Sometimes our university training doesn’t leave us feeling confident treating pediatric voice disorders. Which makes it intimidating, to say the least, when you’re faced with a child with a voice disorder. You might even feel like you’ve landed in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language. Been there, done that! The good news is • You know more than you think you do. • There are lots of accessible resources for you. • This podcast sheds some light on where to begin and what to conside...
Nov 30, 2022•16 min•Season 4Ep. 73
This episode is an interview with Dr. Teresa Ukrainetz, who specializes in school-age language intervention. Her current research centers on how to help students with language impairments gain control of the words and ideas of informational text, and her brilliantly simply method for this intervention is called Sketch and Speak. Here is a snippet from the interview: “I really wanted to look at expository. I felt like we were largely at sea trying to figure out how to support learning of informat...
Nov 16, 2022•30 min•Season 4Ep. 72
When it comes to articulation carryover at home, wouldn’t it be great if all parents understood how to support their child? This podcast does what we often don’t have time to do—it explains all about carryover, and gives parents realistic ways to support carryover at home. Today’s episode covers: • What’s a tipping point and why is it important for speech therapy? • What is the SLP’s role? • What is the parents role? • What is the child’s role? • How to make home practice a positive experience •...
Nov 02, 2022•16 min•Season 4Ep. 71
Therapy prep can be time consuming or painless— we all want more painless prep than painful! As you prep for therapy do you find yourself thinking: • What can I do today that both fun and productive? And I’m sure my clients would appreciate something new! • I don’t have a big budget for materials, how can I best spend my money? • I need something more than fun, it needs to make a difference for my clients and have lots of opportunities for practice. • How can I teach self monitoring better? I’m ...
Oct 19, 2022•13 min•Season 4Ep. 70
This episode is a follow up to episode 68 on assessment cluttering. It’s about treatment, using the M.O.R.E. approach. More than a to do list, M.O.R.E. is a framework to help clients first make the cognitive changes that will lead to behavioral changes. M.O.R.E. stands for motivation, ownership, recognition and earned fluency. If you’ve been wondering how to help a client who has plateaued in cluttering therapy, today’s episode is for you! Wondering what earned fluency is? Vivian Siskin shared t...
Oct 05, 2022•25 min•Season 4Ep. 69
This is part one of a two part series. Episode 68 covers nine areas to assess when treating cluttering, while part two covers the M.O.R.E. treatment technique. In part one the following assessments areas are discussed: syllable collapse articulation mid sentence revisions lack of complex language run on sentences missing details and context in personal narratives syntax prosody rate of speech...
Sep 21, 2022•15 min•Season 4Ep. 68
Today’s podcast is focused on L. While there’s no doubt R can be a puzzler, L isn’t far behind. Final L can be one of the most perplexing sounds for clients to master. In this podcast SLP Angie Lewis explains how to elicit precise final Ls. And we find out that it’s not so different from final vocalic R! Tune in as Angie walks us through all the steps needed to master L in all positions.
Sep 07, 2022•27 min•Season 4Ep. 67
Too many R clients get stuck somewhere between the sentence and conversation level, and can’t make the leap to mastery. Helping these clients achieve mastery of R (or any phoneme) involves a philosophy about how to engage a learner in learning. The closer you get to less structured therapy tasks, such as conversation, the fewer worksheets there are, because therapy becomes more about you —the pilot, and the passenger-your client, figuring out the remaining roadblocks to complete mastery of R. Th...
Aug 24, 2022•21 min•Season 4Ep. 66
Getting on the same page as parents when it comes to articulation therapy is challenging, and this is especially true when it comes to complicated sounds like R. As much as we want to educate parents, who has time to thoroughly explain co-articulation and motor requirements, let alone diving into secondary issues like phonemic awareness? Concepts that are elementary to us can be hard for others to grasp in the short time we have to offer explanations. That’s why you’ll find Making R Elementary, ...
Aug 10, 2022•13 min•Season 4Ep. 65
Tongue ties, also referred to as tethered oral tissues (TOTs) can seem like a complex issue, but what it really comes down to is understanding when functional eating, speaking and sleeping are impaired. This episode is a review of Merkel-Walsh and Overland’s book Functional Assessment and Remediation of TOTs. With the information in this book, SLPs gain a clear understanding of their role in diagnosing and treating clients with TOTs. Therapists with a background in a muscle-based approach to spe...
