The Preschool SLP

Would your therapy sessions pass a research review? 🔬 In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on my experience as a proposal reviewer for the Council for Exceptional Children, and I'm handing you the exact 5 criteria reviewers use, reframed as a self-evaluation for YOUR therapy sessions. Rate yourself 1 to 5 in each area and find out exactly where to grow this summer. In this epis...

Nearly every child on your caseload is at greater risk for executive function challenges. What do you do about it? In this episode, I'm sharing the 5 powerhouse strategies I use every single day to build executive function directly into speech and language therapy. No extra sessions, no separate goals — just smarter treatment that changes lives. You'll learn: The Problem, Plan, Action, C...

If you think executive function challenges only affect your ADHD and autism clients, this episode will change how you see your entire caseload. In this episode, we break down the latest 2025 research, revealing that executive function difficulties are far more widespread than previously recognized, including in populations SLPs have historically underestimated. You'll learn: Adele Diamond&apo...

Ever wonder why some books become instant hits with your students while others fall flat? In this episode, we go behind the scenes on a real-life book hunt and walk away with a practical framework you can use every time you pick up a new children's book. Using the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) , we break down exactly what makes a book "sticky" for diverse learner...

This episode is a message on humanism, mission, and showing up fully for every child.  It's not a question of whether the child can do it. Of course they can. It's only a question of how. This week's episode is deeply personal. After losing a close friend and being present with him in his final moments, a powerful message surfaced: when someone is suffering, don't look away. Go...

End-of-Year Reflect & Recap: The 3 Questions Every SLP Needs to Ask Right Now Whether you're a seasoned SLP or fresh out of grad school, the most powerful professional development you'll do this summer won't come from a CEU course. It's this. In this episode, Kelly walks you through her end-of-year Google Doc ritual: three simple but mighty questions that help you close out...

Are your consonant cluster clients stuck — and so are you? If you're spending more time hunting for the right targets than actually running therapy, this episode is your reset button. In today's episode, we're diving deep into selecting consonant clusters.   We're breaking down how to select targets strategically, sequence them with intention, and finally see the carryover you&...

You're welcome. Because today, we're digging into something I bet you're seeing on your back porch right now, and nobody is talking about it. Asthma and speech sound disorders. If you have a child on your caseload with significant asthma, this episode is the one you need tomorrow. Roll up your sleeves with me. We're going to get our hands really, really dirty, and we're go...

You opened your caseload. Another Spanish-speaking kiddo. You don't speak Spanish. There's no translator. No bilingual SLP down the hall. Now what? You don't freeze. You don't refer out. You don't waste a single therapy minute. You use the 5-step Good Enough Practice plan, built on the complexity approach research, to drive real, generalizable gains in both languages, even...

Have ZERO dollars in your therapy closet for bilingual Spanish assessments? You are not alone — and you are not stuck. In this episode, I walk you through the 8-step gold-standard process for assessing bilingual Spanish-English preschoolers for speech sound disorders, every single step backed by free, vetted, research-supported tools. This is the same framework recommended by Sharynne McLeod, Sara...

If you’re feeling like your therapy sessions are “working” but chugging along at a slow pace, this episode is going to hit a nerve in the best way. Because here’s the truth that most of us weren’t trained to see clearly: When a child has anxiety or ADHD, you are not just treating speech and language. You are working against a nervous system that is dysregulated, overloaded, and constantly scanning...

Let’s say the quiet part out loud. If a preschooler is lisping, and we choose to wait, we are not being cautious. We are building the wrong motor plan. In this episode, I am pushing back on the idea that a frontal lisp is something to “monitor” until school age. Because while we are waiting, that child is producing "TH" for "S" hundreds of times a day, every day, wiring in a pa...

If you work with children who have autism, minimal joint attention, and limited expressive language, this episode challenges what you’ve been taught and replaces it with something far more useful. This is not a “wait and see” conversation. This is a rethink-everything conversation. Drawing from a powerful systematic review and the lens of dynamic systems theory, this episode breaks down why langua...

