About Us

Sophie’s Tales was created by Melanie Paticoff. Mel is a graduate of Fontbonne University in St. Louis, Missouri where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in deaf education in 2011. She is now a student at Washington University School of Medicine’s Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences.

Mel grew up on Long Island with a tight-knit family that includes her cousin, Julie, who wears bilateral cochlear implants. By combining her knowledge of living with hearing loss with her recent background in education and the silly spunk of her maltipoo puppy, Sophie, Mel created Sophie’s Tales, a website full of resources for children with hearing loss. Each product is designed to engage children but also lend itself to language-learning.

Currently, Mel has created resources such as first-place winning YouTube video, “That’s Just the Way we Hear” and an award-winning picture book, Sophie’s Tales: Learning to Listen. She looks forward to adding more books about living with hearing loss to this series in the near future. Mel hopes that Sophie will teach children to be proud and confident of their differences and help raise awareness about oral deaf education and cochlear implants.

Sophie earns her degree

Sophie is a two-year-old Maltipoo, who began her therapy dog training as a puppy. Sophie first passed the AKC Canine Good Citizen test, and then the Therapy Dog International (TD) exam given at the American Kennel Club’s (AKC) Museum of the Dog in St. Louis, Missouri.

Sophie loves meeting new people and as a trained therapy dog she can travel to schools, hospitals, nursing homes, libraries, and more to help put smiles on people’s faces!

One of her favorite things to do is visit schools to read Sophie’s Tales with her owner, Mel. If you would like Sophie to come for a book reading, please e-mail your request to mpaticoff@sophiestales.com.