Speech and Language Kids Podcast

In this short and exciting update episode, Carrie Clark announces two brand new virtual summer camp experiences inside the Speech and Language Kids Hub—one for parents & caregivers, and one for SLPs and related professionals! Plus, get an exclusive sneak peek at the upcoming SLK Teams Program, designed to support speech teams with tools, training, and marketing benefits.

In this episode of the Speech and Language Kids podcast, we'll be talking about how parents and caregivers can boost speech and language skills at home!

Does your child (or student) struggle to follow directions? You're not alone! In this episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, Carrie Clark, SLP and founder of SpeechAndLanguageKids.com, walks you through how to teach children to follow directions—step-by-step. Whether you're working with toddlers just starting to understand basic commands or older kids struggling with multi-step instructi...

Do you work with children who use communication devices or systems to express themselves? Whether it's a high-tech talker, sign language, or picture boards, AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) comes in many forms—and it's essential that we know how to support kids in using it effectively. In this episode, Carrie shares how to build therapy plans for children who use AAC, including pra...

When a child is struggling in more than one area of language, how do you decide what to work on first? In this episode, Carrie Clark, SLP and creator of the Speech and Language Kids Hub, shares her approach to tackling this common challenge—using a cycles approach for language therapy. Inspired by the classic cycles method for phonology, this flexible strategy helps SLPs target multiple areas of l...

In this episode, Carrie shares the story of a sweet 5-year-old boy named Ahmad (name changed for privacy) and his journey with childhood apraxia of speech. From using AAC to working through early speech sounds, Carrie walks through the specific framework and strategies that helped Ahmad go from frustration to finding his voice. If you're working with a child who struggles to speak but clearly has...

How do you know where to start with a preschooler who's hard to understand? In today's episode, I'm walking you through a real-life case study of a sweet little one (we'll call her Arianna) who had significant speech and language challenges. I'll share the exact process I used to figure out what to target first and how I built a therapy plan that made meaningful progress possible—even with limited...

Are you looking for the simplest, most effective way to teach communication skills to children and teens? Well, search no farther! I'm speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and in today's episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, we're diving into exactly how to make the most of virtual speech sessions so we can work on closing these gaps, one child at a time.

It's no secret that teletherapy speech/language therapy services soared during the pandemic. Telepractice use among SLPs jumped from just 3.9% pre-pandemic to 88% by 2021. ( source ) And while teletherapy services are not quite as prevalent now as they were at the height of the pandemic, we're still seeing many turn to teletherapy for its convenience and accessibility. And for good reason! We're a...

Today we're talking about "lisps". But many professionals are moving away from using the term lisp because it often carries a negative or stigmatizing connotation, especially outside of clinical contexts. Instead, we're focusing on describing speech patterns more precisely using phonetic terms. For example: Frontal lisp is often described as interdental or dentalized productions of /s/ and /z/. La...

You spend all evening scouring the internet for the perfect activity for little Timmy. You print. You cut. You laminate. You velcro. He's gonna love it. And then… …it lasts all of two seconds and then he's bored. I'm speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and in today's episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, we'll be answering the question of "are one-off activities really working, or...

Well, the flu has hit my house! Instead of a full podcast episode today, I'm giving you a quick update about our  new progress monitoring tools located inside The Speech and Language Kids Hub .

One of the top questions I get is about whether or not a child should be saying certain speech sounds. Let me tell you, there is a WIDE range of normal when it comes to speech sound acquisition. But in general, we know that certain sounds (like /b/ and /m/) come in early… …and other sounds (like /r/ and /l/) come in later. And knowing those milestones can help us decide which children need speech...

On today's episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I'm taking you inside our members-only area! Listen in as we run one of our monthly planning calls. We're helping members build sessions and plan a full month of therapy at once. Join us as we combine the magic of our therapy plans with our session builder tools to create some AMAZING session ideas!

"My child isn't talking yet but he can sing songs or repeat lines/scripts from movies." Or… "My child simply repeats what everyone else says." These are the kinds of things I hear from parents of children who are learning language…. ….differently. See, it turns out there are two main ways that children learn language. Some children learn language one word at a time. Other children, learn language...

Augmentative/Alternative Communication (AAC) allows a child who can't speak to let us know what they want or need. It reduces frustration and increases communication. And with smart devices being so readily available, AAC apps make it even easier to access these tools! I'm speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and on today's episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I'll be telling you a...

There is a lot of uncertainty in the world of education right now. And even before talks of reducing funding for education, speech-language professionals were overworked and under-supported. But amidst this stress and uncertainty, I bring you a message of hope. Because this is also a time of unparalleled technological advancements. New technologies have the potential to save us, if we're willing t...

How do you help a child who can't speak to tell you what they need? What about a little one who has meltdowns and tantrums but can't tell you why? How can we teach a child some basic, functional communication skills that will help them connect with the world around them and communicate their wants and needs? I'm Carrie Clark and on today's episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I'm going...

If you haven't tried the Cycles Approach to phonology therapy yet, you're missing out! This is an amazing therapy method that is especially designed for children who are highly unintelligible and who have multiple phonological processes, or sound errors. The idea is that you take all of the speech skills they need to work on, and you cycle through targeting each one for a week or two before moving...

Imagine being able to snap your fingers and instantly create a 3rd grade reading passage that's all about Minecraft and is packed full of /r/ words. Do you have anyone on your caseload that could use that? What about a word list of 6th grade science vocab that all use prefixes? Or a custom social story specific to the exact behavior that your client is struggling with? Well…it may not come at the...

Little Alex comes into your therapy space like a Tasmanian Devil! He hasn't stopped moving since he stepped foot in the door and he's touched everything in reach. In fact, half of your stuff is already on the floor. What's a therapist to do? Never fear, my friends! I'm speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and in this episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I'm going to show you how to...

It's No-Prep December and that means that I'm challenging you NOT to prep any therapy activities for the whole month. But how do we do that for language therapy? How do we do it for younger children? Or teenagers? Or elementary-aged students? Is it possible to go no-prep for language therapy?? Well, I'm speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and in this episode of The Speech and Language Kids Po...

When you're a speech-language pathologist with a caseload of 70 or more kids, group therapy is a necessary evil. Sometimes it feels like group speech/language therapy only happens because we don't have enough time to see each child individually. But there are actually a lot of really great benefits to group therapy! Kids are much more likely to work on these hard skills when they see other kids wo...

Data or it didn't happen, right?? As speech-language professionals, it is crucial that we collect data to know exactly how our clients are doing. Or is it? Today we're going to explore the questions of how much data do you ACTUALLY need to collect and how can you streamline your data collection processes.

Do you think you could go a full month without prepping any activities for therapy? Would you like to try? December is a notoriously busy month and usually our clients and students are all zany with that "pre-holiday" energy. So how about this year, you give yourself some slack? We're doing a no-prep challenge this year and it's going to change the way you look at therapy!