Lee Kantor talks with Luba Patlakh, founder of Kidology, a multidisciplinary therapy company for children. Luba shares her journey from immigrant to entrepreneur, discusses Kidology’s bilingual therapy services, and introduces “The Confident IEP Parent”—an online course empowering parents to advocate for their children’s educational needs. The conversation highlights the importance of holistic, individualized support for families navigating special education, Kidology’s growth, and Luba’s commitment to helping parents confidently secure the services their children deserve.
Luba Patlakh is a passionate and dedicated speech language pathologist, the founder, and director of Kidology, Inc., a pediatric practice specializing in speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and ABA services. With over 15 years of experience in the field, Luba’s expertise and compassion have shaped her approach to child development.
She has built a thriving private practice, where her innovative and client-centered approach has empowered families to help their children achieve significant milestones in speech and development. Her deep commitment to fostering inclusive and community-rooted services has earned her recognition as a winner of the Entreprenista 100 Award, and in 2024, she was named to the Inc. 5000 list for growing her business at an impressive rate.
Her journey to becoming a leader in pediatric speech therapy was not traditional. She originally studied broadcast journalism and worked as a production assistant at Good Morning America, but her path took a significant turn when she discovered her love for helping children. She earned a master’s degree in speech language pathology and found her calling in pediatric care.
After working in clinical settings, including skilled nursing and pediatric hospitals, she opened her practice, Kidology, with a mission to provide scalable and compassionate care to children and their families.
A dedicated entrepreneur and “mompreneur,” Luba is the mother of three and a champion for helping others balance family life and business ownership. Growing up in a family that taught resilience and manifestation, she was inspired by her mother’s entrepreneurial spirit and her father’s hard work.
As a child, she faced adversity, including growing up in the Ukraine before immigrating to the United States, where she learned firsthand about the challenges of overcoming poverty. These early experiences fuel her passion for helping others break through barriers and build their own successful businesses.
When she’s not working, she enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and indulging in hobbies like gardening and bike riding. She is also an advocate for supporting families with diverse needs and loves giving back through philanthropic efforts. Her story is one of perseverance, innovation, and dedication to transforming the lives of children and families through education, therapy, and support.
Luba is a powerful voice for women in business, child development, and scalability in healthcare, and her mission continues to inspire both in her practice and beyond.
Connect with Luba on LinkedIn and Facebook.
What You’ll Learn In This Episode
- Empowering families and breaking barriers: How she supports children with diverse needs
- Building a scalable healthcare business: Lessons from her on growing a pediatric practice
This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix.
TRANSCRIPT
Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.
Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor hear another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Luba Patlakh, and she is with Kidology and a new product and service called the confident IEP parent. Welcome.
Luba Patlakh: Hi. Thanks for having me.
Lee Kantor: Well, I am so excited to learn more about what you’re up to. Let’s start with Kidology. How you serving folks?
Luba Patlakh: There is an incredible brand I’m proud founder if you will, like a proud parent. We’ve been in business for ten years and I am a speech language pathologist. That’s how it all got started. We serve as children, ages birth to 21 years old in multidisciplinary therapy capacities like speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy and ABA, which stands for Applied Behavior Analysis. So everything we do here at chronology is for the betterment and well-being of the development of young children and beyond, and counseling their families through the process, of course.
Lee Kantor: So what was the genesis of the idea? Had this all get started?
Luba Patlakh: You know, actually I come from broadcast originally, which is is funny. I love this realm, but my whole life I always wanted to help people. I came here as an immigrant at two years old from Kyiv, Ukraine, with my parents. My mother was a nurse there. My grandfather was a famous dentist there, and we had other people surrounding us that were, you know, busy helping others. And I always wanted to do that. I wanted to be a doctor. I was a natural born mom. I wanted to help people, but I was damn terrified of blood, like, I. I was not going to be a doctor and we would, like, laugh about that. And then as I grew into adulthood, I found the speech pathology when I was searching for career Path. And I said, you know, I have the gift of gab. I think this could be this could be the field for me. And I started to learn more about the education. I received my master’s in speech pathology, and that’s how I got here.
Lee Kantor: So how did kind of all of that education and desire turn into Kidology? Like what was the the problem you were trying to solve from a business standpoint?
Luba Patlakh: When I started working initially and I gained some experience as a special instructor, actually, and I’m from Pennsylvania, so it was in the Philly area, and there weren’t too many companies that were considered bilingual or multilingual aside from Spanish speaking ones. And I happened to work at one, but I spoke Russian, so I brought something very unique to the table for them. And as time went on and I was able to open my own business, I decided that there really was an absence for the immigrant community in terms of therapy for their children. And while I am a big advocate for learning in English because eventually the child goes to school and they have to speak English for in America. However, with the influx of immigrants coming to the United States and the parents feeling like they don’t really understand what’s going on with their child, I knew that I was meant to be that voice for them, given that I had grown up the same way, and I was so happy to be able to, you know, go out to the community and really teach people, hey, you don’t have to hide. You don’t have to feel like if your child has autism or any other need, that there’s no one out there to help you.
