Speech and Language Kids Podcast

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 time and resources. This episode is perfect for SLPs, teachers, and parents working with preschoolers who have unclear speech, multiple delays, or difficulty getting their message across.

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 also seeing a huge increase in the number of children needing services. One analysis found a 110% increase in speech disorder diagnoses in children aged 0-12 years in 2022 compared to the pre-pandemic rates. (source) When families and schools are struggling to find enough local SLPs to serve the needs, teletherapy is available to serve the gaps. 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.

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/. Lateral lisp is often referred to as lateralized productions of /s/, /z/, and sometimes other sibilants like /ʃ/ and /ʒ/. I'm speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and in today's episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I'll going to give you a very clear Therapy Pathway that will lay out how to treat dentalized or lateralized productions of sibilants.

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 are they just filling time?" Plus, I'll show you how you the power of having a start-to-finish plan that actually moves children toward success.

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 therapy, and which can wait it out. I'm speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and in today's episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I'll be telling you what ages certain sounds should come in by and I'll be giving you a Therapy Roadmap for how to help them if they're not.

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 in chunks by repeating whole sentences or scripts that they hear elsewhere. These children are called Gestalt Language Processors. I'm speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and on today's episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I'm going to share my top 6 steps for helping those gestalt language processors find their voice.

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 about a few of my favorite AAC apps and showing you how to use them to support a child who is struggling to speak.

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 to try something new. I'm Carrie Clark and on today's episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I'm going to show you that together, we can use these emerging technologies to find solutions to our profession's biggest problems. And find ways to support our clients, our families, and ourselves in ways that we didn't even know were possible.

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 to give you some simple ideas to help a child learn functional communication so we can alleviate that frustration!

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 onto the next. The result is that these children make faster progress and their WHOLE speech system improves more quickly than if you're only targeting one sound. I'm Carrie Clark and on this episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I'm going to tell you exactly how to use The Cycles Approach in therapy and show you where you can download some pre-made materials to make it happen.

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 snap of a finger, but with some careful use of artificial intelligence, that reality is already here! I'm Carrie Clark and on this episode of The Speech and Language Kids podcast, I'm going to show you how you can use artificial intelligence, or AI, to generate custom therapy materials in the blink of an eye!

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 use incorporate sensory and movement into your speech/language therapy sessions for better participation and behavior.

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 Podcast, I'm going to answer all of these questions with three easy ways to do no-prep therapy for language skills.

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 working on them, too. And hearing it in others' speech can improve their awareness of their own speech. Plus, we get a ton of practice on navigating interpersonal skills. But running a speech/language group can also be daunting. I'm speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and in today's episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I'm going to show you some quick and easy ways to run your speech/language therapy groups with NO prep time at all!

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!

Your students come into your therapy space and they know what to do. They grab their speech folders from the bin by the door. They walk to the table and sit down. They open their folders and get out their practice page. And they start practicing their skill quietly to themselves. While everyone is coming in and getting settled, you have a few minutes to walk around and make sure everyone is practicing correctly. You give a few redirections and corrections to help them get it right. Sound like a dream? Well, today I'm going to show you how to set up speech folders for your own effortless speech therapy sessions!

If you're a speech-language pathologist, SLPA, SALT or some other alphabet soup doing speech therapy with kids… And you're stressed out… And overwhelmed… You are not alone! There are so many kids right now that need support and not enough of us to go around. So what's an SLP to do? Well don't worry, I'm Carrie Clark and in this episode of the speech and language kids podcast, I'm going to show you the way to be UNSTRESSED (just like a shwa) and do speech therapy without tears. And by that I mean your tears. Not the kids. I can't guarantee the kids won't cry. The Way: An easier path for speech therapy Working as a speech-language pathologist is hard. And working in a school setting can feel even harder. But I've spent the last 16 years of my career figuring out a better way. The Way is my streamlined system that allows you to see more students in less time. And it will help your students make faster progress, too! How to Streamline Speech Therapy Using "The Way": No Prep Speech Therapy: By using child-led therapy, we can practice speech/language skills with little to no prep time on our part. Set Up Therapy Folders:Drop no-prep activities into each student's therapy folder. We can increase retention (with less prep time) by using the same material over and over and changing the fun activity. Plan for a Full Month at Once: Most of our students don't make fast enough progress that they need a new plan each week. Plan once for a full month and use the same stimulus material (worksheet/flashcard/etc.) for the full month. Make Group Sessions Easier: Using the folder system, students can come in and practice their skill right away. Then continue to practice during a game, craft, or play activity. Try 5-Minute Sessions: Tired of group therapy? Instead of seeing 4 kids in a 30-minute group, try seeing each child individually for 5 minutes. You'll use up the same amount of time in your schedule but students will make faster progress (more info on the research behind 5-minute sessions here) Collect Full Data only Once Per Month: You don't need to collect data on every repetition a child makes! Collect full data only once per month. During the rest of the month, focus on therapy time and give each session a rating on a scale of 1-5. Streamline Admin Tasks and Systematize Larger Tasks: Spend less time on your paperwork and planning by eliminating unnecessary tasks, finding shortcuts, and using checklists for recurring tasks Write Better Goals: Learn how to write goals that are easy to measure and make the most impact for the student Organize Your Stuff: Declutter and pair down your things. Then, store things in a way that makes them easier to put away. Learn More about "The Way": Are you ready to get started with The Way? I've laid this all out in a video course… …and the first three modules are free! Click Here to Join The Hub and Start The Way