help.

News 12s Allie Schrenker digs deeper into how a local speech pathologist has been helping Ootlewah families.

“If you think about children early on, who cant communicate, they become very, very frustrated. Because we all need a way to communicate,” Jennifer Vitrano said, founder of Scenic City Speech.

Vitrano knew from a young age that she wanted to use speech pathology to change people’s lives.

“My sister – she was born and never talked until she was five. That made a huge impact on our whole family. When she finally went to a speech pathologist and started pouting words together, it was like a miracle.”

Vitrano might be a speech pathologist, but speech is not the only thing she focuses on.

“I don’t just look at the articulation problem, I look at the whole child. I look at all the needs. I have kids who have articulation issues, but they might need help with fine motor skills, or they might need social emotional support.”

In August of 2022, in the wake of the pandemic, she opened up her own private practice.

“A lot of kids missed a lot of schools, especially in some communities where parents didn’t have access to the internet or computers. There are A lot of kids who are behind now, significantly behind.”

According to families, Vitrano’s practice is filling a void in the Ootlewah community.

Before Scenic City Speech, clients often needed to commute to hospitals, miss school for appointments, or were put on a long waiting list.

Jessica McCosh, a client of SCS, said, “It is so important to get that diagnoses early on for the success of the child’s education. If you have any questions about your child’s language development, I encourage you to schedule a speech evaluation so you can learn more about your child’s needs.”