Luba Patlakh: I’m here for you. You know, come to my business and and I’ll help you. And that’s exactly what I did. And year by year, we grew. More people were finding out. More parents were coming. One mother, four weeks from Ukraine literally came on these refugee programs that are going on right now. It was last year. She came straight to my office. She said, my cousin told me to come straight here and talk to you. I said, am I in trouble? And she said, no, I want to tell you about my son. You know, he’s seven and he’s autistic, and we just came here from Ukraine and we desperately need your help. He’s been out of service for several months and he’s regressing. Can you help me? Like in tears. And we got her in service right away. And that’s the message I want to put across. I’m here for all families and children at technology and I myself as an advocate. And, um, and that’s that’s what we want to do. We want to make the childhood and the development of a child who’s already in need easier and guide their parents through the process.
Lee Kantor: Now, is your practice primarily still in Pennsylvania, or is this something that’s nationwide?
Luba Patlakh: Right now we have two locations in Pennsylvania. We have a remote office in Florida, so we are licensed there to see people. Unfortunately, we don’t have a full office brick and mortar like we do here there. But we are available in Florida on Teletherapy and we are God willing. Future future plans. Maybe the brand will go nationwide, but you’ll have to stay in touch with us to find out what happens next.
Lee Kantor: Now, can the services be delivered virtually over zoom, I would imagine. I mean, my son had help with speech and elementary school, uh, as part of, I guess, that they have plans for, for kids through the public schools that, um, yeah, support this. So he had that for several years, and that was very helpful and useful and helped him, uh, you know, even to today he is able you can tell that he articulates well and he can speak very precisely, uh, compared to maybe other people who hadn’t had that kind of training early on. Um, is that kind of the goal is to make it where people can access this type of services wherever they are, without the need of being kind of in person.
Luba Patlakh: So the teletherapy is beautiful, especially when it was Covid time. We all became tele therapists and thank God because people were going crazy at home with their kiddos and they didn’t want to have a gap in their services. Um, teletherapy is a beautiful thing. We can provide teletherapy. If a client comes forward and says, hey, I’m really interested in you’re multilingual and there’s nothing like that around me. We would just have to get a licensure for that type of therapy in the state. But the interesting thing about therapies, which is different than like a lawyer perhaps, is that a lawyer will have to sit for the board in every state, whereas a speech therapist, occupational or physical therapist, if they already have passed their boards in one state, all they have to do is apply for the license in a different state. So yes, we would be able to do so. And 1,000% Teletherapy is a beautiful thing and it’s really, really convenient for all ages, especially once you’re five. Plus, because the kiddo can sit with the provider on the screen. There’s so many interesting games now and products. It’s not like you’re just sitting there face to face like, hey, how are you? We actually do, uh, you know, engage with them in virtual and digital capacities, which are so interesting.
Lee Kantor: And it doesn’t need kind of like physical touch, right? Like this type of service can be done, you know, just speaking virtually.
Luba Patlakh: Yeah. So for speech. Very extremely. So that’s the one that’s the most I’ll say successful on teletherapy occupational and physical therapy, of course, depending on the diagnosis of the individual may demand that in person. But what could happen is techniques and therapy advice and some stretching or whatever. Some exercises that are able to be on tele would be provided. And then when the need would come either out, you know, a provider could be assigned or we have Partnerships with people that we know and we could provide someone to. Them in person on an as needed basis. But of course Teletherapy is 100% suitable for people, of course, depending on their need.
Lee Kantor: Now, um, your clients are the children of your clients. Sound like their needs are very diverse. Can you talk a little bit about the variety of services that you offer when it comes to this?
Luba Patlakh: Yeah, absolutely. So we work with a wide range. It is not a niche type of, uh, pathology or physical therapy where sometimes you’ll go somewhere and it’s very specific. Like I have a friend who runs an office of just executive functioning here at archeology. Um, we do offer services to all needs so the child can have as simple a need as a couple of sounds that are disarticulated, and they just need maybe an 8 to 12 weeks therapy. And then they overcome those sound difficulties and are able to clearly speak them, or someone as severe as a chair bound disabled child, whether born or post traumatic injury or something like that, who might have autism or Add. We really work with a wide variety of needs. Um, and I am just very lucky to have such a wonderful team who’s not only willing but eager to dive into needs like that, because sometimes it gets complicated and it takes a lot of patience, a lot of commitment. But we have so many wonderful people working here, and we can work collectively and we train the family, which is a really important piece. So that’s why I feel like we’re so successful, um, even in the most severe situations, of course, we will refer out if we feel that it’s something we can’t do, but that doesn’t happen too often for us.
