The Preschool SLP: Recent Episodes

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Does your caseload include kids who only want the piggy bank, the ball chute, or the same three dinosaur figures?

This episode is a behind-the-scenes look at how I move children out of the cause-effect and sensory-toy stage and into richer, more complex play, without losing the relationship or the child’s motivation along the way.

I’m sharing a three-step bridging process I use to expand play repertoires, build executive function, and grow narrative and language skills, all while still honoring what the child already loves. What we cover:

• Why variety matters: the research behind why a broader repertoire of toys and play experiences leads to better long-term outcomes

• Step 1: Build rapport first: using a parent input form to learn a child’s favorite toys, shows, and characters, and why front-loading relationship pays off

• Step 2: Bridge, don’t replace: three concrete ways to bridge high-interest and sensory activities into task-oriented movement activities: ◦ Blending sensory play (like a beans/mud bin) into a structured task ◦ Adding movement breaks to build attention and increase vocalizations ◦ Swapping the theme while keeping the structure the same

• Step 3: Why task-oriented movement activities work: how they naturally build the problem → plan → action → check sequence of executive function, and lay the foundation for strong narrative skills (vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and verbal working memory)

• A real example using 'The Little Blue Truck' activity from my SIS membership, including how I use songs, stickers, and movement to keep kids engaged

• How to fade supports over time as kids get comfortable with the new routine

Links Mentioned in This Episode 📋

Take the AAC Survey

Complete my comprehensive AAC survey: written entirely from in-depth interviews with speech-language pathologists and teachers in the field. It takes 15–20 minutes, and upon completion you’ll immediately receive a full AAC Implementation Toolkit (in English, Spanish, and Arabic) including a 64-goal AAC goal bank, an AAC storybook training, and an AAC FAQ guide. Take the AAC Survey: https://ufl.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1FHfcoyCK3z5vJs

📝 Parent Input Form This form referenced in this episode for learning a new client’s favorite toys, shows, and activities before your first session. Parent Input Form:: https://www.kellyvess.com/parentinputform

🌟 SIS Membership Get access to weekly task-oriented movement activities like the Little Blue Truck example featured in this episode. SIS Membership: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

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If you work with children who use high-tech AAC, this episode is a can't-miss.

Learn a simple, research-backed framework for turning any storybook into a rich language-learning opportunity for kids using speech-generating devices.

Before diving into strategy, we tackle the mindset shift so many clinicians need around high-tech AAC: you don't need a training course or a cheat sheet to get started.

Think of the device like a hotel remote control. The fastest way to learn where everything is: just start pushing buttons.

From there, we break down the MODEL method, a five-step framework for using AAC during storybook reading:

M – Model: Provide a completion prompt to get the child to the right "channel" on their device.

O – Opportunity: Step back and give the child space to independently find the symbol.

D – Demonstrate: If needed, offer a prompt (like pointing) to help the child locate the target.

E – Expand: Add a "plus one," a new word or concept that builds on what the child found.

L – Like: Model a comment or opinion, inviting social language beyond simple requesting.

We also cover...

• How to use backward chaining so children build independence over time

• Why fluency with a child's AAC device matters just as much as fluency in any shared language

• How to layer in multimodal supports, including sentence strips, printed words, and 3D objects, to reinforce vocabulary

• A real walkthrough using the book Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Take Action:

A free AAC Implementation Toolkit is waiting for you!

If you're a parent or professional who has worked with a child using a high-tech AAC device or tablet-based AAC app in the past year, your experience matters.

The survey takes 15–20 minutes, and your answers will directly shape resources used by SLPs, educators, and families. 👉

Complete the survey today: https://ufl.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1FHfcoyCK3z5vJs

What You'll Receive Immediately After Completing the Survey:

1. AAC Goal Bank: 64 ready-to-use goals for high-tech AAC

2. AAC Training Video: A 20-minute training on the MODEL storybook approach, ready to share with parents and colleagues

3. AAC FAQ Handout: Answers to parents' most common questions about high-tech AAC

All three resources are available in English, Spanish, and Arabic. Don't wait. Click the link above and complete the survey today to get your toolkit sent straight to your inbox. Enjoying the show? Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a colleague who works with AAC users.

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We learned in grad school that working on joint attention and language will lead to speech development. But for the estimated 30% of autistic children who never develop functional, fluent speech, that's not the whole story.

Dr. Karen Chenausky, PhD, CCC-SLP, is a speech scientist, SLP, and director of the SPAN Lab at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She takes us beneath the iceberg to explore the hidden contributors to speech development in autism, including the motor-speech disorder component our field rarely talks about.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Challenges that can limit spoken language in autism include joint attention, receptive language, speech perception, sensory differences, fine/gross motor cascades, and motor speech challenges
• Minimally speaking vs. minimally verbal vs. pre-verbal: what each term really means, and why we wait until about age 5 to classify a child as 'minimally verbal'
• How Dr. Chenausky identifies suspected Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) in minimally speaking children using Iuzzini-Siegel's (2015) criteria, plus the catch-22 when a child doesn't produce enough speech to diagnose speech motor disorders
• What to evaluate in a minimally speaking preschooler: the motor component of speech, language comprehension and expression, nonverbal IQ, and gross/fine motor skills
• An invaluable assessment tool you may not know SLPs can use: the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales for capturing fine and gross motor performance
• Auditory-Motor Mapping Training (AMMT), the intonation-based treatment inspired by Melodic Intonation Therapy, and the promising findings on who benefits most (hint: phonemic repertoire and readiness-to-learn skills mattered)
• JASPER (Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, and Regulation), Connie Kasari's play-based intervention that builds the prerequisite skills for language
• A Monday-morning session framework: three-tiered tasks (mastered, on-the-cusp, challenge) that keep the child at a 70-80% success point in their zone of proximal development
• Writing pivotal speech goals that expand the phonemic repertoire while diversifying language expression
• When to prioritize robust AAC, because every child deserves access to all the ways of communicating
• Dr. Chenausky's call to the field to develop more reliable methods to assess nonverbal IQ and receptive language in children with motor praxis and visual processing/visual motor challenges

Articles mentioned in this episode

Chenausky, K., Norton, A., Tager-Flusberg, H., & Schlaug, G. (2018). Behavioral predictors of improved speech output in minimally verbal children with autism. Autism Research, 11(10), 1356-1365. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30230700/

Chenausky, K., Brignell, A., Morgan, A., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2019). Motor speech impairment predicts expressive language in minimally verbal, but not low verbal, individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, 4. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35155816/

*To connect with Dr. Chenausky, Google search "Karen Chenausky SPAN Lab"

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Would your therapy sessions pass a research review? 🔬

In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on my experience as a proposal reviewer for the Council for Exceptional Children, and I'm handing you the exact 5 criteria reviewers use, reframed as a self-evaluation for YOUR therapy sessions. Rate yourself 1 to 5 in each area and find out exactly where to grow this summer.

In this episode, you'll learn:

🎯 Relevance. Is the skill you're targeting truly essential? I'll share why storytelling may be the single most pivotal skill for children with developmental language disorder, and why a year spent on one grammatical morpheme probably isn't changing anyone's life.

📐 Alignment. Do your objectives actually build toward the big skill, or are they busywork dressed up as goals?

⚡ Functionality TODAY. I'll tell you why I target "non-functional" words like scrape on purpose, how one complex SKR blend can unlock F, V, S, Z, SH, CH and more for free, and why the higher you aim, the higher the gains.

📊 Evidence. You need numbers for every single detail of your practice. I'll show you how to vet those $400 boxed programs before they waste your 30 minutes a week, and what to do when the research just hasn't been done yet.

👀 Active Participation. This is the one criterion that exposes wasted therapy time (looking at you, auditory bombardment). I'll describe what true engagement looks like, even with sensitive, reluctant, or freeze-response kiddos.

Grab your scorecard, be honest, and build your plan to turn every 3 into a 5.

⭐ Ready to stop guessing and start moving the needle?

Join my SIS Membership today and get needle-moving treatment targets and done-for-you speech therapy activities delivered to you weekly, so every minute of your limited therapy time counts.

👉 Join now: kellyvess.com/sis

If this episode helped you, follow the show and leave a 5-star review. It helps more SLPs find their way to life-changing therapy.

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Nearly every child on your caseload is at greater risk for executive function challenges. What do you do about it?

In this episode, I'm sharing the 5 powerhouse strategies I use every single day to build executive function directly into speech and language therapy. No extra sessions, no separate goals — just smarter treatment that changes lives.

You'll learn:

• The Problem, Plan, Action, Check process that teaches children to identify a problem, make a plan, take action, and finish the job
• How multi-step, task-oriented movement activities build working memory, sustained attention, and cognitive flexibility.
• Why first, next, then, lastly, and because are billion-dollar words for verbal working memory and emotional regulation
• How to move children from scaffolded scripts to spontaneous complex sentences
• How complex speech targets in paragraph form improve speech, language, and executive function all at once

Ready to put these strategies to work in your very next session?

Join the SIS Membership at www.kellyvess.com/sis and receive powerful speech and language treatment targets aimed at improving executive function — plus ready-to-use activities delivered straight to your inbox every Friday.

