When kids need support with language, reading/writing, and executive functioning, they often have multiple diagnoses. This makes both treatment planning, diagnosis, and determining eligibility for educational programming complicated; especially when it comes to legal guidelines as well as state and local policies.  That’s why in episode 159 of De Facto Leaders, I’m sharing a Q & A session I did about comorbidities in my Language Therapy Advance Foundations member’s group.  In this episode...

The most effective reading instructional practices aren’t always the ones that gain traction. It’s the ones with the most successful marketing campaigns.  The best marketer wins; but this certainly isn’t a win for the students who go without effective instruction or the school staff struggling to support them.  That’s why I was so excited to talk with Dr. Pamela Snow about the growing body of research relating to literacy and its impact on life outcomes; as well as how we can improve the...

The literacy space has become increasingly polarizing since the reading wars began. There are a number of debates and questions that continue, including:Will kids learn to read “naturally”?  What did the whole language approach get right, if anything? Is explicit phonics instruction just a pendulum swing (and is focusing on phonics enough)?Are we teaching kids to read too early?  When we talk about “early literacy” instruction, what are we actually recommending and how does that look?  I...

No one working in special ed has ever said, “I chose this career so I could do paperwork all evening and weekend.” Yet many realize after getting into the field that administrative demands can take away from time spent with students or collaborating with colleagues.  That’s why I was so excited to connect with Sean Klamm, special educator and founder of Playground IEP (Link here: https://www.playgroundiep.com/) in episode 156 of “De Facto Leaders”.  After starting his career as a teacher and...

Related service providers are often considered subject matter experts. Our role is to support other members of multidisciplinary teams like teachers, parents and administrators.  But many clinicians I’ve talked to started their careers feeling like a “jack of all trades, master of none”.  Some feel that graduate school was all theory and no practice. Others feel it was “drinking water through a firehose”, with way too broad of a scope to feel confident in any specific area. That’s why it’s so...

In this episode, I share a special Q & A session I did with the members of Language Therapy Advance Foundations; my program that provides service providers with a research-based framework for language therapy. I get a lot of questions about how to make the transition between preschool to school-age, what language therapy activities are appropriate for younger children, and when to start direct intervention on linguistic skills like syntax. While there is not a scripted protocol or...

Our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors don’t have to define us.  This is an important thing to remember for adults dealing with professional burnout and compassion fatigue; and it’s also important to model for kids. When school discipline focuses on punitive measures alone, we miss out on opportunities to teach kids how to manage emotions or repair mistakes.  That’s why I’m so excited to share this second half of my conversation with Crissy Mombela in “De Facto Leaders” episode 153, where we...

People working in school or medical settings are in a position to be caring for others in their professional lives; which makes it difficult to leave work at work. When you combine that with relationships outside of work, family responsibilities or having a child with a disability, there’s a high risk of burnout.  I invited Crissy Mombela to episode 152 of “De Facto Leaders” to discuss this topic because she’s had lived experience as a teacher, a school administrator, and as a parent.  Crissy...

If we try to make schools in the US more like schools in other countries, will that result in more effective practices? Why do policies work in some districts, but not others? Many ideas sound good on paper; but the people working with students or leading schools are telling a different story. That’s why I invited reading specialist Jalita Johnson to episode 151 to share her expertise on these topics. Jalita Johnson is a reading specialist in the Northern Virginia area and is also a...

This week, I’m sharing an interview I did with another host on the BE podcast network because I think it’s something you’ll really enjoy. The episode is going live in the De Facto Leaders podcast feed.  Dr. Chris Jones has been an educator in Massachusetts for 22 years. His experience in the classroom ranged from 8th - 11th grade working in an urban setting. A portion of this was spent opening a high school division for an expanding charter school. He has just finished his 14th year as a...

There’s a difference between influence and control. Whether we’re making suggestions to a coworker, asking a supervisor for support, setting expectations with kids, or interacting with someone in an online forum…we’re all attempting to create behavioral change.  In “helping people” professions, it’s easy to get emotionally involved with our work. This makes it difficult to identify if there are actionable steps we can take to impact bigger, systemic issues vs. when we should put our heads...

If the schools are devoting time and money to improving reading instruction, how should the rest of the day look for kids as it pertains to literacy?  Should parents be working with kids at home? If so, how much? What about reading? Can we use apps to help build language skills? How about audiobooks?  A common recommendation is that we should read 20 minutes a day, several times a week. I had a hard time nailing down a specific study that “proved” that this is an ideal amount, so where did...

