About Us
Play & Thrive Speech Therapy is a family-centered speech and language therapy practice, with a focus on supporting children’s needs through play. From helping pre-verbal toddlers with their first words to helping older elementary learners with inferencing and summarizing, all children learn best when they feel connected and engaged.
Our Office
Our office is located in Arnold, in the Bay Dale shopping center, with easy access to US-50 and Ritchie Hwy. We are located on the second floor, above Rise-Up Coffee and Bay Hills Eyecare. Our two offices have adult, child, and floor-level seating, adjustable lighting levels, and gross-motor sensory equipment.
Virtual Platform
Play & Thrive Speech is proud to provide teletherapy via Ambiki (æmbɪki), a platform designed by and for therapists. The Ambiki therapy room is secure, does not require an account or log-in information, and uses the same link for each session. Integrated games and apps make it easy to engage even our youngest learners.
Anne Marie Flood
MA, CCC-SLP
After 5 years as a Spanish teacher, including earning a master's in Secondary Education, Anne Marie found her passion in the form of Speech Language Pathology. She returned to pursue a master's degree at the University of Maryland following the birth of her oldest children. Between virtual, school-based, and private practice experience, Anne Marie has worked with children with speech and language impairments, and their families, all across the US.
Anne Marie founded Play & Thrive Speech Therapy in January 2022 in the hopes of offering families more flexibility and collaboration. She believes in partnering with families to help early learners improve their speech and language skills through play. She currently lives in Arnold MD with her husband. When not in the clinic, she can be found homeschooling her two older kids or running with the youngest in the stroller.
Megan Fox
MS, CCC-SLP
Megan graduated from the University of Maryland with an undergraduate degree in Hearing and Speech Sciences and pursued her Masters of Science in Speech and Language Pathology from Radford University. Her career began in the school system working with older children with varying degrees of cognitive and language ability. After the birth of her first child she shifted to a more focused setting working with young adults with Autism and Emotional Disabilities. When Megan’s eldest child began speech therapy and was suspected to have an Autism and/or ADHD diagnosis, Megan refocused her interest to early intervention for infants and toddlers suspected to be on the Autism spectrum.
Megan believes in empowering families and embracing brain differences to learn the best language approach for each child. She currently lives in Bowie, MD with her husband, cat, and two small children. When not in the clinic, she can be found dancing and doing gymnastics with her kids and spending time watching sports with family and friends in the area.
Kelsey Hudgins-Shelton
MA, CF-SLP
Kelsey graduated from The University of Mississippi with an undergraduate degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. She received her Masters in Speech-Language Pathology from the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. Kelsey started her career working with elementary and middle school students with a variety of speech and language impairments. She enjoys working with children and helping them create foundational language skills that will help them navigate life.
Kelsey loves helping children and their families through their journey. She currently resides in Baltimore, MD, and loves exploring the DMV area. When not in the clinic, she can be found binging her Netflix show, painting, or hanging out with her friends.
Vanessa Rojas
Administrative Assisstant
Vanessa is a Registered Nurse from the Philippines who worked in the field for about 2 years and has decided to be a freelancer to attain a healthier work-life balance. Vanessa has worked with various clients offering different services and started working with Play & Thrive Speech as a Virtual Admin Assistant last year, in 2022. She loves meeting new people and is always happy to help.
As Adam Grant said, Vanessa also believes that the most meaningful way to succeed is to help others succeed. When not working, Vanessa can be found under the sea —freediving or traveling.