👉 Join today at www.kellyvess.com/sis

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If you think executive function challenges only affect your ADHD and autism clients, this episode will change how you see your entire caseload.

In this episode, we break down the latest 2025 research, revealing that executive function difficulties are far more widespread than previously recognized, including in populations SLPs have historically underestimated.

You'll learn:

• Adele Diamond's 3-part framework for understanding executive function (attention and inhibitory control, verbal working memory, and cognitive flexibility)
• Why do children with developmental language disorder almost universally show verbal working memory deficits across all ages and native languages
• The surprising finding that even children with mild articulation errors, like distorted R's and S's, show statistically significant executive function risk
• New 2025 data linking stuttering to verbal and visual working memory difficulties
• How Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles can help you build one powerful, inclusive activity that targets executive function across your whole caseload

The bottom line: We need to stop treating a mouth and start treating the whole child.

Next week: Part 2 covers what the research says actually works to improve executive function and how to bring it into your sessions starting Monday.

Keywords: executive function, speech language pathology, developmental language disorder, speech sound disorders, apraxia of speech, stuttering, verbal working memory, UDL, SLP caseload, 2025 research

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Ever wonder why some books become instant hits with your students while others fall flat? In this episode, we go behind the scenes on a real-life book hunt and walk away with a practical framework you can use every time you pick up a new children's book.

Using the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), we break down exactly what makes a book "sticky" for diverse learners, including kids who struggle with attention, visual processing, auditory processing, or language itself.

The UDL Book Selection Framework: The ABCs

Before adding any book to your therapy toolkit, run it through these three filters:

A — Connection: Does this book connect to the child's world? Think about interests, home routines, prior knowledge, and personal experiences. If a child can see themselves in the pages, engagement follows.

B — Multimodal Presentation: Can you bring this book to life? Look for opportunities to use vocal animation, movement, emotion, rhyme, sound effects, and gesture as you read. The best books practically beg to be performed.

C — Active Child Participation: Can the child do something with this book? Movement, facial expressions, sound-making, turn-taking, and storytelling from personal experience all count. The goal is for a child to be participating with the book, not just listening to it.

The 6 Books Featured in This Episode

1. How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? (board book version) — Realistic, emotionally expressive dinosaur illustrations paired with a bedtime routine kids know well. Rich with rhyme, emotion, and movement opportunities. Perfect for diverse learners with its short, one-sentence-per-page format.
2. That's Not Funny, David! by David Shannon — A step up from No, David!, this one is heavy on inferential thinking. Kids identify what David is doing wrong from indirect cues rather than direct ones — a powerful tool for building higher-level language skills. Everyday scenarios spark personal storytelling and connection.
3. Llama Llama Feelings — Pairs a familiar, beloved character with a known routine (the bedtime sequence) to introduce nuanced emotions like joy, worry, and excitement in rich context. Far superior to decontextualized feelings cards. Rhyme throughout keeps engagement high.
4. Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? (beginner book version) — A goldmine for non-speaking and emerging communicators. Onomatopoeia, animal sounds, environmental sounds, and the "cloze" technique (pause before the last word) let every child participate meaningfully. Connects print to sound in a playful, low-pressure way.
5. Night Night Farm — Interactive lift-the-flap format with repetitive, predictable language. Farm animals + glow-in-the-dark stars on the final page = irresistible engagement, especially for younger learners. A perfect wind-down book that ends with a singalong.
6. In My Heart — The standout of the bunch. Maps complex emotional concepts onto simple, concrete nouns (a star for happiness, an elephant for sadness). Moves emotional vocabulary well beyond basic happy/sad/mad into nuanced, embodied feeling language. Highly recommended for children working on emotional regulation and self-expression.

Key Takeaways for SLPs

• The book you choose is a clinical tool. Spend the time to vet it carefully before bringing it into session.
• Rhyme, repetition, and short text aren't just kid-friendly features — they're accessibility features that support diverse learners.
• The best books aren't just read — they're performed. Your animation, emotion, and movement are part of the intervention.
• Every child in the group should have a way to participate — through sound, gesture, expression, or personal story. UDL makes this possible.

Want Ready-to-Use Activities Built Around These Books?

All six of these books are being developed into literacy-based therapy activities inside the SIS Membership — designed for use in large group, small group, and individual therapy settings. Activities are built with UDL principles baked in, so every child on your caseload can engage and make meaningful gains.

If you're tired of starting from scratch every week, the SIS Membership gives you a library of research-informed, engagement-tested materials so you can walk into every session confident and prepared.

👉 Join the SIS Membership and get access to activities for these books and dozens more — plus new materials added regularly throughout the school year: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Resources Mentioned

• How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague
• That's Not Funny, David! by David Shannon
• Llama Llama Feelings by Anna Dewdney
• Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? by Dr. Seuss (beginner book edition)
• Night Night Farm (lift-the-flap board book)
• In My Heart by Jo Witek

Drop a comment or send a message letting us know: what's a book you swear by in your therapy room? We're always on the hunt for the next great find.

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This episode is a message on humanism, mission, and showing up fully for every child.

It's not a question of whether the child can do it. Of course they can. It's only a question of how.

This week's episode is deeply personal. After losing a close friend and being present with him in his final moments, a powerful message surfaced: when someone is suffering, don't look away. Go toward them.

For SLPs working with challenging children (kids who bite, scratch, have hours-long tantrums, or hurt themselves) this message is everything. The children on your caseload who are hardest to reach are the ones who need you most. And you have what it takes to show up for them.

In this episode, let's discuss...

• Why a humanistic lens — not just a clinical one — is the foundation of meaningful work with children
• Why a narrow approach with kids with autism will leave you stuck, and what a truly holistic approach looks like
• How to take what's working in one area of your practice and bridge it to the gaps without reinventing the wheel
• Why this work is a mission and why giving all of yourself mentally, emotionally, and physically is worth it

This episode is for you if....

• You work with children who are challenging to reach and sometimes wonder if you're making a difference
• You feel the physical, emotional, and mental weight of this work
• You want to be reminded that you are capable — and that there's always a "how"
• You're looking for the motivation to roll up your sleeves and keep going

READY TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE ONE CHILD AT A TIME?

You bring the mission. We bring the materials.

The SIS Membership gives preschool SLPs instant access to ready-to-use, effective, and engaging resources, so you can spend less time prepping and more time doing what you do best: showing up for your kids.

✔ Therapist-designed materials built for real preschool caseloads

✔ Strategies that support a holistic, whole-child approach

✔ Tools that work even with your most challenging kids

You don't have to do this alone. Join the SIS Membership today and change lives faster.

https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

See you there,💚Kelly

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End-of-Year Reflect & Recap: The 3 Questions Every SLP Needs to Ask Right Now

Whether you're a seasoned SLP or fresh out of grad school, the most powerful professional development you'll do this summer won't come from a CEU course. It's this.

In this episode, Kelly walks you through her end-of-year Google Doc ritual: three simple but mighty questions that help you close out the school year with intention and walk into fall with clarity and confidence.

In this episode, you'll learn:

🔥 What Was FIRE? Identify what worked in your therapy room this year, including the techniques, materials, and strategies that produced real, measurable gains. These are your non-negotiables. Where there's fire, you add gasoline.

🧀 Where Are the Holes? Channel your inner Swiss cheese and honestly audit your practice. From streamlining parent communication with copy-paste swipe emails to strengthening your high-tech AAC implementation at home and in the classroom, this is where your growth lives.

🩹 How Will You Fill Them? Use the triangle of evidence-based practice, combining your clinical expertise, the research, and family and child feedback, to build a specific, actionable plan for the 2026–2027 school year. The more specific, the better.

Why do this NOW? It's all fresh. The wins, the frustrations, the "why didn't I think of that sooner" moments are all right there. Write it down today, and you're 42% more likely to actually follow through.

🎒 Ready to walk into next school year with engaging, evidence-based materials already in hand?

Don't spend September scrambling. Spend your summer building and let the SIS Membership do the heavy lifting with you.

SIS gives SLP students and professionals access to a growing library of evidence-based therapy materials, strategies, and resources designed to move the needle for the children and families you serve.

👉 Join SIS today at https://www.kellyvess.com/sis and head back to school this fall feeling more prepared, more confident, and ready to make this your best year yet.

This episode is perfect for: school-based SLPs, SLP-Assistants, SLP graduate students, pediatric SLPs, AAC specialists, and anyone who believes the details are what move the needle.

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Are your consonant cluster clients stuck — and so are you?

If you're spending more time hunting for the right targets than actually running therapy, this episode is your reset button.

In today's episode, we're diving deep into selecting consonant clusters.

We're breaking down how to select targets strategically, sequence them with intention, and finally see the carryover you've been waiting for.

Whether you're a seasoned SLP or new to building your clinical confidence, you'll walk away with a clearer framework and a fresh perspective on why some clients plateau and exactly how to get them moving again.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why random target selection is quietly sabotaging your data
• The developmental and phonological principles that should be driving your cluster choices
• How to align targets with your client's unique error patterns for faster progress
• What the research actually says about cluster intervention sequences

Ready to stop searching and start treating?