Lee Kantor: Now, talk about kind of the ambition from growing just a thriving local business, which you obviously have done in Pennsylvania, and then scaling this to something that can be all over the place. Um, those are kind of two different mindsets. Can you talk about what was the thought process you had when it came to okay, I’m going to build the scalable business. And number two, that, um, what was kind of the signal that, hey, this can work anywhere, not just where I’m at right now locally.
Luba Patlakh: So for me, um, I’ve always been a bit of a go getter, if you will, but I, I’ve always been, like, very fast paced and any jobs that I held prior. And in the last ten years, when I first started this, it took about a year to actually become an established business. So I actually opened 11 years ago, but has been running for ten years. Um, because it took one full year for the state of Pennsylvania to deem us a provider of the state. And I think once I finally got that paperwork and I started to figure out piece by piece, how this would look, um, people. People started to come and I started with one type of service capability. So I was working only early intervention services. And then over time, I want to say like year 3 or 4 is when I started to dive a bit into insurances, which was a whole other slew of, uh, contracts. And we accept over 14 insurances, including medical assistance. So we, we want to help everyone. And initially I didn’t even have an office. I was just kind of going door to door. The model was more homecare esque. I was interviewing people in Starbucks and then my girlfriend, who owned a very successful home care at the time. She’s like, what are you doing? Why are you not opening an office? You can’t carry all this weight by yourself.
Luba Patlakh: You’re getting busier. It’s getting harder. I was pregnant with my first child then, and she’s. And she’s said all these things to me. And I said, what are you talking about in office? I, I’m like, I don’t think I can afford an office. That sounds expensive. And I got to hire a secretary and like, that’s expensive. And but I took her advice finally, and I just stopped being so afraid. And I’m so grateful to her for the push because me opening a space stopped us. Going from going to Starbucks gave us some credibility. People were coming in to interview and train in my office. That led to them bringing their neighbor for therapy, and we were still going out a lot at the time. So when I say going out, it’s all of our providers were working in the field, so they would work at daycares or schools or homes. Um, but now we had a space so we could bring people in and mothers would be like, well, I want to come to you on my insurance. And that’s the process that kind of started to, uh, push me forward and make me apply for insurances, get credentialed that way so that I could accept those people and not just out of pocket. I saw that there was a need. I saw that there was an interest. Um, whether it was because of the way I was communicating and advocating for the families or just that there really was a need for this.
Luba Patlakh: It was coming together for me, and I didn’t want to give up the opportunity. So I worked really hard and I kept watching what I was doing, how I was doing it, planning, growing. And slowly but surely, I went from, I think, year one. I had four providers and myself and one other person in the office. And then and I don’t forget, I was between both. So I was in the office and I was a therapist. Um, and then by year four, I had jumped to like 20 providers from four, which was a huge difference. And already five people in the office. And today we have like 75 providers and 17 administrative office staff. So as you can understand, it’s been quite a production. Um, but the idea, I think, just comes from that rocket fuel motivation I have within me the eagerness to succeed, but also really like the will and want to help others. I before I had a piece of paper for speech therapy, I had the heart for it. And I think deep down from my early babysitting years and baking cookies for the neighborhood, I have always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit. So I think all that combined, it just it just worked out in my favor.
Lee Kantor: Now, have you developed kind of a cardiology methodology that unique to the work that you’re doing, or are you just kind of building on what is just a standard way of interacting with young people in order to help them, you know, to support them and to get better at whatever their challenge might be.
Luba Patlakh: We don’t follow a particular cardiology based curriculum. Um, what I always like to say is every provider therapist has their unique methodologies, and we let everybody kind of figure out each individual client on their own. There’s really no rhyme or rhythm to how someone will come across, because everybody’s so different. Every day here is different. Um, so we don’t have, you know, a cardiology methodology or curriculum. However, because I’m participating in so many IEP meetings, which are Individualized Education Plan. That’s what. Iep stands for. And it starts at the age of three. Once the child is technically like. Of kindergarten going to kindergarten. Um because early intervention is birth to three. So that’s an individualized family service plan. And then the 3 to 5 will start the Individualized Education Plan. This is a plan that’s updated yearly. We work off of those plans, um, with kiddos and their families here in the clinic for the school district. But when they come internally, we make our own initial assessments and goal plans. So we don’t necessarily follow IEP in the private care space, but we advocate and work with so many IEPs. So what I have gone ahead and created and it’s my new product I’m launching right now. It’s called the confident IEP parent. And what my intent is with this the minute families believe me Ology, or they’re continuing archeology and they’re now at the school level.
