De Facto Leaders

Have you ever had a student spend 45 minutes avoiding an assignment that would have taken them five minutes to finish?

They argue about why they shouldn’t have to do it, negotiate over how much they need to complete, ask to go to the bathroom, or decide they need a drink before they can get started.

Meanwhile, you’re looking at the assignment thinking:

If you would just DO IT, this would have been over half an hour ago.

I had a student who did this exact thin...

We tend to think about math, literacy, language, and executive functioning as separate areas of development.

But the research shows they’re much more connected than we might think.

Early math skills are associated with later academic outcomes, and developing those skills draws heavily on language, vocabulary, and executive functioning.

And supporting early math doesn’t have to mean formal instruction.

A lot of it happens through play, conversation, books, games, and everyday routines.

That’s why in episode 269 of De Facto Leaders, I talk with Clarence Ames, an early...

People often say to me, “I get why executive functioning is important, but when are you going to tell me how to work on it”?

I wish I could jump right to the lesson plans and “here’s what you do in a perfect hierarchy to work on these skills”. But brains don’t work that way.

That’s why I start with the framework before the lesson plan. The macro before the micro. 

When you Google executive functioning, you often get a list of 8 or 9 skills, and a broad definition. This is important infor...

Many people think they’re working on executive functioning, but aren’t ACTUALLY working on executive functioning.

If you have students who have access to planners, visuals, lists, and other organizing tools, but still seem unorganized, this may be the case 
for your students.

Especially if you have students who flat out refuse to use organizers, or just forget to use them. 

Even though people with strong executive functioning skills present on the outside as people who are “organized”, this is just the external \
presentation that happens as a result of...

“Demand avoidance”, poor generalization, prompt-dependence, and social skills challenges seem like isolated issues. 

But often they’re not. Many times they’re tied to executive functioning challenges. 

That’s why when I describe “executive dysfunction”, I cluster it into five broad areas:

Attention, Learning Challenges, Behavioral Issues, Organization, and Social Skills

Usually, this is the point that the lightbulb goes on for a lot of clinicians and educators in the room as they realize executive functioning is the common sticking point behind many of their students’ challenges.

When I support clinicians...

Many school clinicians know executive functioning is important. 

They also know that their entire team should be supporting it across general and special education settings. 

But they don’t always know what exactly that looks like in practice…

And if they do, they don’t know HOW they can change the practices of classroom teachers. 
There are a lot of unanswered questions. 

…How can I find time to think about changing teacher’s practices when I barely have time to manage my own workload? 

…What is my role if students don’t...

Many school teams AREN’T actually working on executive functioning when they think they are.

As a result, they’re being more flexible and accommodating than ever, giving students a chance to process after behavioral escalations…

Yet they’re seeing students continue to be dysregulated. In some cases, it’s getting worse. 
The same thing goes for helping kids stay organized and manage work. 

Kids refuse to use organizers and lists, forget to use them when it’s relevant, or require a ton of adult prompting when they actually ARE using them.

In my fre...

You’ve been told that social skills interventions are ableist.

But you’ve also been told that we need to prepare students for real-world expectations. You have teachers and administrators coming to you with concerns about behavior, participation, and social interaction, and you’re expected to address it.

Then you’re told to make your intervention more “functional.” To collaborate more. To focus on generalization.

And somehow, all of that responsibility gets funneled into a 20-minute social skills group.

What are you supposed to do when you know that a short, isolated ses...

“Accommodation” is a loaded word. On one hand, we want to provide reasonable accommodations in K-12 so kids can access their education.

But determining what is “reasonable” accommodation or modification can be messy.

Both parents and educators can unintentionally “overaccommodate” in the moment without realizing it, which over time can impede a child’s ability to work through daily challenges and solve problems on their own. 

This can be in the context of adding too many “cookie-cutter” accommodations on a 504 Plan or IEP, or it can be unofficial accommodations in the way we interact with kids...

Are we really “overteaching” phonics, or should there be a hard stopping point where it’s not taught past a certain grade?

Are current stories trending on popular news outlets aligned with best practices for supporting dyslexic learners?

Is the public becoming more educated on how we learn to read, write, and spell?

I invited my colleague, Lori Josephson, an author, consultant, and former teacher to discuss these questions. 