Join the SIS Membership and get done-for-you consonant cluster targets you can put to use today. No more building from scratch, no more second-guessing, just clinically sound, ready-to-use materials designed specifically for SLPs and SLPAs.

Join now at kellyvess.com/sis

Don't delay and reorganize the brain today.

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You're welcome. Because today, we're digging into something I bet you're seeing on your back porch right now, and nobody is talking about it. Asthma and speech sound disorders. If you have a child on your caseload with significant asthma, this episode is the one you need tomorrow.

Roll up your sleeves with me. We're going to get our hands really, really dirty, and we're going to talk about where the research stops and where the practitioner begins. Because this is where you have to have skin in the game. This is where it matters that you know your little professors closely, that you study what's happening under your own magnifying glass.

Here's what we cover:

What the research tells us. A Northwestern-led study of 337,285 children found that asthma, hay fever, and food allergy are significantly associated with speech disorders, and the more severe the disease, the greater the risk (Strom & Silverberg, 2016, Pediatric Allergy and Immunology). A 2006 population-based study of 7,389 eight-year-old children identified asthma as one of the factors associated with voice disorders (Carding et al., 2006, Journal of Voice). So we know there is a connection. And that is where the research stops.

What I'm seeing on my back porch. This is where things get gnarly. The children with significant asthma are breaking the rules of speech development. They're stopping fricatives, they're fronting velars, they're voicing voiceless sounds, and they're deleting the /h/. Looks like phonological processes, right? Except phonological processes happen across positions of words. What I'm seeing with these kiddos is 0% accuracy in the initial position of words and 100% accuracy in the medial and final positions. That is not linguistic. Do you dare disturb the universe? Yes, you do. That's physiology.

Why this is happening. My hypothesis, and this is practitioner experience, not research on large populations, is that these children have insufficient subglottal air pressure. Continuant sounds need continuous airflow from the respiratory system. After the vowel gets going, the vocal folds are doing the work and producing those sounds becomes easy. But in the initial position of words, when you're starting cold, you don't have that help. So fricatives stop, velars front, voiceless sounds get voiced, and the /h/ gets deleted.

What the child is telling you. Mouth breathing at rest. Chin jutting. Head forward to get more air in. Tense neck and visible effort while speaking, like they're yelling at conversational volume. Fluctuating accuracy that tracks with allergy season and asthma flare-ups. The clear boogers come out and suddenly the phonological processes you thought were suppressed come right back. That is not a child regressing. That is a child without the respiratory support to do the work in initial position.

What to do differently (DSD). You've been doing best practice. You're doing the complexity approach, you're doing DTTC, you're doing multimodal cueing, you're holding the 80% challenge point. And you're still at 0% in initial position. So we're going to do something different. We're going to capitalize on what the child can do. They can produce these sounds after a vowel, so we anchor with a vowel. We say "a sun, a sun." Or we use the end of one word to start the next, "yes sun, yes sun." And then over time, we stretch the pause longer and longer until that target is sitting in the initial position of the word on its own. That is how we DSD.

This is one to take notes on. And if you have one of these kiddos on your back porch right now, shoot me an email. This is exactly the kind of clinical pattern I want to research next.

🌟 Join the SIS Membership Today

If you learn from doing, and you want highly effective, engaging therapy materials ready to go without the prep, the Sparkle in School Membership was built for you. Educationally rich activities, 100% planned, prepped, and delivered to your inbox every Friday. So your energy goes into cueing the child in front of you, not building materials at midnight.

👉 Join today at kellyvess.com/sis

📘 For the deeper dive, grab Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment on Amazon, with 100+ video clips of best practices illustrated.

📧 Got a kiddo with asthma who's daring to disturb the universe on your back porch? Email me at Kelly@KellyVess.com. I want to hear about it.

Be better. Do better. Create better. Make the world a better place, one child at a time. You will always be first.

📚 Research Cited

Strom, M. A., & Silverberg, J. I. (2016). Asthma, hay fever, and food allergy are associated with caregiver-reported speech disorders in US children. Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, 27(6), 604–611. doi:10.1111/pai.12580. Pooled analysis of 337,285 U.S. children from 19 population-based cohorts (NHIS 1997–2013 and NSCH 2003/4 and 2007/8).

Carding, P. N., Roulstone, S., Northstone, K., & ALSPAC Study Team. (2006). The prevalence of childhood dysphonia: A cross-sectional study. Journal of Voice, 20(4), 623–630. Cohort of 7,389 eight-year-old British children, with asthma identified among the factors associated with increased risk of voice disorders.

Tags: speech sound disorders SSD pediatric speech therapy preschool SLP asthma and speech respiratory support subglottal pressure phonological processes stopping fronting voicing errors glottal fricative initial position of words articulation therapy evidence-based practice DTTC complexity approach multimodal cueing physiological speech disorders differential diagnosis do something different DSD Kelly Vess KellyVessSLP The Preschool SLP SIS Membership Sparkle in School SLP podcast speech-language pathology early intervention school SLP

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You opened your caseload. Another Spanish-speaking kiddo. You don't speak Spanish. There's no translator. No bilingual SLP down the hall. Now what?

You don't freeze. You don't refer out. You don't waste a single therapy minute. You use the 5-step Good Enough Practice plan, built on the complexity approach research, to drive real, generalizable gains in both languages, even when you're only treating in one.

In this follow-up to Episode 215 (assessment), we roll up our sleeves and walk through exactly what to do Monday morning.

🔥 What You'll Walk Away With

✅ Why "good enough practice" beats "no practice," and how to defend your why on every clinical decision

✅ The exact target selection sequence that gets you the most generalization per minute of therapy

✅ Why FR will get you FL "for free," and why SKR might out-perform both

✅ How to coach caregivers in 5 minutes a day (and why frequency beats duration at the preschool level)

✅ The single word probe strategy that tells you whether gains are generalizing, not just memorized

✅ The one thing more important than language matching: multimodal, dynamic cueing at the 80% challenge point

🎯 The 5-Step "Good Enough" Framework

Step 1. Find an error that occurs in BOTH languages. Use IPA to compare error sounds across the child's L1 and English. Pick a sound that's broken in both phonological systems so any gain transfers across languages. The research on shared targets supports this. When shared sounds are treated, cross-linguistic generalization happens, even when treatment is delivered in only one language (Barlow et al., 2024; Gildersleeve-Neumann & Goldstein, 2015).

Step 2. Pick a COMPLEX target, not a singleton. Skip /f/ alone. Skip /r/ alone. Go for the cluster. Complex targets create system-wide change because clusters imply singletons, meaning treating the harder thing makes the easier things come along for the ride (Gierut, 2007; Storkel, 2018). Higher aim, higher gains. Cirque du Soleil in the mouth.

Step 3. Treat in the language YOU are fluent in (English). You cannot deliver therapy with fidelity in a language you don't speak. A ChatGPT word list doesn't fix your inability to model a Spanish trill. Stick with English, and select complex targets that share sounds with the child's L1 so the gains cross over. Pilot data on Spanish/English bilinguals show medium effect sizes for system-wide generalization in both the treated and untreated language when complex cluster targets are used (Combiths et al., 2023).

Step 4. Train caregivers with daily home practice in the child's L1. Build a short core vocabulary list, sentence, or paragraph that contains the target and hand it to the family in their language. Embed it into an existing routine like toothbrushing, bedtime, or snack. Frequency over duration: 5 minutes every day beats 2 hours once a week at the preschool level.

Step 5. Probe progress in BOTH languages every quarter. Skip the practice-effect probes for the same 5 words. Re-administer a single-word, phonetically balanced picture test in each language every 2 months and track the number of errors, not the standard scores. That's how you know gains are generalizing rather than rehearsed.

👉 Ready to Stop Hunting for Materials and Start Driving Real Gains?

Here's the secret the 5-step plan can't give you on its own: the materials.

Inside the SIS Membership, you get the done-for-you complex cluster paragraphs, phonetically loaded sentences. These are the exact materials I hand to caregivers to embed into toothbrushing, bedtime, and snack routines. No more scrambling. No more wondering if your target is complex enough.

Join SIS and work smarter, not harder: https://kellyvess.com/sis

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Have ZERO dollars in your therapy closet for bilingual Spanish assessments? You are not alone — and you are not stuck. In this episode, I walk you through the 8-step gold-standard process for assessing bilingual Spanish-English preschoolers for speech sound disorders, every single step backed by free, vetted, research-supported tools.

This is the same framework recommended by Sharynne McLeod, Sarah Verdon, and the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech (McLeod, Verdon, & IEPMCS, 2017, AJSLP) — taught to you in plain English with direct links you can click today.

