Guest: Hope Reed, SLP.D., CCC-SLP, COM®, ASHA Fellow - Dr. Reed shares practical techniques for SLPs in counseling and guiding clients, their families, and others. She says, “It is important to remember to address the person, not just the disorder.” Also, “When we have an agenda, listening stops.” She discusses the qualities of an effective counselor and universal strategies and mantras that can be effectively applied across settings and populations.

Guest: Beth Bergstrom, MS, CCC-SLP - This episode provides answers regarding Velo-Pharyngeal Incompetence (VPI) and how to diagnose a submucous cleft from other diagnoses differentially. She shares specific methods to recognize a submucous cleft as a structural issue that only improves with surgical intervention; she explains why. You’ll learn treatment options that are dependent on the characteristics before and after repair.

Many children with language impairments also have difficulty with executive function (EF); however, the relationships between language and EF are unclear. Dr. Baron summarizes what is known about inner speech--the use of self-directed language—and how it affects EF in children with and without language impairments. She also shares implications for clinical assessment and interventions.

This episode addresses an important dilemma: Am I on the right therapy track with my young children, and am I coaching their caregivers correctly? Rachel addresses these issues through 7 critical developmental skills and organizes them in a format and framework for you to increase your confidence and effectiveness with children and their caregivers.

This episode explores the need for orofacial myofunctional disorders (OMDs) information and practical application for clinicians and our university programs. Dr. Reed, a university professor, established the world’s first university-based clinic for those with OMDs. She shares OMD info and trends as well as her 20-year efforts to generate awareness of this important and much-needed area.

This episode explores the importance of developing confidence and joy in school-aged children who struggle with learning differences. The presenters pinpoint the confidence and joy robbers, e.g., events and experiences, and list the red flags of those at risk. They discuss social-emotional health issues and how professionals can intercede to build teams of support. The role of the SLP is highlighted.

This episode explores articulation therapy, motor control, proprioceptive feedback, and neuroscience. Details are provided for the neural connections to acquire and maintain oral motor behaviors and the oral resting posture. Efficient neural programming of the tongue, jaw, lips, and velum enables optimal speed and precision of movement for speaking. What happens, and what do we do when it doesn’t?

The use of myofunctional evaluation and therapeutic strategies can be invaluable in the remediation of many speech sounds, such as, /l/, /s/, /z/, and /r/. In addition, the sounds are more likely to remediate if the tongue rests in the correct position. We’ll focus on students who can produce the targeted sounds in words, etc. but have difficulty generalizing them into spontaneous speech.

Have you ever wanted to use music in your therapy but were unsure how? Learn simple, direct, and fun methods from Rachel Arntson. She shares strategies to use music to improve imitation, receptive and expressive language, speech sound productions, sound blending, and more. Music is a “magical” tool to build social interaction and is a fun way to incorporate the home practice of targeted skills.

Research states that speech use drives language use through phonological memory and motor planning. However, those with Down syndrome are often encouraged to use nonverbal strategies (sign language, AAC, etc.) ahead of their speech abilities. Is this the best and most beneficial? This course investigates the research, rationale, and several alternatives. Practical therapy strategies will be shared.

This course defines ambiguous loss and how it can impact caregiver-child interactions. Ms. Searcy specifies how to assist families during stressful times and events, including the difficulties of communication disorders and delays. She covers the stressful details that caregivers can experience and how, if not addressed, it can negatively impact positive interactions and learning for the child.

Developmental language disorder (DLD) has gone by many names. Why does the name matter, especially when it doesn’t match the terminology used in schools (e.g., IDEA) or medical settings (e.g., ICD)? In this course, we will explore how and why you should share the term DLD with families and other team members.

Guest: Teresa Farnham, MA, CCC-SLP - We have explicitly known for over 3 decades that parents influence their child’s language development—especially vocabulary—with the quantity and quality of their input and interactions. In the 1980s, Hart & Risley conducted a remarkable research project examining the differences in preschool children's verbal environments. You’ll learn the pertinent and practical results that you can apply.