In this episode, we discuss:

✅ Common literacy “urban legends”, including “Dyslexia is seeing words backwards” and “look at the picture and guess the word”...

If you’re an SLP who’s wondering how you can effectively address complex skills relating to both language and executive functioning in the school systems… 

The primary challenge is that BOTH language and executive functioning are incredibly complicated. Even just focusing on one or the other can be overwhelming. 

Layer on the challenges with the way related service providers are expected to provide interventions in the schools, and it seems impossible. 

Unfortunately, that challenge has resulted in debates on whether executive functioning is more important than language and vice versa, which isn’t useful. <...

In this conversation, I sat down with Kim Jenkins from Empowering Speech Services (https://www.empoweringspeechservices.com/meet-kim)  to talk about how she’s used the frameworks from Language Therapy Advance Foundations (https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/)  along with the gestalt language processing stages, for reluctant readers, and AAC users. 

We also talk about how important it is for clinicians to think flexibly with how they apply frameworks in therapy so they can pull from multiple sources to come up with their own personal protocols that work for their caseload. 

We also chat about other topics such a...

Clinicians who are confidently delivering language and literacy interventions haven't found the perfect "therapy curriculum". 

They've learned how to build their own using three practices.

In this episode, I share what those practices are, plus additional information on a free training I released that explains these concepts further. 

I cover:

✅ The concept of "clinical containers", and how you can use them to design your language therapy system, informed by my doctoral research and experience working in the schools for 10+ years.

✅ How to fill those linguistic containers over time using "asset...

Recess is often thought of as an “extra” activity in the school day. Sometimes it’s even taken away from students as a punishment. 

But some schools think about recess as an integral part of the school day, where students get the opportunity to connect, practice important social and problem-solving skills they’ll need for life.

Others are taking it a step further and using it as a tool to help students feel more connected to their school experience, and to decrease chronic absenteeism and establish a school culture where kids feel like they belong at school...

Most schools say they “collaborate.” They hold team meetings. They talk about students. They review data.

But without clear infrastructure, those meetings become updates instead of decision-making engines, and multi-tiered systems of support become an extra burden for educators. 

In this episode, I interview Kurtis Hewson from Jigsaw Learning to break down their Collaborative Response Team meeting format and explain why effective collaboration requires structure and not just good intentions. From who is in the room to how documents are used before, during, and after the meeting, they share the operational backbone that makes collaboration actua...

When schools talk about improving engagement, student wellness, or school climate, it often turns into assemblies, themed weeks, or standalone initiatives. 

When schools talk about community engagement, student wellness, or school climate, they often turn into assemblies, themed weeks, or standalone initiatives. 

In this episode, I invited Lauren Porosoff from The Teacher Nerd to unpack why a focus on engagement and wellness must be woven into the daily fabric of the school experience to have lasting impact.

Lauren is an educational consultant who helps schools design learning environments where community values like equity, em...

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 five “containers” I use in my Language Therapy Advance Foundations program that can support skills like reading, writing, spelling, and language processing in ways that can be reinforced outside sessions. 

If you have a ton of knowledge relating to language...

Many experienced SLPs think they just need to plan better.

Tweak the activity. 

Adjust the visuals.

Try a new printable or protocol.

But what if none of that is the real problem?

What if your sessions are already so skillful that no one else can reinforce what you're doing?

🧠 What if the very clinical decision-making that gets you results is the thing preventing generalization?

In episode 254 of De Facto leaders, I share the top three pieces of unconventional advice I give SLPs when they’re design...

“Education isn’t a business” is a thing people say when they’re upset about how the school systems are being run.

But education actually IS a business. Saying otherwise isn't going to change reality.

If you’re frustrated about how the school systems work, you can continue to wish this wasn’t the case…

Or you can accept how things actually are and learn what to do about it. 

In this podcast episode, I share how that looks for school clinicians supporting language and cognition. 

In the episode, I share:

W...

While virtual learning has become more prevalent since 2020, the founders of Banyan Global Learning have been offering digital learning experiences for over 20 years.

Some people are excited about the possibilities technology offers. Others are backpedaling or worrying that tech does more harm than good. 

Like most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. 

The outcomes depend on how experiences (both virtual and in-person) are designed and how learners are asked to engage. 