You'll learn how to:

• Capture a true language profile
• Sample BOTH languages without overdiagnosing dialect features
• Use narrow IPA transcription so you don't mislabel allophones as errors
• Distinguish a transfer error from a true speech sound disorder

Free Resources Mentioned

Step 1 — Language Profile Alberta Language Environment Questionnaire (ALEQ/ALDeQ) + Intelligibility in Context Scale: https://www.ualberta.ca/en/linguistics/cheslcentre/questionnaires.html

Intelligibility in Context Scale: https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/speech-assessments/ics

Step 2 — Sampling Both Languages UBC Cross-Linguistic Phonological Development Project (single-word probes in many languages): https://phonodevelopment.sites.olt.ubc.ca/

Frog, Where Are You: https://www.iifilologicas.unam.mx/uploads/IL-2-Lecturas/050-Frog_Story_all_as_pdf_image_300.pdf

Step 3 — Narrow IPA Transcription ASHA Spanish Phonemic Inventory: https://www.asha.org/siteassets/uploadedfiles/spanish-phonemic-inventory.pdf

Step 4 — Parent Baseline Recording Speech Accent Archive (cross-dialect reference recordings): https://accent.gmu.edu/

Step 5 — Independent Then Relational Analysis Phon software (open-source phonological analysis): https://www.phon.ca/

Step 6 — Rule Out Transfer & Dialect Bilinguistics Spanish-English Articulation Norms Chart: https://bilinguistics.com/articulation-norms-for-spanish-and-english/

Step 7 — Diagnose Only If Errors Appear in BOTH Languages Goldstein & Fabiano (2007) ASHA Leader: https://leader.pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/leader.FTR2.12022007.6

Step 8 — Treat with Complex Targets UBC Fun-ology Activities: https://phonodevelopment.sites.olt.ubc.ca/activities-2/activities/

Reference: McLeod, S., Verdon, S., & International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech (2017). Tutorial: Speech assessment for multilingual children who do not speak the same language(s) as the speech-language pathologist. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 26(3), 691–708.

Ready to Optimize Change with Complex Targets?

Join the SIS (Speech It Smarter) Membership to learn how to select, sequence, and track complex treatment targets — including three-element /s/ clusters, /fr/ and /fl/ clusters.

Join the SIS Membership: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

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If you’re feeling like your therapy sessions are “working” but chugging along at a slow pace, this episode is going to hit a nerve in the best way.

Because here’s the truth that most of us weren’t trained to see clearly:

When a child has anxiety or ADHD, you are not just treating speech and language. You are working against a nervous system that is dysregulated, overloaded, and constantly scanning for what feels safe, predictable, and doable.

And if your therapy doesn’t account for that, it won’t stick. Not because the child can’t learn, but because the system isn’t ready to hold onto what you’re teaching.

In this episode, we break down what is actually happening underneath the surface with anxiety and ADHD, and why traditional, sit-and-work therapy models often fall apart with these learners. We walk through what to look for, what to shift immediately, and how to build sessions that regulate first so language, speech, and AAC can actually follow.

We’re talking about real, Monday-morning changes that increase engagement, reduce shutdown behaviors, and create the kind of momentum that leads to true generalization.

If you’ve ever thought, “They can do it with me, but nowhere else,” this episode is for you.

Because that gap is not a mystery. It’s a systems problem, and you can fix it.

And when you do, everything changes.

If you are ready for therapy that actually works for children with anxiety and ADHD, where movement, regulation, literacy, and communication are all working together instead of competing, then it’s time to step into a model that was built for exactly that.

Inside the SIS Membership, you get ready-to-use, literacy-based, movement-rich therapy activities designed to support regulation, attention, and engagement first, so that speech, language, and AAC gains can finally stick and generalize across settings.

No more piecing things together. No more guessing what will work. Just open, implement, and watch the shift.

Join the SIS Membership here:
https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Roll up your sleeves and meet me at the intervention drawing board.💚KellyVessSLP

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Let’s say the quiet part out loud.

If a preschooler is lisping, and we choose to wait, we are not being cautious. We are building the wrong motor plan.

In this episode, I am pushing back on the idea that a frontal lisp is something to “monitor” until school age. Because while we are waiting, that child is producing "TH" for "S" hundreds of times a day, every day, wiring in a pattern that becomes significantly harder to change later.

This is not harmless. This is not neutral. And it is not something most children simply outgrow.

We are talking about what the research and clinical reality both tell us. The S sound is one of the most frequent sounds in the English language, which means errors with it are practiced at a massive scale. Add in what we already know about persistence into adulthood and the window of neuroplasticity in early childhood, and the argument for early intervention becomes very hard to ignore.

Then we get into the part that actually matters.

What do you do differently with a three- or four-year-old?

Because if your approach is telling a preschooler where to put their tongue, you are already losing. They do not have the motor control, the language, or the awareness to make that meaningful. So instead of fighting that, we work around it.

I am walking you through how to go in through the back door using incompatible strategies that make a frontal lisp almost impossible to produce. We are talking about why I do not waste time on isolated S, and how using clusters like SCR, SQU, STR, and SPL leverages assimilation to pull the tongue exactly where it needs to go without over-explaining or over-cueing.

This is where therapy shifts from chasing errors to building a system.

We also address the reality that some cases will take more work, especially when you are dealing with open bite or long-term habits like pacifier use, and what that means for your expectations as a clinician.

If you are ready to stop waiting, stop hoping, and start shaping accurate motor plans early, this episode will change how you approach frontal lisps on Monday morning.

And if you want this exact clinical thinking turned into therapy you can actually use without spending your nights planning, that is what we do inside the SIS Membership.

Inside SIS, you get ready-to-use, literacy-based, movement-driven activities that are built on these principles so you are not guessing what to do next. You are walking in with a plan that targets speech, language, AAC, and literacy all at once and is designed for carryover.

👉 Join the SIS Membership here: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Because waiting does not make it easier. It makes it harder.

Wishing you a week of bold clinical decisions and real progress,💚Kelly

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If you work with children who have autism, minimal joint attention, and limited expressive language, this episode challenges what you’ve been taught and replaces it with something far more useful.

This is not a “wait and see” conversation. This is a rethink-everything conversation.

Drawing from a powerful systematic review and the lens of dynamic systems theory, this episode breaks down why language development in autism does not follow a predictable path and why that actually changes how we should intervene starting today.

You will walk away with a clearer understanding of how language can emerge in unexpected ways, why inconsistency is often a sign of growth, and how to respond in the moment so you do not accidentally shut down emerging communication.

This is about seeing the child differently and adjusting your intervention accordingly.

What You’ll Learn...

Why joint attention is not a prerequisite for language
The reality that some children develop language without following typical developmental sequences?

How children may learn language visually, through patterns, reading, or AAC rather than through listening?

Why “inconsistency” in communication is often a sign that a new skill is emerging
How dynamic systems theory explains variability in language development?

Because the child in front of you is not broken. They are showing you their pathway. You just have to be willing to take it?

3 Clinical Takeaways You Can Use Immediately

1. There is no single pathway to language
   Children may not follow a linear progression from babbling to words to sentences. Some may start with scripts, reading, or full phrases. Your job is to identify the pathway and build from it.
2. Variability is not a problem
   When a child says a word once and then “loses it,” that is not regression. That is emergence. Do not punish inconsistency. Support it.
3. Be dynamic in your response
   You cannot use a fixed script with a variable system. Adjust moment by moment. Increase support, then fade it. Follow attention, motivation, and engagement in real time.

Referenced in This Episode

Kissine, M., Saint-Denis, A., & Mottron, L. (2023).
Language acquisition can be truly atypical in autism: Beyond joint attention. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 153, 105384.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105384

Spencer, J. P., Perone, S., & Buss, A. T. (2011).
Twenty years and going strong: A dynamic systems revolution in motor and cognitive development. Child Development Perspectives, 5(4), 260–266.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00194.x

Your Next Step

If this episode is hitting something for you, if you’re realizing that your therapy needs to shift from linear to dynamic, then you need tools that actually match that approach.

Because insight without application does not change outcomes.

Inside the SIS Membership, you get weekly, ready-to-use, literacy-based movement activities that are built for exactly this kind of work.

You are not guessing what to do next
You are not piecing together random strategies
You are walking into your sessions with a clear, research-informed plan that supports real language growth

This is where theory meets practice in a way that actually works.

👉 Join today: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Roll up your sleeves and meet me at the intervention drawing board.

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If you work with four, five, or six-year-olds with speech sound disorders, this episode was made for you — and this research will change how you document, advocate, and make eligibility decisions for your students.

In this episode, we break down a brand-new 2026 open-access study that every school-based SLP, early childhood SLP, and preschool speech-language pathologist needs to save, cite, and have ready to go. Whether you're navigating a negative 2.0 standard deviation eligibility criteria, writing IEP goals for preschoolers with speech sound disorders, or advocating for a child who doesn't yet "qualify" on paper, this research is your clinical ammunition.

This landmark study examined peer perceptions of children with speech sound disorders across ages four, five, and six:

• At age 4: Neurotypical peers already rate children with severe speech sound disorders lower across domains of intelligence, friendliness, and likability compared to typically developing talkers.
• At age 5: Children with moderate-to-severe speech sound disorders are rated lower across all social domains by their neurotypical peers.
• At age 6: Even children with mild speech sound disorders are rated lower and are seen as less desirable friendship candidates compared to neurotypical peers.

The bottom line? Severity matters. Age matters. And the social stakes get higher every single year.

