Thomas L. Layton, Ph.D., CCC-SLP. ASHA Fellow
Dr. Layton has worked more than 35 years as a professor, clinician, and teacher. He is the owner/President of Talk and Total Communication. Dr. Layton has authored and edited three textbooks, two tests, and more than 40 articles on children with communication disorders. He has also presented locally, nationally, and internationally on more than 150 different topics on communication and learning in low achieving children. Dr Layton has served as Departmental Chair of the Department of Communication Disorders at North Carolina Central University and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Dr. Layton has been awarded the “Clinical Achievement Award” by the North Carolina Speech-Hearing-Language Association, a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and Special Recognition Honor of the Triangle Down syndrome Network. He has served on many boards and professional organizations, such as, President of the North Carolina Speech-Hearing-Language Association, School Board member of School in the Community Charter School, Co-chair Advisory Board for Parent Support Network of North Carolina, Advisory Board Member for Parent Network of Orange, Durham and Chatham Counties, Member of Durham Public Schools Steering Committee for Continuous Improvement Monitoring, consultant to the Ministry of Education in the Bahamas, consultant to Medical University of South Carolina and Project Potential at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He served as a member of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Study Team that assessed eligibility of services for students with specific learning disabilities.
He currently is a Board member of the Triangle Down Syndrome Network. He recently returned from China where he conducted a training workshop for parents and professionals on Communication Issues Among Children with Down syndrome.
Dr. Layton, along with Dr. Hao and a Chinese colleague, Dr. Xiaobing Zou, are standardizing the first Autism diagnostic scale in China for children with autism.
Jianping (Grace) Hao, M.D., Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Dr. Hao is a co-owner/Vice President of Talk and Total Communication. She is also a Professor in the Department of Communication Disorders at North Carolina Central University. Her expertise is in the area of voice, neurogenic disorders, feeding, swallowing, genetics, autism, and multicultural issues and bilingualism. Dr. Hao has practiced in the public schools, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and private clinics. As one of the few English-Chinese bilingual SLP in the country, Dr. Hao provides consultation and assessment to the bilingual Chinese population for public schools as well at Talk & Total Communication Services. She was invited to China multiple times to give training workshops and to present at national on various topics, including Autism Spectrum Disorders, Down Syndrome, feeding, genetics, fluency, and language disorders. Dr. Hao and Dr. Layton, along with a Chinese colleague, Dr. Xiaobing Zou, are standardizing the first Autism diagnostic scale in Chinese.
Julia Brown, M.Ed., CCC-SLP
Julia provides works directly with children in their homes and three days a week in a charter school. Julia is a graduate of North Carolina Central University (NCCU) and a native of the Bahamas. She has also practiced as a speech-language pathologist in the public schools of the Bahamas. Julia is also a part-time supervisor for the Department of Communication Disorders of the School of Education at NCCU.
Emily Vonderhaar, M.Ed., CCC-SLP
Emily Vonderhaar is a graduate of North Carolina Central University, where she obtained a Master’s of Education in Communication Disorders. While at NCCU, she completed clinical rotations at NCCU’s Speech and Hearing Clinic, T and T Communication, Morehead Montessori Elementary School, and Golden Living Skilled Nursing Facility. While at NCCU, Emily also completed a specialization track in culturally responsive early intervention and assistive technology.
Educating and empowering children has always been a huge priority in Emily’s life. She has 15 years experience coaching competitive gymnasts and currently coaches a competitive team that ranges in age from 7-16. She strives to give children the necessary tools to aid them in reaching their goals, not just in gymnastics, but throughout their lives. Emily focuses on modeling a positive attitude while teaching children that overcoming obstacles, self-discipline, and teamwork are important skills for their futures.
Emily enjoys working with children of all ages and provides plenty of positive reinforcement in a literacy-rich environment during therapy. She will be providing individual treatments for infants, toddler, preschoolers and school aged children.
Nataki Clemmons M.Ed., CCC-SLP, Bilingual
Nataki Clemmons completed her graduate work at North Carolina Central University where she earned a Master’s degree in Communication Disorders. Nataki has extensive experience working with culturally diverse individuals with more than 15 years of experience working with Spanish-speaking populations in a variety of different settings. Her clinical experience covers a variety of adult and child settings, including North Carolina Central University’s Speech and Hearing Clinic, ¡HABLEMOS!, the Durham Public School system, Woodland’s Assisted Living facility, and several private diagnostic and treatment clinics throughout Central North Carolina. Nataki participated in the area’s only speech and language treatment preschool for bilingual and monolingual Spanish-speaking children at North Carolina Central University.
Nataki’s qualifications – providing speech and language diagnostics and treatment in Spanish – stem from her extensive study of the language and culture, throughout her academic career, and from living in Mexico – where she completed an extensive study of the language and culture there. While living in Mexico, she completed courses in Spanish and provided Spanish diagnostic and treatment services for children and adults with speech and language impairments. She has acquired competence as a bilingual speech-language pathologist at North Carolina Central University and earned a certificate of Bilingualism from the Department of Communication Disorders, School of Education.
Jack Prather, M.Ed. CCC-SLP
Jack is certified as a speech-language pathologist by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA). He has a masters in education from North Carolina Central’s Department of Communication Disorders. While enrolled there, he completed clinical rotations at Head Start in Durham, Talk & Total Communication Services, Granville Medical Center, and West Clayton Elementary School. He is fully trained through the Extraordinary Learning Foundation in their therapeutic approach for children with speech and language disorders and delays.
Jack has had significant experience in early intervention speech services with preschool-aged children. He has also worked with school-aged children between 5 and 17 with autism, and typically-developing children with speech and language delays. In his time as a student and professional at Talk & Total Communication Services, Jack has participated in hundreds of hours of therapeutic and diagnostic sessions with children with Down Syndrome.
Jack has spent a lifetime in the practice of communicating effectively and in helping others do so as well through his work in theatre. He has appeared in, directed, and written plays performed in Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, and North Carolina. These have included productions which featured child, youth, and deaf populations. Jack was awarded a BFA in Theatre from East Carolina University in 1992.
Jack has lived in Raleigh since 1995, where he currently resides with his wife.
Anthony Layton
Anthony, who has a B.A. in anthropology, is our office manager. Anthony handles billing, mailing, filing and telephone calls coming into and out of our Center. In addition, Anthony is a professional illustrator who completes the art work for the pamphlets and correspondence for the company. He is in the process of illustrating one of Dr. Layton’s children stories, with plans to illustrate future children’s stories.
Linda Layton
Linda, who has a B.A. in Education, serves as the educational coordinator at the Center. Linda will be organizing the parent meetings and the tutoring services for children with reading and writing difficulties. Linda has several years of teaching Kindergarten through fifth grade students and also has taught children with emotional problems.
Brent T. Ward, M.B.A
Mr Ward is a consultant, advocate, and project planner for Talk & Total Communication Services. He holds an M.B.A. from University of Fredericton, an M.S.E.E. from Duke University, and a B.S.E.E. (Electrical Engineering) from Duke University. He recently was Director of Business Development, at RTI International, RTP, NC, where he worked in an international research organization, to commercialize a portfolio of highly technical and scientific innovations through strategic alliances, global contributors, and investors. His primary responsibility focused on portfolio management, market validations, business development, establishing reference customers, evaluating business cases, planning for strategic investments, and disseminating new technologies and techniques to the global marketplace.