Luba Patlakh: They may come across the need for an IEP in the school. So whether they were getting speech or OTP prior and now they’ve gone to school or this came up in fourth and fifth grade. There could be a variety of reasons why it comes up, but it comes up. This family no longer has the cushion of a company like ours to go in and advocate while the kiddo is here. We are on calls with their coordination teams insurances. We’re constantly advocating showing data results to get them hours to ensure their meeting their needs and goals. However, once they get to the school, we don’t have the right to do that now. It’s the school district and the parent. And what I’ve come to find is parents are not winning. They are coming against the big bad wolf of the school district. They don’t see the clear picture of the child. And it is my goal and duty now from here on out, to train parents to be the confident IEP parent in order to successfully get to that meeting. Sit at that table and prove to those people. My kid needs this, this, this. Please give it to me. Have a nice day. And that is what we’re aiming to do now with, um, you know, you brought up. Do you have a method? Not necessarily in theology, but I do now with the confident IEP.
Lee Kantor: And then these, uh, plans, are they something that once you build a plan for one, uh, group like a school system in Pennsylvania, that that would be kind of translatable to another one in different community? Or is this something that has to be customized based on whatever the requirements are of a given market?
Luba Patlakh: Are you speaking to the program of the company, the IEP?
Lee Kantor: Yeah, the the confident IEP parent program.
Luba Patlakh: This is it’s going to be a course that’s going to be sold on our website which will be just the IEP. Com. Um, if people want to go and sign up now we’re handing out free freebie handouts. And you can get on our waiting list to hear when the course comes out. But it’ll be a work at your own pace for families. And they have a question and answer time and a resource like someone to talk with about it. I’m not an attorney. I’m not an advocate in that way. I’m just advocating and teaching the parent techniques and skills of what to say, how to say, how to ensure their child comes across so that they’re not constantly told no when they’re asking for certain services. For whatever reason, the school doesn’t always see the big picture. They like to assign goals. Academically, it makes sense. But there’s more to a person, a child than just their academia. What’s their personality like? How are they socially? How are they in the home? What kind of needs do they have? It’s so important to see the global picture. And the parents are educated today. And this is like, you know, it doesn’t have to be interchangeable to, um, a state at all. Ieps or IEPs. It’s all based on what the school thinks a child needs. But the parents are not getting a voice because they just don’t know what to say. If a parent is coming more prepared data, information and kind of like a a whole global picture of their kiddo, they’re more likely to get what their needs are.
Lee Kantor: Right. You’ve learned kind of best practices. You’ve learned how to the right words to say and not say in order to help the child get what they need, where the parent, this is their first time doing it, and the stakes are extremely high for that individual parent, but they just don’t know what they don’t know. And you do.
Luba Patlakh: You’re right. That’s right.
Lee Kantor: So, um, so that course is going to be rolled out and that’ll be available to anyone in any market. Because like you said, that type of coaching and consultation is kind of universal and it’ll have to be customized by the parent in order, you know, for their specific situation, but that the general knowledge is universal in that standpoint.
Luba Patlakh: Yes, exactly. And I’m really anticipating being able to help so many parents. I looked up the statistics recently and it said that over 7.5 million children between the ages of three and 12 have an IEP.
Lee Kantor: Wow. That’s crazy.
Luba Patlakh: It’s a lot. It’s a lot of families.
Lee Kantor: Yeah, that is too many. Um, so, um, what could we do to help you? What what do you need in order to continue growing and continuing serving this, uh, this constituent.
Luba Patlakh: I’m. I’m just so excited to share this information. I want people to know that there’s a person like me out there that is behind the scenes, advocating and caring for them and their families. I know despite going sometimes to the schools or bigger entities, not everybody is going to think about their best interests. But there are people out there like myself who are. I’d love for anyone who needs. I have a personal Instagram. I’m at Queen k d l g q e n. That’s my personal. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about any therapy related stuff? Business related stuff? Um, then of course we have, uh, at the confident IEP parent. It’s directly on there too, on my Instagram and at our Cardiology Inc. you can see what we’re up to in our clinics. We have a TikTok. Our everyone’s a really good sport in my clinics. And they love to share what they’re doing in therapy. Their kiddos wins how our clinics look. So if you’re somebody that’s interested in this market or realm, or a parent that wants to better understand how it might look, there’s a lot of information on there for you as well.
Lee Kantor: Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.
Luba Patlakh: Thank you. I’m so like I’m honored to be on and I appreciate you sharing my message. And thank you so much.
Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on High Velocity Radio.
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