De Facto Leaders

In episode 65, I take a break from the regular content to talk about burnout and boundaries; and specifically how I use systems to help me set healthy boundaries and reduce burnout. Back when I started working as an SLP in 2004, I found there was one area of my life (work-related) that caused an exponentially larger amount of stress than other things in my life. ​So much, in fact, that this ONE th...

In episode 64, I share a Q & A from the Language Therapy Advance Foundations members’ group about working on complex sentences with students in early elementary school. Part of the framework I teach focuses on building skills like morphology (e.g., knowledge of word parts like prefixes & suffixes) as well as syntax (the rules of how sentences are put together). These skills can not only bo...

In episode 63, I share a Q & A from the Language Therapy Advance Foundations members’ group about dyslexia diagnosis and treatment, as well as working memory goals.  I get a lot of questions about who is qualified to diagnose and treat dyslexia; especially when it comes to the SLP’s role in the process. Understanding the process of dyslexia diagnosis in the schools vs. medical settings can be...

There’s been an increase in depression and anxiety in kids in recent years, which is why I wanted to have an expert on the show who’s had years of experience working with childhood trauma and anxiety. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Ambroes Pass-Turner, who has worked in mental health for over 20 years and has experience working with children and adults. Dr. Pass-Turner is an expert in working wi...

I get a ton of questions about how to support kids who have weak word-retrieval, so I wanted to share a powerful technique you can use to address this.  When kids have poor word-finding skills, it’s often because they’re not engaging in the internal dialogue needed to pay attention to important features of words and store that information efficiently. The key to boosting these skills is to help ki...

When it comes to supporting autistic kids, I’ve come across a lot of resources that help with the home and school environments.  But many families aren’t sure how to navigate unexpected and novel situations with their kids; which means travel is often out of the question. That’s why I wanted to interview special needs travel columnist and author, Dawn Barclay. Dawn’s book on traveling with autisti...

When it comes to working on executive functioning and “social skills”, one of the biggest complaints I hear from therapists is that their clients don’t generalize.    That’s often because when it comes to working on these types of skills, direct therapy alone isn’t enough to help kids apply skills. I often encourage SLPs to think beyond just direct therapy when it comes to designing services.   Th...

How do you know if an intervention is neurodiversity affirming and evidence-based? Are child-led interventions actually in a child’s best interest? What’s the right way to build social skills, “pragmatic language” and social communication skills? I’ve done a lot of soul-searching surrounding this topic. The typical pragmatic language interventions that focused on preaching the “right” way to act i...

Navigating the special education eligibility process is confusing for all parties involved (parents, professionals, etc.).   That’s why I wanted to get some insight from someone who understands the process inside and out.    In episode 57 of Are they 18 yet?® I interviewed my colleague Jil Stauter, a school psychologist who has worked with students from preschool all the way through high school. I...

In this episode, I talk with Lauren Haines from Busy Bee Speech about childhood stuttering. Many people don’t realize this, but there are a TON of misconceptions in the general public about stuttering. It’s also a highly specialized area of speech-language pathology, so many clinicians are left feeling unprepared to support stutterers who come to therapy. That’s why I wanted to dispel some myths a...

In this episode, I sit down with college admissions coach Kim Duckworth from Bridge Education Center to talk about helping kids expand their options after high school. Many of my listeners are parents and professionals of K-12 kids, and many of them often wonder if they're doing the right things to prepare kids for young adulthood. That's why I thought Kim would be the perfect guest to discuss thi...

In this episode of Are they 18 yet?™ , I talk with my friend and former colleague, Joann Briggs. Joann was a special education teacher in the public school systems for over 30 years, and I had the opportunity to work with her for a good portion of my time as a school speech pathologist. While I always harp on the fact that SLPs can make a huge impact on literacy and language, it really is a team e...