If you work with four, five, or six-year-olds with speech sound disorders, this episode was made for you — and this research will change how you document, advocate, and make eligibility decisions for your students. In this episode, we break down a brand-new 2026 open-access study that every school-based SLP, early childhood SLP, and preschool speech-language pathologist needs to save, cite, and ha...

If you work with children with autism, developmental delays, or complex communication needs, this episode is a must-listen. Today, we’re talking about cerebral visual impairment, or CVI, and why it may be one of the most overlooked reasons children struggle with communication, attention, social interaction, AAC use, and motor-based learning. This episode is not about whether a child can see an ite...

Many clinicians are told there is a right way to prompt AAC users. You may have heard that you should always use least-to-most prompting. Others insist most-to-least prompting is best. But what does the research actually say? In this episode, we look at findings from a scoping review of 29 AAC intervention studies examining the prompting strategies used with children with autism who use speech-gen...

Feeling overwhelmed by a caseload that includes autism, childhood apraxia of speech, developmental language disorder, articulation, fluency, and AAC users… all back-to-back? You are not alone. Many speech-language pathologists walk into therapy sessions with a stack of different activities for every child. One game for articulation. Another for language. Another for fluency. Another for AAC. Befor...

What do Gustav Eiffel and dynamic, tactile, temporal cueing have in common? Scaffolding. Vision. And the courage to aim higher than anyone else. In this episode, I break down why Dynamic, Tactile, Temporal Cueing (DTTC) is not just for childhood apraxia of speech. It is a practical, high-impact framework that can upgrade how you treat: • Speech sound disorders  • Language delays  • Literacy skills...

If you work with children who drool, this episode is for you. I’m pulling back the curtain on an approach I’ve used for over 15 years that has consistently reduced—and often eliminated—drooling in preschoolers. Not in theory. Not in a lab. In real therapy rooms, with real kids, on real caseloads. Here’s the uncomfortable truth:  There is very little direct research on speech intervention and drool...

What do 707 Autistic Preschoolers Teach Us About Spoken Language Outcomes? If you work with preschoolers with autism and you care about spoken language outcomes, this episode matters. A lot. In today’s episode of The Preschool SLP Podcast , we unpack the largest study to date examining why some autistic children do not develop spoken language, even after receiving high-quality, evidence-based earl...

What if the problem with treating the R sound isn’t the child—but the way we train it? In today’s episode, we step outside the field of speech-language pathology and borrow powerful, evidence-based principles from exercise science and kinesiology to rethink how we treat speech sound disorders. Why? Because exercise science has done what our field largely hasn’t: isolated what actually works using...

Are consonant clusters really “too complex” for kids with severe speech sound disorders—or have we been aiming too low? This episode tackles one of the most persistent myths in speech therapy: that children with childhood apraxia of speech, autism, or severe speech delay aren’t ready for clusters. I’m unpacking the real science behind complexity, coarticulation, and system-wide change—and why wait...

If you work with children who are minimally speaking with autism or you love a child who is minimally speaking, today’s episode matters. Over the past year, I’ve been doing something deeply intentional. I’ve been having long, honest conversations with speech pathologists and special education teachers who are truly effective with high-tech AAC. These weren’t quick chats. Each interview ran over an...

If you work with children who have complex communication needs, you already know this truth:  you cannot pour from an empty cup. In this episode, I share six realistic self-care swaps I use from morning to night to support energy, focus, and emotional regulation in the work we do. These are not trends. They are practical, research-informed adjustments that help me show up fully present in therapy...

If you work with parents of children with special needs, this episode is non-negotiable. Instead of diving into research, we’re heading straight into a film that delivers the kind of uncomfortable clarity our field rarely gets. Today, we break down If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You —Mary Bronstein’s raw, emotionally accurate look into the lived experience of parenting a neurodivergent child—and why ever...