SLP Coffee Talk

As SLPs, it’s important for us to work with other professionals and specialists so that we can better understand the bigger picture when it comes to the educational needs of our students.   This is how we truly make a difference!   In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, we are chatting with Corey Pollard from Ascend Smarter Intervention about how we can work together with structured literacy professi...

How do you come up with relevant, functional goals for your speech students?    If you are just choosing random goals for your students, you may struggle to see progress.    It can be so discouraging!     When it comes to determining goals that are actually achievable, it is important to look at the students and evaluate their needs before setting those goals.    There are several things you want...

Are you excited about the thought of IEPs meetings?    Today we are talking to Catherine Whitcher, the Master IEP Coach about all things IEP and making sure we are helping students reach their educational goals.    Catherine Whitcher, M.ED, founder of the Master IEP Coach® Mentorship + Network, has been building IEPs for the real world for over 20 years. With experience as a special education teac...

As SLP’s, we know that students all develop and think differently.    In this episode, we are talking with Danielle Kent about self-regulation, co-regulation, and how to better support our students whose brains work differently.    Danielle is a mom, wife, and multi-passionate entrepreneur. She is wild about equipping parents and professionals to confidently teach communication and problem-solving...

As SLP’s in school settings, we collaborate with many people including teachers, paras, social workers, and parents.   Many people forget about the specials teachers, but they are important too!   These teachers may not have the background knowledge needed to modify and assist our students, so that is where we come in.    In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, we are talking about how to collaborate...

Team collaboration and communication are so important between SLPs and special education teachers. We work with them quite a bit!    In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk,  I am chatting with Heather Cacioppo. Heather is a middle school self-contained life skills special education teacher with a Master’s degree in Teacher Leadership.    Heather has spent many years in the middle school special educat...

Are you wondering what virtual tools you can use to remain contactless or are you looking to incorporate a little more technology into your classroom?   In this episode, I am sharing my five favorite virtual tools to use with my students!   These tools are incredibly useful, and they will make your planning so much easier. They include interactive games and stories that students will be so engaged...

So many of us took on the challenge of teletherapy over the last year…   Some of us are even still doing teletherapy!   That’s why I am interviewing Kendra Allison in this episode. She is talking to us about how to stay motivated and positive when it comes to teletherapy.   Kendra T. Allison is a licensed speech-language pathologist, teletherapist, School SLP coach and course creator, and owner of...

The number one question I get asked is “how do I know what to work on?” when it comes to working with older speech students.   Do you ask yourself this question? Don’t be ashamed if you don’t know what to work on! This can be difficult to decide on, but it doesn’t have to be.   In this episode, I am helping you take a step back and decide how to make your goals and materials more specific and atta...

Whether we like it or not, a lot of older speech students don’t necessarily like to come to speech...    It is super common for older speech students to not be enthusiastic about coming to see us, so this is why it is so important to build rapport with our students.   We want our students to feel like they are in a warm and comfortable environment because then they are willing to take more risks,...

It can be a challenge to find materials that are both at a lower reading level and include age-appropriate language skills and concepts.   These materials are so important to find and use though because there is evidence that shows that when we work on age-appropriate language skills with our students, we can boost their reading.   If we bring in materials that are too challenging for them, too si...

Working with older speech students is a challenge. We try our best, but we aren't superheroes, right?   It is a lot different than working with younger students, and sometimes we make mistakes.   In this episode, I am talking all about mistakes that SLPs tend to make when working with older students.   I am sharing the mistakes that I have either made myself or the ones that other SLPs that I...

How do you keep your older students motivated?   This can be a real challenge, so I am talking all about it in this episode!   I am covering three main reasons why older students aren’t motivated in the first place, and then I am getting into what you can do to change that.   This is the first episode in a whole series that I am working on about working with older speech students. I know you are g...

There are so many CFs joining the field, and there are also so many brand new SLPs that just finished their CFs!   This is such an exciting time for all of you. I remember being there myself, and I have learned so much since then.   I have had my fair share of lessons and made so many mistakes, so I am sharing the five tips that I have for brand new CFs in this episode.   I know that they will hel...

How do you help your students with their social skills?   My guest, Kimberly Delude, and I are talking all about social skills and how to work on social skills through books in this episode. She is the perfect person to be talking to about this because she actually wrote her own books to help promote language growth and social skills.   Kimberly Delude is a Speech Pathologist in public schools. By...

I know many of you in the schools are working with students that are also seeing children in private practices or outside therapy. There are also a lot of you that want to recommend students to outside therapy because they might not have qualified for school-based therapy.   A lot of questions come up about these types of situations which is why I am so grateful to be joined by Lexi Smith in this...

Do you bring a strong multicultural mindset to your classroom?   This is so important because it allows us to create greater connections with the many different families and clients that we work with.    My guest, Sofia Almeida, is joining us to talk all about working with bilingual students and English language learners. She is also giving tips to monolingual speech therapists!   Sofia Almeida is...

Do you understand your role in supporting children who are D/Deaf and hard of hearing?   If not, we are talking all about this with my guest, Sydney Bassard, from The Listening SLP in this episode!   Sydney is a pediatric speech-language pathologist with a clinical focus in working with children who are deaf and hard of hearing and literacy. She's passionate about early detection and interven...

What does executive functioning have to do with speech-language pathology?   SLPs are able to work on many skills under the executive function umbrella including task initiation, focus, time management, working memory, task completion, organization, self-regulation, and more.    Although it is a newer topic in our field, we are able to work with students with executive functioning challenges to ac...

Do you know how SLPs fit into the dyslexia intervention process?   In this episode, I am talking to Jeannette Washington about dyslexia and what an SLPs role is in treating children with dyslexia.   Jeannette Washington, M.Ed. has worked as both a Speech Language Pathologist and Software Engineer. Her experience working largely with dyslexic learners has earned her recognition in The Washington Po...

Do you use YouTube in speech therapy? I hope you do!   YouTube videos can be so motivating for our students and there are SO many goals that we can address while using them.   I was interviewed by Deborah Brooks from the SLPs Wine and Cheese podcast to talk all about this topic, and I loved our conversation so much that I asked her if I can have the recording to put on SLP Coffee Talk! That is wha...

Is there really a direct connection between difficulty with speech and learning to read?   There sure is, and Angie Neal is joining me in this episode to talk about this connection. We are also getting into why we need to be aware of this as SLPs, and how to help our students with literacy.   Angie Neal is the SLP Contact for the South Carolina State Department of Education, an adjunct instructor...

I can’t believe I haven’t talked about this on the podcast yet...   I am talking all about using commercials in speech in today’s episode with a focus on using them to work on inferencing.   Working on inferencing is definitely one of my favorite topics and goals to work on because it allows me to show my students that they can actually be successful!   This is such a hard and tricky skill, so I t...

How do you manage the behavior of your speech students?   Lauren LaCour Haines from Busy Bee Speech is joining me in this episode to talk all about behavior when it comes to speech and language!   Lauren LaCour Haines is a graduate of Louisiana State University and has been a school-based speech-language pathologist in the Baton Rouge area for several years.  She serves as an SLP and the lead spec...

Are you ready to hear about how you can use video games to help your students with their goals?   Dr. Erik X. Raj is joining me in this episode to talk about using video games to keep older students excited to practice their goals and objectives, and evolve as communicators.   Dr. Erik X. Raj holds a Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and is a...