Passive consumption rarely leads to meaningful learning, but well-structured virtual experiences can support problem solving, perspective-taking, and authentic con...

Have you met “Jessica” the virtual speech helper? I certainly remember hearing about it the first time.

This concept raised a lot of questions in the clinical community. Are we trying to replace clinicians, and was that the intention behind this application?

If you’ve had these questions too, you won’t want to miss this conversation. 

This episode is the second half of my interview with Maura Connor from BetterSpeech, the company that created an AI “virtual speech helper” to enhance and extend work being done in therapy sessions. 

In this conversat...

When I first started working in the schools in the early 2000s, there was a push for integrating technology into classrooms and therapy sessions

It was even a box that got checked on my employee evaluation.

Now there’s a defined space referred to as “EdTech”. 

It took me a while to realize that this was a thing, and I didn’t even realize I was a part of it until someone referred to me as the “EdTech person” during a job interview (they were “FinTech” people, short for “Financial Technology”).

In the work I do now...

When everything depends on your real-time decisions, you can’t replicate the progress, scale the outcomes, or lead others through your process. 

Even when it’s working.

In this episode, I share what that looked like in my own career.

As a speech-language pathologist in the schools, I had the training and instincts to support students with complex language and learning needs. But when referrals surged and our team looked to me for leadership, I realized I didn’t have a framework. My sessions were effective, but my tools weren’t replicable. 

There wa...

In this episode, I’m sharing my top resources for clinicians to explain why we do what we do in language therapy, and how parents and colleagues can support skills outside of sessions.

I share:

How to answer the dreaded “Is there an app for that?” question. 

Why language therapy doesn’t come in a standard curriculum (plus resources you can share to explain the essentials behind vocabulary intervention).

How parents can reinforce language at home (and when and if tech actually helps)

Plus I share an opportunity for therapist...

When you’re teaching storytelling with students, do your lessons feel kind of…random?

I used to feel like this a lot when I was a school SLP, so if you’ve ever had a “throw spaghetti at the wall” therapy session that felt all over the place, I get it.

The truth is, repetition and drill is not the enemy. If you ONLY focus on unstructured activities, you’re probably seeing students getting overwhelmed, not remembering to apply important language skills (like syntax, vocabulary words, etc). 

But if you ONLY stick with structured ac...

Why are we so obsessed with “storytelling”?

In education, we talk about it when we’re working on language and reading comprehension. 

It’s also referred to in sales and copy writing as a tool for generating more leads and customers. And of course, people writing books or films think about it all the time. 

We all know storytelling is an important life skill. But do we remember HOW MUCH it can impact our ability to communicate and function? 

And do we know how to support students who don’t have this skill?<...

If your therapy techniques only work when you’re in the room, that’s a problem.

Many therapists unintentionally “gatekeep” their expertise and miss opportunities to boost carryover.
It’s the unexpected downside of being really good at direct clinical work. 

Don’t get me wrong. Clinical judgment does matter. And some things can only be addressed by a trained clinician in a therapy room.

But when every decision depends on your personal expertise and physical presence, you’ve made yourself the bottleneck.

In this episode, I’ll share how to make the shift...

Where did arbitrary cut scores for norm-referenced language assessments come from, and why do they feel “safer” than relying on clinical judgement?

I discuss this question and more in this third part of a three-part series, bilingual SLPs Destiny Johnson and Tiffany Shahoumian-Ruiz join me to continue our conversation about advocating for effective language evaluation practices in schools.

Across these conversations, we explore:

When we choose evaluation tools for language, are we clear on WHY we’re assessing? 

Most people think of diagnosis, but that’s not the only reason we assess students. 

I discuss this question and more in this second part of a three-part series, bilingual SLPs Destiny Johnson and Tiffany Shahoumian-Ruiz join me to continue our conversation about language evaluation practices in schools.

Across these conversations, we explore:

Language assessments shape who gets services, how goals are written, and how progress is measured, but there are many misconceptions about how to follow best-practices when doing an evaluation. In this three-part series, bilingual SLPs Destiny Johnson and Tiffany Shahoumian-Ruiz join me to dig into the science, the myths, and the policies that shape evaluation practices in schools.

Across these conversations, we explore:

Every few years, conversations about education in the U.S. circle back to the same refrain: Why can’t we be more like Finland?