Recently, the Center for Disease control updated the early developmental milestones, and there's been a lot of debate about what this means. In a lot of my SLP professional groups, there have been questions about whether this will allow kids to fall through the cracks. I've also heard the concern that developmental milestones in general focus on neurotypical development and don't take neurodiverge...

We don’t want to be “helicopter parents” who coddle our kids…but we don’t want to be so militant that we traumatize them either.  When it comes getting kids to do essential, but non-preferred tasks that ultimately help them thrive in the long run…the key to finding the right balance is learning how to scaffold.  The term “scaffolding” is used to describe the foundation of a building, but it's also...

When kids show negative behaviors, it’s often because they’re struggling to do what they’re being asked to do. This unfortunately happens a lot in school settings. You may have heard the saying “Kindergarten is the new 1st grade”. Kindergarten used to be focused on play, and its becoming increasingly more academic. When “behavior problems” come up, we have to consider the demands being placed on k...

Are "natural" remedies really better when it comes to ADHD, autism, and related conditions? What does it mean to use a "natural" treatment or intervention?   In this episode, I discuss why those questions aren't easy to answer. Specifically, I discuss: ✅The " appeal to nature" fallacy , what it is and why it's potentially harmful. ✅ Common "natural" treatments for conditions like ADHD (such as d...

Am I choosing the right language screening tool? How do I know when a child should be screened and evaluated? I get these questions a lot. That's why in this episode, I wanted to bust some common myths about language screenings and evaluations. I'm going to share:   ✅The difference between a screening and evaluation (plus common mistakes people make). ✅Why thinking of a screening as a "test" is...

Does class size matter? Is homework effective? What's the best way to help kids learn to read?  Why do some teachers (and schools) succeed while others fail? Dr. John Hattie attempted to answer these questions in his meta-analysis, published in his book, Visible Learning . This meta-analysis has been widely cited and used in teacher preparation programs all over the world, and has also been used t...

In this episode, I continue the discussion about language processing and how to support it. I continue the discussion of difficult sentence types, and dive in to one very challenging syntax skill that tends to cause processing problems. Working on this skill can not only improve language comprehension, but it can also help kids more effectively express themselves verbally or in writing. If you're...

Language skills are essential to a child's ability to succeed in school and life. But when processing language is a struggle there can be a global impact across a child's entire day. Language comprehension issues can be such as challenge for therapists, parents and teachers because they're difficult to spot. Often they look like a "behavior problem" when a child doesn't follow instructions, or whe...

Vocabulary growth is one of the biggest predictors of language growth and academic success. That's why in this episode, I talk about what speech pathologists, parents, and teachers can do to help kids build strong vocabulary skills across elementary school through high school. Specifically, I share: ✅Why it's hard to pinpoint what language and vocabulary skills are "age-appropriate" between Kinde...

Reading comprehension is one of the most important skills for academic success. It's a skill that can help us to continue to learn new information throughout our lives. On the other hand, kids who struggle to understand what they read are at a disadvantage when it comes to getting in school and beyond. When I worked in the school systems as a speech-language pathologist, a large portion of my case...

When raising kids in elementary school, junior high, and high school, a lot of parents wonder if they're preparing their kids for what lies ahead in college and adulthood. We can't look in to a crystal ball and predict the future, but we can bring insights from our own failures and successes to the way we parent.  That's why in this episode, Joe and I continue our conversation about his experience...

We all have a point where the demands of life become too overwhelming and we lose our ability to self-manage and stay disciplined. For people who have a diagnosis of ADHD, that point can come sooner rather than later.  In this episode, my husband (Joe) shares what happened when he hit his breaking point, including: ✅His experience growing up with an "almost ADHD" diagnosis ✅How he managed to fal...

When it comes to supporting kids with ADHD or other conditions that impact executive functioning, it can be challenging to understand some of the behaviors we’re seeing. Sometimes figuring out why they act the way they do can be confusing, especially when it appears that they’re engaging in certain self-sabotaging behaviors. This might include (but not be limited to) avoiding certain, inevitable s...