• Use this research to support eligibility decisions when standardized scores alone don't tell the full story
• Cite it alongside teacher observations, parent input, direct observation of socialization, and connected speech samples
• Document the educational and social impact of the speech sound disorder, not just the score
• Know your state's eligibility criteria: some states require -2.0 SD, others -1.0 SD, and others rely on professional judgment of adverse educational impact
• Advocate proactively: a wait-and-see approach has real social consequences for your students

Henry, M., & Bent, T. (2026). Let's be friends: Peer perceptions of disordered speech in preschool and early school-aged children. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 35(1).

🔓 FREE Open Access Article: https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2025_AJSLP-25-00093

Download it. Save it. Cite it. Your students are counting on you.

📖 RECOMMENDED RESOURCE:

Speech Sound Disorders: A Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment Guide by Kelly Vess. This is written to support SLPs at every level, from graduate students to seasoned clinicians.

👉 Grab your copy on Amazon

🚀 MAXIMIZE NEUROPLASTICITY — JOIN THE SIS MEMBERSHIP TODAY

Here's what we know: earlier is better. Neuroplasticity is at its highest level in the preschool years. Are you using the most effective treatment targets to capitalize on that window?

The SIS Membership gives you access to complex treatment targets — the evidence-based approach that leverages the power of neuroplasticity to drive maximum speech sound gains in minimal time. If you are working with preschoolers and early elementary students, complex targets are the clinical game-changer you need in your toolkit right now.

This episode just showed you the social urgency. The SIS Membership gives you the clinical tools to act on it.

👉 Join the SIS Membership today and start using complex treatment targets with your students. Because we're not treating a mouth. We're treating a child — and every session counts.

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If you work with children with autism, developmental delays, or complex communication needs, this episode is a must-listen.

Today, we’re talking about cerebral visual impairment, or CVI, and why it may be one of the most overlooked reasons children struggle with communication, attention, social interaction, AAC use, and motor-based learning.

This episode is not about whether a child can see an item on an eye chart. It is about how the brain processes visual information and how that affects language, participation, and learning.

In this episode, I share 10 practical strategies from the literature that speech-language pathologists and speech-language pathology assistants can use right now to better support children with visual processing challenges. We discuss why reducing clutter matters, how to make materials more visually accessible, why movement activates learning, and how active task-based therapy can improve visual-motor integration.

You’ll learn:

• Why is cortical visual impairment increasingly referred to as cerebral visual impairment
• How CVI affects communication and social development
• What visual complexity does to learning
• Why movement is critical for visual engagement
• How to adjust therapy and AAC supports for better outcomes

Join the SIS Membership for ready-to-use literacy-based, movement-based activities that help you put these ideas into practice right away:
https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Featured article:
Wilkinson, K. M., Elko, L. R., Elko, E., McCarty, T. V., Sowers, D. J., Blackstone, S., & Roman-Lantzy, C. (2023). An evidence-based approach to augmentative and alternative communication design for individuals with cortical visual impairment. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 32, 1939–1960. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJSLP-22-00397

Thank you for being with me at today’s intervention drawing board for a better tomorrow,💚Kelly

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Many clinicians are told there is a right way to prompt AAC users.

You may have heard that you should always use least-to-most prompting. Others insist most-to-least prompting is best.

But what does the research actually say?

In this episode, we look at findings from a scoping review of 29 AAC intervention studies examining the prompting strategies used with children with autism who use speech-generating devices.

Here’s the surprising truth:

The research does not show that one prompting hierarchy is universally superior.

Instead, effective AAC intervention is multimodal, flexible, and individualized. Successful clinicians use a toolbox approach, drawing from multiple evidence-based strategies depending on the child in front of them.

In this episode, I walk you through a DTTC-inspired prompting hierarchy adapted for AAC that moves children from high levels of support toward full independence.

I also share a real therapy example from this week using a St. Patrick’s Day literacy activity with a puppet and AAC device, so you can see exactly how this process works in practice.

This is not a theory. This is something you can try tomorrow. Why This Matters for AAC Intervention?

Children with autism are developing across multiple domains simultaneously:

• language
• motor planning
• executive function
• symbolic representation
• social interaction

Because autism is multifaceted, intervention cannot rely on a single rigid strategy.

The most effective clinicians adopt an “all of the above” mindset and use prompting dynamically depending on:

• the child
• the task
• the novelty of vocabulary
• the motor planning demands
• the learning context

This episode will show you how to do exactly that.

Want Ready-to-Use Activities That Apply This Framework?

Inside the SIS Membership, I provide ready-to-use activities designed specifically for:

• AAC users
• speech sound disorders
• language development
• motor planning
• executive function

Every week, you receive literacy-based movement activities that allow you to apply frameworks like the DTTC-for-AAC hierarchy immediately with the children on your caseload.

These activities are designed to address multiple developmental domains simultaneously while keeping therapy engaging and efficient.

You also get access to the Speech-Language Treatment Target Library, giving you structured targets across speech, language, AAC, and literacy.

Instead of spending hours planning therapy, you can walk into your session with activities that are already designed to produce meaningful communication gains.

Start Using DTTC for AAC Today

If you want structured activities that help you implement these strategies immediately:

👉 Join the SIS Membership today
https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

You’ll receive:

• weekly ready-to-use therapy activities
• weekly Google Slides Deck
• treatment target library
• practical strategies you can implement tomorrow

Because when we reduce clinician workload and increase engagement, every child wins.

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Feeling overwhelmed by a caseload that includes autism, childhood apraxia of speech, developmental language disorder, articulation, fluency, and AAC users… all back-to-back?

You are not alone.

Many speech-language pathologists walk into therapy sessions with a stack of different activities for every child. One game for articulation. Another for language. Another for fluency. Another for AAC.

Before long, therapy starts to feel like running a fast-food counter.

Quick activities. Separate goals. Limited impact.

But what if you could run one powerful therapy routine that works for every child on your caseload?

In this episode of The Preschool SLP Podcast, Kelly Vess shares the five-step therapy routine she uses every single day to deliver educationally rich, engaging sessions that treat the whole child while producing powerful gains across:

• Speech sound production
• Language development
• Literacy skills
• AAC use
• Executive function
• Motor planning and coordination

Instead of pulling ten different activities from behind the therapy table, this routine uses one structured activity and simply changes the treatment target to match each child’s goals.

Built on principles from Universal Design for Learning, motor learning, and executive function research, this approach allows clinicians to work smarter, not harder.

You will learn:

• The five predictable therapy steps Kelly uses with every child
• How to use one activity to treat speech, language, AAC, literacy, and fluency
• Why predictable routines help children feel safe, regulated, and ready to learn
• How task-oriented movement improves executive function and engagement
• Why treating the whole child instead of just the mouth produces stronger outcomes

When therapy is predictable, engaging, and multimodal, both the clinician and the child can be fully present.

And that is when the magic happens.

Join the SIS Membership

If you love practical therapy frameworks like this, the SIS Membership was built for you.

Each week inside SIS you receive:

• Ready-to-use movement-based therapy activities
• Powerful complex speech and language treatment targets
• A growing treatment target library you can use with any caseload
• A full literacy, language, and movement Google Slides deck for therapy, classrooms, or teletherapy

Everything is designed to help busy SLPs deliver high-impact therapy without spending hours planning.

Many members prep their entire week of therapy in less than one hour.

Join today and receive the entire Treatment Target Library immediately.

Visit:
https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Work smarter.
Treat the whole child.
Create meaningful gains.

💚 Kelly Vess
The Preschool SLP Podcast

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What do Gustav Eiffel and dynamic, tactile, temporal cueing have in common?

Scaffolding. Vision. And the courage to aim higher than anyone else.

In this episode, I break down why Dynamic, Tactile, Temporal Cueing (DTTC) is not just for childhood apraxia of speech. It is a practical, high-impact framework that can upgrade how you treat:

• Speech sound disorders
• Language delays
• Literacy skills
• Fluency
• AAC users
• Autism and complex communication needs

If you want maximal gains in minimal time, this episode is your blueprint.

After standing beneath the Eiffel Tower and speaking at a packed state conference, one message hit me hard: the higher you aim, the bigger the cascade. When you treat at a complex level with the right scaffolds, earlier developing skills often come along for the ride.

Inside this episode, we unpack:

• Why fewer targets with higher reps build automaticity faster
• How simultaneous production jump starts planning and reduces breakdowns
• Why slowing time increases accuracy across speech, language, fluency, and AAC navigation
• How to use most to least prompting without letting the tower fall
• Why errorless learning and the 80 percent sweet spot matter
• How multimodal cueing accelerates learning for every child
• Why you build automaticity first and generalize later

This is not business-as-usual therapy.
This is challenge point therapy.
This is how you stop grinding and start seeing real progress.

Join SIS and get the complex targets done for you

If you want powerful complex speech and language targets ready to pull into sessions immediately, join SIS Membership today. You will get access to high impact therapy materials designed to help you scaffold fast progress across speech, language, literacy, and AAC, without reinventing the wheel every week.

Join here and get started today: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis
Roll up your sleeves. Make the world better, one child at a time.

With you in this,💚Kelly

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If you work with children who drool, this episode is for you.

I’m pulling back the curtain on an approach I’ve used for over 15 years that has consistently reduced—and often eliminated—drooling in preschoolers. Not in theory. Not in a lab. In real therapy rooms, with real kids, on real caseloads.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
There is very little direct research on speech intervention and drooling. And instead of grappling with that complexity, our field often defaults to dogmatic thinking—blindly applying principles from other populations and calling it “evidence-based.”