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Chrishawn Finister from Your Joy Psychological, PLLC to unpack this comparison.

We dig into the nuanced relationship between educational eligibility and clinical diagnosis, which often overlap but aren’t interchangeable. From there, we widen the lens to explore the broader systems-level challenges that shape how students are identified, supported, and served.

Some key themes we discuss:

✅ Orthographic density and litera...

Most of us know that it’s important to work on vocabulary in language and literacy intervention.

But how do we know what words to pick? Should we be working on specific words, or should we be focusing on strategies?

If we DO work on words, how can we possibly keep up with the pace of the curriculum (and should we even try)?

I get these questions ALL the time from SLPs and other professionals supporting language and literacy, which is why this is something I help you navigate in both my Vocabulary Fo...

Every time I look into research on the summer slide, I get more confused. It’s no wonder professionals and families are scrambling every May as they think about how kids should be spending their time in the summer. 

I’ve intended to do a deep dive into the research and gain a better understanding of how significant the “slide” is, for who, and what, exactly, is sliding. At the time I’m writing this, I still don’t feel I’ve done that. 

What I can do is speak to what I DO understand, which is why I w...

The idea that exposing kids to enriching literacy and play-based experiences will effectively teach them to read and write sounds nice on paper.

Unfortunately, it’s not in-line with the large and growing body of evidence that suggests that kids need direct, explicit instruction to learn to read, write, and spell. 

Sure, a select group of fortunate students will learn to read and write implicitly through exposure alone. But curricular decisions shouldn’t be based on what benefits a small percentage of their student population. 

That’s why in this episode, I share a clip a...

When schools respond to “behavior problems” in students, the focus is often on the symptom, not the cause. 

Failing to look beyond the surface behavior does a disservice to students, which is why in this episode I share commentary and a clip from my conversation with Dr. Shameka Stewart on the school-to-confinement pipeline. 

Dr. Shameka Stewart is an Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders and the Juvenile Forensic Speech-Language Pathologist(r). Dr. Stewart is also a special education advocate trained by the Wright’s Law training center. Dr. Stewart’s clinical and scholarly work specialize...

“We don’t need to work on decoding because students have access to assistive technology and accommodations.”

“We don’t work on word-decoding in high school.”

“Working on reading in high school is too little too late.”

If you’ve ever heard any of these arguments, you’re not alone. Unfortunately, beliefs like these do students a huge disservice. 

That’s why in this conversation, I share a clip from my interview with Tom Parton, an SLP with a long-career of experience in secondary education, as...

In this episode, I reflect on my conversation with my colleague Cassandra Williams as we discuss book and resource deserts, as well as how to engage with school communities. 

In the interview clip I share, Cassandra shares a story of how one of her colleagues found a surprising way to increase attendance at parent-teacher conferences when he took the time to ask members of the community what their needs were. 

Additionally, I share my commentary on how technology can both help and hinder literacy skills. 

Cassandra Williams is a true innovator in the edu...

Ever feel overwhelmed being the only SLP in your district without a network of fellow clinicians for support? You're not alone; many in similar situations face these challenges.

In this episode, I’m sharing a case study of an SLP who, despite being the sole clinician in her district, felt the pressure of not having a trusted system she could rely on for language therapy. Searching for a structured, effective approach, she turned to the Language Therapy Advance Foundations program. There, she developed a reliable system she could bring to her team, transforming her therapy sessions and in...

Ever feel like you should have language therapy figured out by now, but you're still struggling? Even experienced clinicians can feel that way.

In this episode, I’m sharing a case study of a seasoned SLP who, despite years of experience, felt like she was missing a key piece of the puzzle when it came to language therapy. Battling decision fatigue and a lack of a reliable system, she joined my Language Therapy Advance Foundations program and created a reliable system that made her feel confident showing up to sessions.

In this episode, we’ll d...

What if choosing between language and executive functioning for your students wasn't an "either/or" decision? And how can we effectively balance academic content with broader cognitive skills? It's a complex challenge, and the answer isn't always obvious.

In this episode, I share commentary and a clip of my conversation with Jill Fahy, where we discuss the impact of executive functioning skills on the college experience. 

Jill is a licensed speech-language pathologist and professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Eastern Illinois University. She is also the co-director of the Autism Center a...