One woman's passion to help children communicate

Even on retirement, speech and language pathologist Marsha Rosenberg, 67, was not ready to give up her vocation and passion: supporting children with their communication.

At 65, shortly after retiring from her job as a language specialist at the American School in Japan, she began a full-time private practice in Tokyo’s Minato Ward offering language therapy to patients as well as literacy support to native-English-speaking children attending Japanese schools.

In addition, Rosenberg manages the intake for the Tokyo Association of Foreign Speech and Language Pathologists, carrying out initial assessments of children and consultations with their families before referring them to a speech and language pathologist in the Tokyo and Yokohama areas.

Savvy Tokyo caught up with Rosenberg to find out what drives her and what families can learn from her wealth of experience in language.

What brought you to Japan?

My husband was a Japanese history major and wanted to study Japanese so we came together, as English teachers, in the early 70s. We fell in love with Japan. We went back to the United States where I got a Master’s degree and then we decided to return to Japan. I started working in Tokyo as a speech and language pathologist at Nishimachi International School and the American School in Japan (ASIJ).

Why did you set up your practice?

ASIJ had mandatory retirement at age 65 but I wasn’t ready to ready to stop doing speech and language work. There is a great need for it in Tokyo’s expat community and I will continue doing it for as long as I can.

Speech and language pathology is a great pleasure for me. I get a sense of satisfaction in seeing the progress that all the kids make. I love doing my job every single day. And I also think that, after many years of experience, I really understand the needs of the children in the expat community. I hope that’s a service I offer.

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