In this episode, I challenge that thinking.

You’ll hear why:

• Motor learning principles do not transfer cleanly to preschoolers
• Bottom-up oral motor logic fails when the task is speech
• Single sounds don’t recruit the same neuromuscular systems as 3-element consonant clusters

Then I walk you through four precise reasons why targeting three-element clusters (like /spr/, /skr/, /skw/) uniquely impacts drooling:

1. Jaw stability driven by sustained /s/ with a closed mandibular posture
2. Differentiation of tongue and lips from the jaw, mirroring swallowing mechanics
3. Enhanced proprioceptive feedback through Dynamic Temporal Tactile Cueing
4. Endurance and motor control built through slow, continuous, high-load speech tasks

I also share a practical “back-porch” way to test this yourself—no fancy equipment, no new evals, just systematic observation and honest comparison.

This isn’t about abandoning evidence-based practice.
It’s about doing it better—with nuance, skepticism, and attention to detail.

Because real progress doesn’t come from swinging between extremes.
It comes from asking better questions and working at the right level of complexity.

What You’ll Learn

• Why drooling is a neuromuscular control issue—not a hygiene issue
• How 3-element clusters recruit swallowing-relevant motor systems
• Why preschoolers need more, not less, feedback
• How to get speech gains and drool reduction at the same time
• Where the limits of this approach actually are (and why that matters)

Call to Action

If you want to apply this Monday morning, don’t guess.

When you join the SIS Membership, you’ll immediately receive:

• Ready-to-use 3-element cluster treatment targets
• Weekly task-oriented movement activities that support posture, endurance, and executive function
• Research-to-practice tools designed for real caseloads—not perfect conditions

You don’t need more time.
You need higher-yield targets.

👉 Join here: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Because when you work at the right level of complexity,
the easier skills take care of themselves.

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What do 707 Autistic Preschoolers Teach Us About Spoken Language Outcomes?

If you work with preschoolers with autism and you care about spoken language outcomes, this episode matters. A lot.

In today’s episode of The Preschool SLP Podcast, we unpack the largest study to date examining why some autistic children do not develop spoken language, even after receiving high-quality, evidence-based early intervention.

The takeaway is blunt:
Motor imitation doesn’t matter a little. It matters a lot.

Inside this episode, we cover:

• Why one-third of autistic preschoolers in a large, multi-site study did not advance in spoken language despite receiving ~10 hours/week of evidence-based intervention
• How motor imitation emerged as a key distinguishing factor between children who advanced in speech and those who did not
• What neuroscience tells us about mirror neurons, empathy, perspective-taking, and speech development
• Why speech develops from the inside out: core → proximal → distal → speech. And, what happens when we skip the body and go straight to the mouth
• How motor imitation supports:
  • Entry into peer play
  • Social communication
  • Speech motor planning and execution
  • Prefrontal–cerebellar connectivity
  • Why this research gives us a “crystal ball”—not to maintain the status quo, but to do something different earlier
  • You can’t build speech on a system that can’t yet support posture, movement, imitation, and motor planning.
  • If motor imitation is weak, speech outcomes are at risk, pretending otherwise doesn’t help children.

Clinical bottom line:

If a child presents with:

• Severe autism presentation
• Limited or absent spoken language
• Poor motor imitation

Then motor imitation must be intentionally built into intervention, alongside AAC, multimodal cueing, movement-based learning, and robust communication supports.

This episode challenges us to stop treating mouths—and start treating children.

🎧 Want practical ways to integrate motor imitation, movement, AAC, and literacy?

Join the SIS Membership for ready-to-use, movement-based, evidence-informed activities designed for real preschoolers in real settings:
👉 https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Vivanti, G.L, et al. (2025). Proportion and profile of autistic children not acquiring spoken language despite receiving evidence-based early interventions. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2025.2579286

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What if the problem with treating the R sound isn’t the child—but the way we train it?

In today’s episode, we step outside the field of speech-language pathology and borrow powerful, evidence-based principles from exercise science and kinesiology to rethink how we treat speech sound disorders. Why? Because exercise science has done what our field largely hasn’t: isolated what actually works using controlled trials, precision, and specificity.

Speech is a complex neuromuscular skill. Treating it like flashcards and passive listening don’t make sense—and they don’t produce durable change.

In this episode, you’ll learn how five core principles from exercise science directly apply to improving the R sound efficiently:
• Why “practice makes permanent” and how the 80% challenge point prevents habituating errors
• How progressive overload explains why complex clusters outperform isolated sounds
• Why auditory bombardment is passive and inefficient when therapy time is limited
• How compound training (paragraphs, clusters, movement, literacy) creates system-wide linguistic change
• Why specificity matters—and why speech therapy must look like real speech to generalize

This episode challenges the status quo in therapy and makes the case for treating speech as the neuromuscular endurance task it actually is.

If you’re tired of plateaus, endless cueing, and R programs that don’t generalize, this conversation will change how you think about treatment starting Monday morning.

👉 Ready to treat the R sound more efficiently—without guessing?
Inside the SIS Membership, you’ll find high-impact treatment targets, complex R clusters, and ready-to-use paragraphs designed to apply these principles immediately—so you can stop planning and start seeing change.

Get access to efficient, evidence-informed R targets at
https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Train smarter. Challenge appropriately. Create real change.

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Are consonant clusters really “too complex” for kids with severe speech sound disorders—or have we been aiming too low?

This episode tackles one of the most persistent myths in speech therapy: that children with childhood apraxia of speech, autism, or severe speech delay aren’t ready for clusters. I’m unpacking the real science behind complexity, coarticulation, and system-wide change—and why waiting for “readiness” often slows progress rather than supporting it.

Let's break down three common myths that are not evidence-based:
• Myth 1: Children must master single sounds before clusters
• Myth 2: Clusters should always come later in treatment
• Myth 3: Consonant deletion must be fixed first

You’ll hear why speech doesn’t develop like a geyser, how the waterfall effect actually works, and why starting with complex targets can accelerate gains across the entire sound system—even in preschoolers.

This episode also walks through how to do this in therapy: using dynamic tactile-temporal cueing, maintaining an 80% challenge point, and choosing treatment targets that improve motor planning, programming, and verbal working memory simultaneously.

If clusters feel uncomfortable, slow, or messy—that’s the point. Challenge creates change.

Want treatment targets that already do this work for you—without reinventing the wheel every week?
Join the SIS Membership for ready-to-use, research-informed activities designed to create real speech change while protecting your time and energy.
https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

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If you work with children who are minimally speaking with autism or you love a child who is minimally speaking, today’s episode matters.

Over the past year, I’ve been doing something deeply intentional. I’ve been having long, honest conversations with speech pathologists and special education teachers who are truly effective with high-tech AAC. These weren’t quick chats. Each interview ran over an hour. I asked open-ended questions. I pushed for specifics. I wanted to know what is actually working for robust AAC systems with thousands of words.

What I found surprised me.

There was no magic training. No perfect certification. No secret setting hidden inside the device.

What these highly effective professionals shared was something much more human. They believed in themselves enough to try. To fail. To troubleshoot. To look clumsy. To learn alongside the child.

In this episode, I talk about why vulnerability is the real needle mover in AAC implementation.

I share why modeling uncertainty, curiosity, and joy matters more than appearing fluent. Showing a child how you search for a word, celebrate finding it, or flexibly choose an alternative builds far more communication power than perfection ever could.

We discuss treating AAC as play, not performance. About using devices the way we use books with young children as interactive tools meant to spark connection, not test correctness.

I also connect what I’m seeing in my dissertation research to real-life practice. Across hours of transcripts and coding, the same theme kept surfacing. Fluency doesn’t come from training. It comes from hands-on experience. Repetition. Messy, imperfect action.

This episode will challenge you to rethink comfort zones, to stop waiting until you feel ready, and to remember that communication growth begins when adults are willing to learn out loud.

If AAC has ever felt overwhelming, intimidating, or like something you were supposed to already have mastered, this conversation is for you.

And if you want ready-to-use, engaging, and effective activities that make AAC implementation doable in real sessions, join the SIS Membership. Weekly resources arrive in your inbox so you can spend less time prepping and more time modeling, exploring, and connecting with your kids. You can learn more and join at https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Thank you for being part of this work. Roll up your sleeves. Be vulnerable. And keep changing lives one child at a time.

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If you work with children who have complex communication needs, you already know this truth:
you cannot pour from an empty cup.

In this episode, I share six realistic self-care swaps I use from morning to night to support energy, focus, and emotional regulation in the work we do. These are not trends. They are practical, research-informed adjustments that help me show up fully present in therapy sessions, even during long, demanding days.

As winter approaches and energy dips, comfort-food cravings rise. Instead of relying on willpower, I build better systems. In this episode, I walk you through:

• A caffeine swap that supports focus without crashes
• A protein-rich breakfast that stabilizes blood sugar
• A comfort-food lunch that doesn’t derail energy
• A 4 p.m. strategy for end-of-day slumps
• A clean popcorn hack that actually works
• A dessert and sleep routine that supports recovery, not burnout

Self-care isn’t indulgence. It’s infrastructure. When your body and brain are supported, you can stay responsive, regulated, and fully present with the children and families you serve.