Jul 27, 2022•18 min•Season 4Ep. 64
Getting a valid measurement on complex language skills is challenging. Rubrics are a great tool for measuring multiple skills with multiple levels of complexity. They can also be valuable motivators for clients to monitor their own progress. Rubrics to the Rescue! discusses the when, how, who, and what of using rubrics in language therapy.
Jul 13, 2022•19 min•Season 4Ep. 63
As SLPs, problem solving is something we do every day with our clients. But add behavior challenges into the mix and progress can come to a screeching halt. Many of us don’t receive training in this area, even at the graduate school level. Sometimes the solution to challenging behavior shows itself when we step back and look at our clients in a new way, or “with new eyes.” This episode discuss how to be led by our observations rather than pushed by our problems, and what a difference it can make...
Jun 29, 2022•13 min•Ep. 62
A constant message in modern superhero media is that BIG reactions are the ONLY solution. That’s not a great message for any child, let alone those who already struggle with outsize reactions. In The Dark Side of Superheroes, I explore • Skills that are fundamental to controlling reaction size • Problems with modern media • Fantastic books that model matching the reaction to the size of the problem.
Jun 15, 2022•19 min•Season 4Ep. 61
When you teach your clients conjunctions, a little knowledge can become a dangerous thing. Sometimes clients start throwing conjunctions around like they’re going out of style, and their stories become one big mess. This episode describes ways to help clients get conjunctions under control. Be sure to check out the Simple Tools video, Conjunction Function, showing a fun idea to make conjunctions visual.
Jun 01, 2022•13 min•Season 4Ep. 60
Have you noticed your clients with language impairments really struggle to recall names? This can be a real communication barrier, both socially and in literacy development. Stories are the fabric of our existence and they make up a large part of our conversation. When our clients are telling stories, not only do they default to vague and non-specific language frequently, they can't even recall a person's name to include in their story! This episode, Where Everybody Knows Your Name, is full of s...
May 18, 2022•11 min•Season 4Ep. 59
Are you ready to talk about grammar? Infinitive verbs are early developing, and too often overlooked, but they are critical in early language and cognitive development. To Infinity and Beyond! explores infinitive verbs in depth, and how they empower communication. Included in this podcast are: • Defining infinitive verbs—of course! • A quick overview of Developmental Sentence Scoring • Clinical examples of the power of infinitive verbs • Ideas for teaching Materials from The Speech Umbrella to h...
May 04, 2022•11 min•Season 4Ep. 58
What About ABA? covers a few key questions to ask parents that can help them figure out whether ABA therapy is right for them. Look for the following in episode #57: • Questions to ask a potential ABA therapist • The philosophy behind ABA therapy • The philosophy behind relationship based approaches, such as Hanen and Floortime The complexity of language development
Apr 20, 2022•16 min•Season 4Ep. 57
While we understand that communication is more than talking, it’s not always easy to explain why this is so to parents. Concepts that are so familiar to us—joint interaction, pragmatics, gesture development—are a whole new language for parents of kids with social communication disorders. Hanen More Than Words gives SLPs the tools to coach parents on the non-verbal aspects of communication. Parents then become the experts in fostering social communication for their preschool age child. In this ep...
Apr 06, 2022•15 min•Season 4Ep. 56
We know many of our clients struggle with executive function. What’s one powerful way families can teach executive function to their children? Chores! In episode 55, Nate and Melanie Young describe their chore system. Their system teaches skills for executive function and self regulation in a realistic setting, and it just works.
Mar 23, 2022•42 min•Season 4Ep. 55
This episode reviews Dr. Damon Korb’s book, Raising an Organized Child. Dr. Korb not only explains organized thinking in an accessible way, but has suggestions for how to get there, from birth through high school. He describes how to implement five steps for organized thinking for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, school aged children, and teens. The five steps are • Be consistent • Introduce order • Give everything a place • Practice forward thinking • Promote problem solving This is a terrific ...
