Language Therapy and Leadership for Pediatric Clinicians
Vocabulary has a profound impact on a child’s ability to learn to read and write, which is why it should be the foundation for your language therapy. That’s why these articles are for SLPs looking to build vocabulary efficiently so their students can achieve academic success.
In episode 255 of De Facto Leaders, I elaborate on the concept of using vocabulary as a large “container”, so you can design sessions efficiently without sacrificing quality. I talk about why more experienced clinicians often struggle to make their interventions scalable, and why this gets in the way of carryover. I also share the…
Is the “Essential 5” language therapy framework right for my caseload? This is a common question I get about the system I teach to help SLPs systematically boost their students’ academic language, processing, and comprehension skills. So that’s why in the video below, I dive into some of those FAQs, like: Will it help with…
What resources can I share with parents to build vocab at home? It’s a great question and it comes up a lot. Unfortunately, it usually comes in the form of “What app can I use to build my child’s vocabulary”? My response is usually that the best way to build your child’s vocabulary is not…
A lot of speech-language pathologists address the skill of categorization in language therapy. The problem is that many of them make a key mistake that limits their students’ ability to generalize. In this video I share how to fix that problem. Why target categories in language therapy? Many speech-language pathologists know that their students struggle…
The other day in my Language Therapy Advance Foundations program, some of my students asked how they should prioritize when they have students who need help with both vocabulary and grammar. They were wondering which to target first. My answer was this: Why not BOTH at once? We often think of language skills, like semantic…
A lot of the SLPs I mentor share that they feel pretty lost when it comes to language therapy. Some of them feel like they’re guessing at what to do next or just haphazardly grabbing games off their shelves… Instead of doing what they WANT…which is walking in to sessions 100% confident that they’re setting…
I get a lot of questions about how to write functional language goals, as well as how to improve language and vocabulary with “functional” activities. Usually the underlying question behind all of these surface-level questions is this: “How do I make sure my therapy will yield results in real-life situations outside my sessions.” OR “How…
“I only have 30 minutes a week with my students. How am I supposed to get to all these language skills?” “I don’t even know where to start when it comes to treating language disorders.” “I’m supposed to be the ‘language expert’, and I feel like an impostor. I’m so overwhelmed!” I hear things like…
The interesting thing about mentoring SLPs is that I get to see what clinicians are doing in a number of different situations and settings across the US (and often, the world). I’ve found that many of the SLPs I work with seem to have similar struggles when it comes to language therapy. The biggest complaint…
“I’m spending 2 hours every evening on paperwork!” “I’m sick of being stuck behind my laptop all weekend!” “There’s just not enough time to plan my sessions, keep up on the research, figure out what materials to use, or have time to pee and shove my lunch down my throat!” We’ve all been there. And…