A note for SIS Members and those considering joining

Inside the SIS Membership, I design therapy the same way I design my self-care: with systems that remove friction.

Members receive weekly, done-for-you, research-informed activities so they can spend their energy where it matters most: interaction, responsiveness, and connection. No scrambling. No reinventing the wheel. Just showing up ready.

If you are ready to reduce decision fatigue, protect your energy, and innovate your practice alongside a community of practitioners doing the work in real classrooms and therapy rooms, you can join us here:

👉 https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

You deserve support that actually supports you.

Thank you for joining me at today’s drawing board for a better tomorrow,
💚 Kelly

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If you work with parents of children with special needs, this episode is non-negotiable. Instead of diving into research, we’re heading straight into a film that delivers the kind of uncomfortable clarity our field rarely gets.

Today, we break down If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You—Mary Bronstein’s raw, emotionally accurate look into the lived experience of parenting a neurodivergent child—and why every SLP, special educator, and early-intervention professional needs to watch it.

This movie exposes a blind spot in our practice: how we show up for families. And more importantly, how often we get it wrong.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why judging parents instantly destroys trust
• How our “professional persona” blocks genuine connection
• The simple shift that makes parents feel heard instead of dismissed
• When your “support” becomes a burden—and how to stop doing it
• Why burnout in families is invisible until it explodes
• How to rebuild capacity for parents and for yourself

This is not a feel-good conversation. It’s a necessary recalibration for anyone who works with families navigating neurodivergence, chronic medical needs, and overwhelming daily demands.

If you want to do better for the families you serve, start here.

Feeling your own burnout creeping in?
Stop white-knuckling it. The SIS Membership provides weekly, ready-to-use, universally designed literacy-movement activities that dramatically reduce your planning time while increasing engagement for every child on your caseload. Protect your capacity. Strengthen your practice.

Join today at https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

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If you love weaving books into speech and language therapy, this episode is absolutely your lane.

In this conversation, Kelly breaks down a 2025 scoping review on early language development and reading aloud, then translates it into five practical literacy “hacks” you can use with preschool and early elementary students starting tomorrow.

She pulls zero punches about the study design: you’ll hear exactly what a scoping review is (and isn’t), why it doesn’t carry the same weight as a systematic review or meta-analysis, and how to use it wisely as an “idea generator” rather than gospel. From there, she layers in two decades of clinical experience and walks through the habits that actually move the needle in real therapy rooms.

You’ll hear about:

• Why this 2025 scoping review on reading aloud and early language is best viewed as an “idea article”
• How the authors used PCC (Population, Context, Concept) to narrow 1,000+ studies down to 106
• Why repetitive, predictable books (like The Gingerbread Man or Brown Bear, Brown Bear) allow diverse learners to participate at a higher level
• How to rethink “social stories” using a Brown Bear-style repetitive frame and a child’s favorite characters for more powerful behavior change
• What Universal Design for Learning actually looks like in speech therapy when you go all-in on multimodal cueing
• How multisensory, multimodal activities (print, props, movement, AAC, writing) especially support autistic students and kids with attention and motor planning challenges
• Why connecting books to real-world roles and prior knowledge (“You’re the zookeeper…”) drives deeper language and thinking than fact-based WH questions
• Simple language shifts that move you away from quizzing (“What color is…?”) toward higher-level thinking (“I wonder why…”, “Tell me about a time…”)
• How predictable literacy routines reduce cognitive load and move kids out of fight/flight and into learning
• Why the interaction itself matters more than any single treatment target or book choice
• How prepping rich, ready-to-go materials frees you to be fully present in the interaction (where the real “magic” happens)

By the end, you’ll walk away with five concrete literacy routines you can plug into your week and a much clearer lens for judging research quality while still using it creatively.

Want these literacy hacks done for you every week?

If you’re ready to stop reinventing the wheel and want literacy-based, movement-rich activities that already embed these principles, join the SIS Membership.

Inside SIS, you get:

• Weekly Google Slides decks built around repetitive, predictable books
• Multimodal, multisensory activities (movement, props, print, AAC, writing) you can use with your entire caseload
• Treatment targets that are already leveled and ready to go, so you can focus on the interaction instead of scrambling for materials

Join SIS here and grab everything instantly:
👉 https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Annika, A., & Johanna, L. (2025). Early language development and reading aloud with children: A scoping review and content analysis. International Journal of Educational Research Open, 9, 100508.

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Children who speak freely at home but shut down in public aren’t being stubborn. Their capacity is getting crushed by the demands of new people, new settings, and unpredictable routines. In this episode, we break down how to build capacity using the PRIDE approach—explicitly adapted for reluctant speakers and children with selective mutism.

You’ll hear how to shift out of “thermostat mode” and into “mime mode,” using 10 minutes a day of pure responsiveness to lower pressure, increase connection, and support communication in high-stress seasons like the holidays.

We walk through exactly how to use each part of PRIDE—objective encouragement, reflection, imitation, description, and enjoyment—without adding demands, pushing speech, or triggering shutdown. This is the blueprint for helping sensitive, cautious, or selectively mute children communicate more confidently when the world gets loud.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
• How the Demands–Capacity Model explains shutdowns in public or group settings
• Why holiday routines, unfamiliar people, and novel activities increase mutism
• How to adapt each PRIDE element for reluctant speakers (no expansions, no recasts)
• What 10 minutes of daily “mime time” does to build capacity fast
• The specific social and communication behaviors that improve when capacity increases
• How SLPs can coach families through this process during high-stress seasons

If you work with children who freeze, whisper, avoid, or stop speaking outside the home, this episode gives you a concrete plan you can use immediately.

Want ready-to-use activities that make your therapy educationally rich without adding demands?
Join the SIS Membership and get weekly materials designed to support speech, language, and social-emotional foundations—especially for sensitive and reluctant communicators.
👉 https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

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If you serve young children with behavior challenges, this episode delivers a framework you can put to work immediately. Today, we break down the PRIDE skills: five evidence-based behavior strategies drawn from Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and Teacher-Child Interaction Training (TCIT). These methods have more than 50 years of empirical support and consistently improve behavior, engagement, emotional regulation, and communication across diverse populations.

You’ll learn how to use objective praise, reflection, imitation, description, and genuine enjoyment to build connection—not compliance. This child-directed interaction approach has been shown to make meaningful gains for children with autism, ADHD, selective mutism, developmental language disorders, trauma histories, hearing differences, anxiety, and disruptive or externalizing behaviors. The research is broad. The effect sizes are large. And the application is simple.

We dig into how PRIDE skills strengthen executive function, expressive language, joint attention, and emotional resilience—and why these strategies are essential for SLPs, early childhood educators, and anyone working in preschool or early elementary settings. When you have educationally rich activities prepared, you can stay fully present and implement PRIDE with intention, clarity, and consistency.

If you want treatment plans that allow you to focus on relationships, responsiveness, and evidence-based connection strategies that actually change behavior, the SIS Membership is designed for you. Each week, you receive educationally rich activities that treat the whole child—speech, language, literacy, executive function, and motor foundations—so you can implement PRIDE seamlessly without scrambling for materials.

Join the SIS Membership and make your therapy easier, richer, and more effective:
https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Let’s build capacity, connection, and better outcomes—one child at a time.💚Kelly

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If you treat speech sound disorders (SSD) and you’re not seeing the gains you expect, this episode is your playbook. We cut through the noise and name the 10 research-informed predictors of slower progress—attention/self-monitoring limits, sensitive temperament, co-occurring language/working-memory load, hearing impairment (fricatives/affricates), motor speech factors, structural constraints (e.g., open bite), low stimulability, later start to intervention, low therapy intensity/irregular attendance, and environmental barriers. Then we pivot hard into the three levers that consistently move outcomes: choosing complex, maximally distinct targets (e.g., SW-blends), delivering dynamic temporal tactile cueing (DTTC-style), and holding the ~80% challenge point to avoid reinforcing error patterns. Concrete therapy examples, parent carryover, and generalization strategies included.

What you’ll learn:

📈How attention and self-monitoring mask progress until generalization “pops”

📈Why a sensitive temperament demands predictability and a responsive start

📈How co-occurring language and limited verbal working memory can look like CAS—but aren’t

📈What hearing loss really means for fricatives/affricates and consonant deletion patterns

📈Practical expectations for motor speech and structural constraints (e.g., open bite)

📈How stimulability with maximal cueing informs prognosis

📈Why start age and habit strength matter for entrenched /r/ and /s/ errors

📈Why frequency > duration for home practice, and how to embed one daily rep

📈The “no-data-during-DTTC” mindset: probe quickly, cue deeply, fade fast

The 3 levers (non-negotiables):

📈Target selection: Complex, maximally distinct clusters (SW > ST/SP/SK) to drive system-wide change.

📈Delivery: DTTC-style, moment-to-moment cueing (choral → fade), with brief probes to verify learning.