Guest: Jacqueline Towson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP - This course outlines practical strategies to implement during shared interactive book reading.  Embedding techniques will be shared to facilitate language and emergent literacy skills with young children with language impairments, developmental disabilities, or those considered at-risk. Considerations for book selection, preparation, setting, and environment will be discussed.

Guest: Holly L. Storkel, Ph.D., CCC-SLP - This course presents a variety of practical methods to enhance and systematically guide treatment success for children with speech sound disorders. For example, did you know that selecting complex sounds as your treatment target can accelerate speech sound learning? Or, that there are better ways to contrast sounds than conventional minimal pair treatment? All of this and more will be explained in detail.

Guest: Licia Coceani Paskay, MS, CCC-SLP - This course provides an overview of chewing that’s been researched within the medical and dental fields. Chewing is an overlooked and underestimated function that has a significant and well-documented impact on swallowing. Implications are covered from infants to the elderly. Chewing should take a more prominent role, especially in swallowing disorders.

Guest: Deborah Ross-Swain, EdD, CCC-SLP - School-aged children with language and learning differences are at risk for education trauma; some feel defeated. They’re often labeled as unmotivated, ADHD, lazy, unfocused, or oppositional. SLPs are a part of a collaborative team that can recognize and avoid this trauma and boosts a child’s educational success, confidence, and joy. Numerous practical and easy-to-apply strategies will be covered.

Guest: Jennifer Gray, MS, CCC-SLP - We must find ways to motivate those with Down syndrome to join their peers in learning. Strategies for active listening, retrieving known information, and planning and executing speech allow them to perform better academically and become independent. This podcast shares three simple and essential strategies to address complex communication issues specifically for students with Down syndrome.

Guest: Kristin Martinez, MA, CCC-SLP - Kristin shares practical information on Therapy Essentials, a comprehensive therapy platform and teletherapy training option for both school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and SLPs in the clinical setting. She clarifies and outlines the full features and benefits of Therapy Essentials that can be used to deliver teletherapy, and within hybrid speech-language services

Guest: Janice M. Wright, MA, CCC-SLP - Ms. Wright discusses the issues of conflict resolution rather than conflict management related to the supervision of speech-language pathology supervisees.  She shares constructive definitions, analyzes the typical views of conflict, identifies conflict styles, and tactfully imparts techniques to effectively resolve disputes positively and productively.

Guest: Ray D. Kent, PhD. - Diadochokinesis (DDK) has been in our field for almost a century and has applications in many specialties. A scoping review found 360 DDK articles and has been associated with diverse etiologies: motoric, structural, sensory, and cognitive. Its popularity notwithstanding, it is not unquestioned as an assessment tool. However, it has been used across a spectrum of disorders and as a proposed biomarker.

Guest: Sandra Combs, Ph.D., CCC-SLP - Some clinicians avoid using research to guide their practice due to implementation challenges that appear controlled or too large to apply to their population. Dr. Combs outlines data collection and procedures on how to utilize single-case research to improve therapy quality. Her goal is to bridge the clinical world and the academic world of speech-language pathology to meet client needs better.

Guest: Shari Gross, MA, CCC-SLP - -Selective mutism is an often misunderstood social pragmatic communication disorder.  For many children, within their selective silence, their social pragmatic issues mask additional communication disorders:  articulation, semantics, syntax, processing, and even autism spectrum disorders.  This course introduces SLPs to the evaluation and treatment strategies of children with selective mutism.

Guest: Bryan Gick, Ph.D. - In this research studies and strategies episode, the importance of posture in speech production will be discussed. Posture is vital in motor systems as a precursor to all movements. Maintaining speech articulators in stable postures provides a motor foundation for all speech sounds and movements. Learn how lingual postures shape speech sounds, how postural positions can help in therapy, and how posture governs facial expressions, phonation, and velopharyngeal port...