SLP Coffee Talk

Are you wondering how you can feel more balanced between work and your personal life?  In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with a dear friend, Dr. Lori Friesen, who is doing amazing things for her community. When I heard about what she does, I knew I had to have her on the show. She helps teachers find the right school-home life balance which is something so many SLPs could benefit from...

Are you working with students that are deaf or hard of hearing? Learning how to properly support these students is so important. In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Deanna Magda to discuss how we can best help these students reach their goals.  Deanna Magda is a Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and a certified Auditory Verbal Educator. Through Listening Fun, she creates reso...

We made it to a brand new year! 2023 already, I can’t believe it! I hope you were able to get a lot of rest and relaxation during your break with your friends and family. I know that some of you might be thinking that you don’t want to head back to work and I get it, so whether you’re back already or preparing to head back, I figured you might not need therapy ideas right now, you might need more...

I want to wish you a very happy Holiday Season from me over here at Speech Time Fun!  I know many of you are enjoying a well-deserved break, so in this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I am reflecting on the year that we have had because not only is this our holiday episode, but it’s the last episode of 2022.  I don’t know about you, but for me, this year has been a little…cray cray. I am still working...

Welcome back to week 3 of the Live from the ASHA Convention episodes! If you didn’t get a chance to check out the last two episodes yet, make sure to check those out because they are packed with some amazing tips from other SLPs on things like books, games, and resources for speech, as well as their best tips for new SLPs.  In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I once again interviewed ASHA attendee...

Welcome back to week two of ASHA 2022 attendees taking over the podcast! If you missed it last week, I passed the mic to the people I met at ASHA and they shared some amazing tips, books, games, and activities for speech therapy.  I had a blast meeting all of these attendees in New Orleans and I’m ecstatic to be able to interview them and ask them my burning questions so that you can get the persp...

For the next couple of weeks, I’m doing something a little bit different on the show. I just got back from New Orleans for ASHA 2022. It was my very first time having an exhibit booth and I wanted to have some fun with the people there. I wanted to give them the chance to be on the podcast and hear themselves speak!  So in this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I’m letting the attendees take the mic to...

Are you wondering how you can have a greater impact on your students with verbal apraxia?  In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Jordan Christian LeVan to talk about his journey with verbal apraxia. He is sharing tips for SLPs who are working with these students. Jordan Christian LeVan is an apraxia, disability, and mental health advocate. He writes about his life experiences with ch...

Do you work with high schoolers that have an AAC?  So many SLPs in this position really struggle to make their lessons functional, so they end up stuck working on the same goals year after year. If this sounds like you, you’re in the right place.  In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Katelyn Kelps from The Communication Classroom to talk about how you can work on functional communic...

Have you ever used song lyrics in your speech therapy sessions?  I’m all about using my students' interests which is why I have high-interest themes in my membership every month. One of those interests is music. In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I’m sharing how you can use song lyrics to target a variety of student goals while keeping students engaged.  There are always going to be students...

Wondering how you can help your students master their tier 3 vocabulary words?  If you have been following me for a while, you know that I am a huge fan of working with tier 2 vocabulary words, but in this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I’m sharing my best tips for teaching tier 3 vocabulary words to your speech students.  For so many students, we work with them and their parents work with them, and...

Many SLPs were taught the medical model of working with autistic children where we found the deficit and worked to fill it. However, we know now that autistic children develop differently, and we need to focus on helping them become the most successful version of themselves, not more like their neurotypical peers.  There’s a lot of unlearning to do here, so in this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sa...

Even after graduate school is over, SLPs are continuously learning. We are constantly being given new research and information that could change how we do therapy.  No matter how long we may have been doing things one way, it’s important to adapt. We live in a time where we have easy access to new information that can improve our therapy skills and make us the best SLPs we can be as long as we lea...

Looking for tips for working on fluency with your older speech students?  On this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Lori Melnitsky to answer all of your questions about working with older speech students that stutter.  It can be challenging working with these students because sometimes, they just don’t want the help, or they aren’t getting enough help for it to be effective. If this soun...

As SLPs, one of the biggest things we work on with our students is reading. Whether they have an AAC or not, there are things we can do to help them reach their literacy goals at their own pace.  In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Megan Stewart, who is passionate about both literacy and AAC! Megan is here to share her top tips for maximizing your reading time with your students. M...

Looking for some tips on working with high school speech students? If you know me, you know that AAC is not my jam, but in this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Ashley Larisey to chat all about AAC and working with high school speech therapy students.  Ashley Larisey is a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist and clinical educator. Ashley’s work experiences include public and private the...

Do you work with the school psychologist?  In this episode, I’m switching things up and talking with a bilingual school psychologist, Briana Wagner. She’s here to chat about how SLPs can collaborate with the school psychologist, social skills, and so much more!  Briana Wagner is a bilingual school psychologist and the founder of @EducationallyPsyched, a community dedicated to easy-to-understand in...

I do not take data during the entire session, and I’m sharing why in this episode. I know there are some exceptions to the rules because administrations or districts require one thing or another, but I want to convince you to think about data a little bit differently.  I’m not saying not to take data, just not to take it the entire session. Imagine that as you’re working, someone came and observed...

What prizes and reward systems do you use with your older students?  This is a question I get asked pretty often, especially at the beginning of the year. I have had many different reward systems in my career, but as of now, I don’t actually have a reward system in place for my older speech therapy students.  In today’s episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I’m sharing the systems I have used in the past, w...

Are you using visuals in your speech therapy classroom? In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, we are breaking away from only talking about older speech therapy students to talk about something that can be used with any age: visual supports!  Visual supports are things like pictures, lists, or drawings that help students with autism communicate. They can make a huge difference in your students’ speec...

Do you struggle to figure out where to go with your older speech students?  If you’ve been following me for a while, you may have heard me talk about how language comprehension is such an integral part of learning and reading. In order to be successful readers, our students need good decoding skills.  In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I’m sharing why I use Bloom’s Taxonomy to determine what to d...

Are you familiar with neurodiversity-affirming teaching methods?  Every day, I see so many questions from other SLPs on this topic, so today on SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Katja Piscitelli to talk about these methods so that you can get all of your questions answered and start the year off confident with autistic students on your caseload.  Katja Piscitelli is a speech therapist, dog mom, and...

Are you ready to cut your planning time down drastically?  In this week’s episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I am sharing how you can plan your speech therapy sessions in minutes. Yes, you read that right! Not weeks, not hours—minutes. This is my framework for planning my speech therapy sessions in minutes, and sometimes even seconds.  Planning for each individual student on your caseload would take hour...

Are you ready for a brand new school year?  I know many of us are still in summer mode right now but there are also many that are headed back to school, so in this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I’m sharing my best tips for setting yourself up for success this year.  I hope that you had some time to relax and reenergize this summer. It is so important that you are able to rest so that you can start r...

How do you decide what goals to work on during therapy sessions?  I am often asked about what goals to work on based on the results of the standardized tests that we are given. However, I actually don’t like to base my goals on those results.  In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I am sharing how I actually decide on goals for my speech therapy students.  We all know that we have to generate an IEP...