SLP Coffee Talk

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...

Selective mutism is a topic that I know many SLPs have lots of questions about, and I haven’t had the right answers. Luckily, in this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I have special guest Joleen Fernald on to talk about everything you need to know about selective mutism.  Joleen R. Fernald, Ph. D., CCC-SLP was awarded Board Specialty Recognition in Child Language from the American Speech-Language-Heari...

Wondering what you need for your CFY?    With back-to-school time quickly approaching for some, I wanted to chat on this episode of SLP Coffee Talk about some things that you need as a brand new CF.    Now, if you aren’t a CF, don’t skip this episode! All of the things I’m sharing with you could apply to you too. These things have been essential in my time as an SLP and I want you to go into your...

Have you heard of Gestalt Language Processing?    This is something that many SLPs don’t actually know a lot about but understanding it can make a huge impact on your students.  We have always been told to redirect echolalia, but kids that communicate that way are gestalt language processors, and it’s important to understand how to help them.    In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with...

Have you ever struggled to diagnose an English language learner because you aren’t sure if it’s a difference or a disorder?    Many SLPs struggle with this because we don’t want to be wrong about a diagnosis just because our student is learning the English language. The most effective way for us to really understand our ELLs is to use dynamic assessments and language sampling instead of standardiz...

Do you work with a lot of students with communication difficulties?    It can be so hard to watch a child struggle to tell you what they need. We have strategies in place to help them learn, but it takes time and it can be frustrating for children in those situations. In this week’s episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Natashia Kletter to talk about how she created books that help children...

Have you ever heard of the neurodiversity-affirming approach to therapy?    For many years, we have been taught to teach students how to adapt to the world around them, but what if we approach it differently? The neurodiversity-affirming approach means that you work with autistic kids in a way that doesn’t ask them to fundamentally change who they are.    In today’s episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I s...

As SLPs, we work with students with all different backgrounds, and for some, that means hearing difficulties. For many SLPs, this is a challenge because students that need hearing aids have unique needs that we may not always feel qualified to assist with.    On this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Madison Levine, a hearing instrument specialist, to talk about hearing services for our...

There is an unfortunate lack of diversity within the speech-language pathology profession.     With it being a predominantly white profession, that means that a large majority of SLP materials lack diversity as well. In today’s episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Christina Royster and Courtney Overton from DiveryCity SLP to discuss the things that they are doing to increase diversity and r...

Do you have routines established for your speech room?    There are so many benefits to having an established routine in place in your speech therapy practice that many don’t think of. Routines help students get the practice they need to reach their goals faster, and it helps you with planning and progress monitoring.    In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Amanda Wilp to talk about...

How do you feel about AAC devices?    If you think everything surrounding AAC is a little scary, you’re not alone! Many SLPs feel this way, but it doesn't have to be scary! AAC devices can benefit our students in so many ways, you just have to understand it and be patient.    In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I sat down with Kate Thomson to dive into the topic of AAC and what you need to kn...

How are SLPs different than reading teachers?      This is a question I see a lot in my SLP Elevate membership. People want to know how we can differentiate ourselves from a standard reading teacher and show our value without just doing the same thing over and over. Some even wonder why students even come to us for things like this.    In this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, I want to really dive into...

Let’s talk about special education!    As SLPs, many of us work closely with special education teachers. Collaboration is an important part of helping students reach their goals. Sometimes that’s easier said than done though. There is a lot that goes into each role, and it can be easy to lose sight of that and get frustrated when things don’t go as planned.    The key is to come up with a strategy...

Do you use gaming and technology in speech therapy?    One of the keys to getting students more engaged in their speech therapy sessions is utilizing their interests, and for many kids, that’s gaming and technology. A lot of SLPs are wary about incorporating those though because they don’t want to give children too much screen time. However, there is a difference between playing games or watching...

We know that working together with other professionals in the school is an amazing way to get better outcomes for our students, so in this episode of SLP Coffee Talk, we are talking about how to get more buy-in from teachers in order to better support our students.   When I first started working as a speech therapist, I had a lot of grand ideas of how I would collaborate and communicate with the t...

Let’s talk about after-reading activities for speech therapy!    This is the last part of a three-part series all about literacy-based therapy. In the last episode, I covered during-reading activities that you can do to make sure your students are understanding what they’re reading, critically thinking, and taking good notes. In the episode before that, I shared some before-reading activities that...