Mar 09, 2022•30 min•Season 4Ep. 54
| We know how important it is to teach our clients to read social cues. But that’s so much easier said than done! Making the implicit explicit can be a real challenge for us. Here’s how Episode 53 can help: You’ll find • Several strategies for using books and video clips to teach social skills • Ways to teach clients to understand what it means to “notice” social clues • An explanation for parents about what it means to be a social detective and why it’s critical The list of strategies is availa...
Feb 23, 2022•17 min•Season 4Ep. 53
Wouldn’t it be handy to have a template for choosing the most effective books for therapy? That’s exactly what you’ll get in Episode 52, Choose Your Books Wisely. This episode covers: Four criteria for choosing an effective book What adds to a book’s complexity A comparison of two books, one that is effective and one that isn’t, and why. But that’s not all— check out the Free Resource Library on thespeechumbrella.com for a list of favorite books to use in therapy and Bingo games to use when talk...
Feb 09, 2022•19 min•Season 4Ep. 52
This episode covers four simple, but effective, ways to help children of all abilities learn. My guest, Jacquie Johnson, shares her recipe for success both in the classroom and at home. Plus she shares how SLP’s can collaborate effectively with classroom teachers. You don’t want to miss Jacquie’s insights! --- Useful Links --- Episode 11: Tracking Phonological Awareness Episode 10: Under the Umbrella of Phonological Awareness Episode 4: Developmental Sequence of Phonemic Awareness Music: Simple ...
Jan 26, 2022•38 min•Season 4Ep. 51
If you’re looking for a method to teach natural, spontaneous conversation, look no further than The Conversation Game. This episode describes how to improve an often overlooked skill needed for conversation.
Jan 12, 2022•23 min•Season 4Ep. 50
What is Word Dancing? Possibly the single best thing families can do to dramatically and positively impact their children’s speech and language, and their academic future. The research showing the relationship between word dancing and academic prowess is extremely robust. Find out more on Episode 49 of the The Mindful SLP. --- Useful Links --- A Parent, A child, and Autism, Interview with Rebecca Video by Dr. Todd Risely Dancing with Words, Mindful SLP blog post It’s Never Too Early and It’s Nev...
Dec 29, 2021•22 min•Season 3Ep. 49
What is a vital, but often overlook component of stuttering therapy? Do you feel like there’s a missing piece with some clients who stutter, but you can’t put your finger on it? Find that missing piece in Episode 48 of The Mindful SLP. --- Useful Links --- Treating the School Age Child Who Stutters by Carl W Dell Jr. Avoidance Reduction Therapy in a Group Setting, seminar by Vivian Sisken Dancing the Macarena on an Iceberg Impossible R Made Possible...
Dec 14, 2021•19 min•Season 3Ep. 48
What do icebergs and the Macarena have to do with speech therapy? Episode 47 describes a case history of a fluency client, underlying issues that needed to be addressed before stuttering therapy could be effective, and how mindfulness can be one of your best tools.
Dec 01, 2021•23 min•Season 3Ep. 47
Let’s hear it for Narrative Intervention! Kids learn so much language with narrative therapy. But what if they seem ready for stories, but still can’t quite grasp narratives? Even when you use the most basic story they still struggle. Maybe they need to work on sequencing. In this podcast we discuss how to get our not-quite-ready-clients from here to there, by following the narrative road. --- Podcast Links --- Picture the Sentence Balloon Car The Story of My Life by Helen Keller Phonological Aw...
Nov 17, 2021•18 min•Season 3Ep. 46
Basic listening skills are critical to language and reading development, but if they’re missing how do you begin to work on them? Episode 45, “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?” is full of ideas and activities for building this foundational skill. This is one of the most useful things I do with young clients! --- Podcast Links --- Phonological Awareness Tracking Form Simple Tools with Denise B-I-N-G-O!...
Nov 03, 2021•19 min•Season 3Ep. 45
When a child has difficulty with listening skills, auditory processing and auditory memory, we could give it a lot of names, including Auditory Processing Disorder, or APD. But whether or not a client has an official APD diagnosis, SO many of them struggle in these areas. When it comes to working on listening, attention, and memory, you can’t start too soon, because improving listening and processing improves everything else. ---- Show Links ---- Podcast Episodes Phonological Awareness Tracking ...
Oct 20, 2021•20 min•Season 3Ep. 44
