Linda L. D’Antonio, Ph.D. is a renowned expert in communication disorders with more than 30 years experience in healthcare. She is known globally for her care of children with communication disorders associated with cleft lip and palate and other congenital anomalies. She is also a recognized expert in communication impairments associated with VeloCardioFacial syndrome (22q Deletion Syndrome).
Dr. D’Antonio received her undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology at the University of California Berkley and her Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Sciences from the University of California San Francisco. She completed a two year National Institute of Health post-doctoral fellowship in Speech Physiology at Boys Town Institute for Communication Disorders in Children in Omaha, Nebraska.
Dr. D’Antonio has many years of experience as a clinician, educator, and researcher. Since 1982 she has provided evaluation and case management for children with complex communication impairments in several academic teaching hospitals. She is a pioneering researcher and educator. She has over 225 publications in the medical literature and multiple chapters in scholarly books. She has presented at numerous national and international meetings worldwide and has consulted at many hospitals and speech centers around the world. She is frequently called upon as an expert witness in legal cases involving speech disorders in children.
From 1990 to 2007 Dr. D’Antonio was Professor of Surgery at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California where she was also the Director of the Plastic Surgery program Operation Good Samaritan. Dr. D’Antonio has extensive experience in promoting and establishing surgical care and interdisciplinary rehabilitation services for individuals with cleft palate both in the US and in developing regions of the world. She has served on several cleft palate-craniofacial teams in the US and has acted as consultant to many teams and centers around the world.
From 2000 to 2012 Dr. D’Antonio served as a member of the Medical Advisory Board for The Smile Train, an international non-profit children’s charity committed to treating children with cleft palate around the world. Working with The Smile Train, Dr. D’Antonio helped to increase surgical and speech services for children with cleft palate in many underserved regions of the world, especially in China, India and Sub Saharan Africa. She has received and participated in numerous grants for developing programs aimed at increasing access to surgical and speech therapy services for children in underserved regions of the world. She has conducted ground breaking research and developed programs for training parents and allied health workers that have become models for the delivery of speech services globally.
Dr. D’Antonio now provides evaluation, therapy and case management services for children with speech sound disorders including Childhood Apraxia of Speech and resonance disorders through her private practice, Communication Partners, in Redlands, CA.