When I first learned about the field of occupational therapy, I had a very superficial understanding of what it entailed. In the school systems, it seemed like referrals often focused on fine-motor skills related to school, like pencil grip.  When I learned about sensory processing, I discovered that it’s so much more than that; and I realized how important it is for other members of both school and clinical teams to understand how each discipline can support each other.  That’s why I was so...

Language therapy often focuses on early intervention; but what happens if students continue to struggle with language in the high school years?  Many SLPs are pressured to drop students from their caseloads or move to a consult-only model when students transition to secondary school. Yet that often means many students enter adulthood lacking skills that have a significant impact on their ability to access advanced education or job opportunities.  If students don’t have a solid grasp on...

In this conversation, Ben Hockema and I discuss how to create a solid financial plan in your career so you can focus your time and energy on the impact you can make.  We discuss all kinds of possibilities; whether you want to stay in your current position as a therapist and/or teacher, whether you want to add an additional income stream, or whether you know for certain you want to start a business full time.  We even talk about ways to explore opportunities if you have lots of ideas in your...

Executive functioning and financial literacy go hand-in-hand; which is why money management should be a part of any K-12 curriculum.  Much of this has to do with self-evaluation, the ability to think into the future, and the understanding of quantitative and temporal concepts. There are endless digital tools designed to help people manage their finances, but these tools won’t be useful for people who don’t have a solid sense of the quantity or the value of money.  That’s why I invited Ben...

Many people working in K-12 education have ambitions to start their own company where they have the ability to redesign the way student learning happens. The motivation often comes from wanting to create a scenario where they feel less constrained, more innovative, and more impactful. When I ventured into self-employment, I found that many of the “how to start your business” programs focused on simple business models that allowed people without a business background to become profitable...

Many clinicians are trained to focus on checklists and evaluations so we can walk in to work confident; knowing exactly what our protocols are.  And while systems and processes are extremely important, we have to know how to use them flexibly.  When we think about this in relation to cultural competency; we often think of eliminating biases in our evaluations and materials; but it goes so much deeper than that. We also need to think about how we interact with coworkers, how policies are...

People working in the schools are often expected to make everything a priority all the time, without consideration of how they might be able to manage the backlog of projects.  They have to say “No” to people who need help in the interest of saying “Yes” to others. They have to see the faces of the people their decisions are impacting.  While there is an understanding that prioritization is part of the methodology in other industries and agencies, it's viewed with much more skepticism when...

Skeptics of the Science of Reading claim that the current push for evidence-based reading instruction is just another pendulum swing.  Yet if you look at the research, we haven’t so much been “swinging” as much as we’ve been building, evolving, and expanding on what we know about how we learn to read. Even though the Science of Reading is “trending” as I write this, there are still many kids without access to quality instruction.  Part of that has to do with teacher preparation programs and...

Many leadership initiatives in education need to come from the top… But change can happen when direct service providers emerge as leaders on their teams without waiting for permission from someone else.  School administrators and other people making decisions at the district and policy level are constantly pulled in different directions. The further up the chain you go and the more people you’re managing, the longer it takes to make things happen. Good leaders WANT their teachers and...

Learners in K-12 settings have changed over the past 25 years, and what were considered best practices in the 1990s may no longer work for learners in the 2020s. Much of this is due to technology, the invention of the Iphone, and the skills young adults need when entering the workforce. There’s a large amount of debate on how to address these evolving needs effectively, and that’s why I wanted to invite Dr. John Burkey to the “De Facto Leaders” podcast to talk about his experiences on the...

If you’re providing therapy or tutoring services, contracting with schools, or offering professional development to K-12 professionals, you won’t want to miss this episode. As someone who has explored the possibility of school contracts, I’m always looking to learn more about how school leaders make decisions regarding budgets and staffing.  I grew up in the Chicago area; which meant I lived in a community with an abundance of organizations, transportation systems, and districts with a...

Social skills groups have been widely criticized recently. They’re often labeled as ableist and not neurodiversity-affirming. I also take issue with the way social skills interventions are often delivered, but for a different reason.  When social skills intervention is done, it’s often delivered via 1:1 therapy, in a “pull-out” model; where the child receives intervention in therapy or small class setting. I get regular emails from readers who tell me they see poor generalization, despite...