📈Challenge point: Keep accuracy near ~80%—high enough to learn, low enough to adapt. If you’re reinforcing errors, pivot.

00:00 Why progress “flatlines” then explodes

03:10 Predictor #1: Attention/self-monitoring

06:20 #2: Sensitive temperament & predictable routines

10:00 #3: Language/working memory vs. “looks like CAS”

14:15 #4: Hearing impairment (HF cues, fricatives/affricates)

17:10 #5: Motor speech considerations

20:05 #6: Structural constraints (open bite, dental)

22:40 #7: Stimulability with maximal cueing

25:00 #8: Older start age, entrenched habits

27:10 #9: Intensity/attendance

28:45 #10: Environmental barriers

30:45 The 3 levers: complex targets, DTTC, 80% challenge point

38:00 One-rep-a-day home carryover that actually sticks

Call to action: Stop reinventing materials. Make your work easy with effective, educationally-rich SSD tools at your fingertips—complex target sentence strips, paragraphs, and movement-literacy activities ready so you can focus on cueing, not prep. 👉 Join the SIS Membership: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

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If you work with children with autism who are minimally speaking, this episode is a must-listen. We’re breaking down why the “Look at” sentence strip has been a total game-changer in my therapy room—and why it consistently helps children begin to speak, connect, and comment on the world around them.

After 25 years of practice, I can tell you this tool does more than encourage speech—it builds neurological pathways for speech to flow. You’ll learn:
✅ The neuroscience behind why repetition and motor consistency matter
✅ How DTTC and “look at” work hand-in-hand to build automaticity
✅ Why “look at” is far more powerful than “I want” for developing joint attention
✅ How to pair high-tech AAC with low-tech sentence strips for best outcomes
✅ The 10 reasons this strip transforms therapy for children with autism

This episode is full of practical insight, real-world examples from my SIS members’ “back porches,” and evidence-based strategies that rewire how we think about early speech intervention.

🎧 Tune in, and then grab your own Look at sentence strip and watch your minimally speaking students light up the room.

💫 Join the SIS Membership today for access to the weekly movement- and literacy-based therapy materials that pair perfectly with this episode—complete with parent emails and ready-to-go Google Slides for your whole group sessions.
👉 https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Thanks for joining me at today’s drawing board for a better tomorrow, 💚Kelly

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Discover how a 2025 Nature autism study transforms early intervention in speech language pathology. Learn how family history, genetics, and executive function shape assessment, therapy planning, and lifelong communication outcomes.

If you work with children with autism, this episode will change how you think about early intervention forever. A major 2025 study published in Nature titled Polygenic and developmental profiles of autism differ by age of diagnosis has revealed that early onset autism and later developing autism are not the same.

This is one of the largest autism studies ever conducted, examining more than 47,000 individuals around the world. The results reshape how we understand autism heritability, family psychiatric history, and executive function development.

In this episode, you will learn:
✅ Why early autism diagnosed before age three is genetically distinct from later developing autism that emerges in middle childhood or adolescence
✅ How family psychiatric history including ADHD, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and substance use predicts later developing autism
✅ Why the DSM 5 removal of the age three cutoff was not only progressive but empirically supported
✅ How this research should change your parent input forms and follow up recommendations
✅ Why executive function including attention, cognitive flexibility, and self regulation is the bridge between prevention and intervention

This study confirms that autism can emerge at any point in development when social and academic demands exceed a child’s executive function capacity. That finding changes everything about how we evaluate, how we plan early intervention, and how we empower families.

If you are ready to move beyond reactive labels toward proactive, capacity building intervention, this episode will show you how to do exactly that.

💡 Join the SIS Membership at https://www.kellyvess.com/sis
to access weekly movement based literacy and language activities that build executive function, the foundation for lifelong communication, learning, and independence.

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If you work with minimally speaking children or children with autism, this episode is a must-listen. Speech-language pathologist Kelly Vess takes on the five biggest myths about high-tech AAC (augmentative and alternative communication)—and backs every point with current peer-reviewed research.

Learn why high-tech AAC devices:
✅ Do not require self-regulation or joint attention first
✅ Are not too complex for preschoolers
✅ Increase social interaction rather than limit it
✅ Should not be constantly customized
✅ Must be provided—and supported—by public schools under IDEA and ADA

Kelly breaks down each misconception, explains how to blend high-tech and low-tech AAC for multimodal communication, and challenges you to D.S.D.—Do Something Different—instead of waiting 17 years for “research-to-practice.”

It’s time to empower our minimally speaking students with robust, research-driven voices. Whether you’re an SLP, special educator, or early-childhood professional, you’ll walk away ready to advocate for access, staff training, and parent coaching in AAC implementation.

👉 Join today at www.kellyvess.com/sis

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Today’s episode is a can’t-miss if you work with children with developmental language disorder (DLD) or developmental language delays. I’m sharing my #1 most powerful responsive language strategy—one that works with every child on your caseload, regardless of temperament.

We’re going beyond basic expansions and simple recasts. Instead, I’ll show you how to transform simple sentences into complex ones by adding finite clauses—what I like to call “clausing.”

You’ll hear about peer-reviewed research from:

• Gillian Steel et al. (2016) – demonstrating how complex sentence deficits persist in DLD.
• Amanda Owen Van Horne et al. (2023) – showing how targeting complex sentences drives broader language gains, including grammatical morphology.

You’ll also learn practical ways to apply “clausing” during play, art, snack time, and book reading without memorizing verb lists or forcing structure—just natural, responsive modeling that works.

🎯 Key Takeaways:

• The higher you aim, the higher the gains.
• Responsive modeling of finite clauses builds both sentence complexity and verbal working memory.
• Simple to implement. Powerful results.

💚 Ready to take this strategy further?
If you love helping your students use bigger, bolder sentences, you’ll love the SIS Membership. Each week, you’ll get:
✅ Research-based language activities focused on complex syntax, literacy, and movement.
✅ Parent carryover visuals and whole-class Google Slides decks.
✅ Ready-to-use therapy tools that align with current research—so you can make an impact today, not 17 years from now.

Join at www.kellyvess.com/sis
and start building complex sentences that stick.

Owen Van Horne, A. J., Curran, M. K., Fey, M. E., & Tomblin, J. B. (2023).
Teaching little kids big sentences: A randomized controlled trial of complex sentence intervention embedded in science instruction. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 58(5):1551-1569. https://doi: 10.1111/1460-6984.12882

Steel, G., Rose, M., & Eadie, P. (2016).
The production of complement clauses in children with language impairment. Journal of Speech Language Hearing Research, 59(2):330-41. https://doi: 10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-15-0001.

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If you work with children with speech sound disorders, this episode is a must-listen. We’re diving into cutting-edge research on final consonant clusters—a treatment target that has been largely overlooked but may unlock powerful generalization gains.

For decades, evidence has shown that choosing complex targets leads to greater overall progress. Now, new research suggests that working on final 3-element clusters may be just as effective—and possibly more efficient—than the traditional initial cluster approach.

In this episode, I’ll break down:

✅ Why marked forms (like /skr/) accelerate progress more than unmarked forms

✅ What makes final clusters uniquely complex (morphological load, rarity, later acquisition)

✅ Key takeaways from a 2025 study on final clusters in intervention (8 children, 6 weeks, medium effect sizes)

✅ Practical strategies you can implement tomorrow on your back porch

✅ Why efficiency matters: getting gains in speech and language when time is limited

I’ll also share how to structure practice (limited exemplars, high repetitions, removing models for self-driven motor planning) so you can maximize impact.

Don’t wait 17 years for research to trickle into practice—try this approach now.

🎁FREE Resource: Download your Final Cluster Homework Flip Book here:
👉 http://www.kellyvess.com/finalcluster

✨ Want weekly ready-to-go resources?

Join the SIS Membership today and get instant access to:

• Theme-based movement + literacy activities
• Weekly treatment targets (including complex clusters + paragraphs)
• Parent + teletherapy Google Slides decks
• A full treatment target library

👉 https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Source: Potapova, I., John, A., Pruitt-Lord, S., & Barlow, J. (2025). Extending complexity to word-final position via telepractice: Intervention effects for English-speaking children with speech sound disorder. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(1), 42–57. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_lshss-24-00020

speech sound disorders, consonant clusters, final clusters, complexity approach, marked vs unmarked forms, childhood apraxia of speech, phonological intervention, SLP podcast, preschool speech therapy, articulation therapy

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If you work with preschool or early elementary students, this episode is a must-listen.

We’re diving into decontextualized language—a skill that’s rarely discussed but critical for literacy and academic success. Decontextualized language is when children talk about things outside the here and now—past events, future plans, ideas, feelings, and abstract thinking.

Why does it matter?
Research spanning over 20 years shows that children with strong decontextualized language skills in preschool perform better in reading and academics throughout elementary school. Yet, most SLPs and educators aren’t taught how to target it.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• What decontextualized language is and why it’s the foundation of complex thinking.
• Four powerful, evidence-based strategies to build this skill in fun, natural ways.
• How to use Halloween excitement to scaffold conversations about past and future events.
• Practical tips for using visuals, gestures, role-play, and parent collaboration.

💡 These strategies don’t just work for Halloween—they can be used for birthdays, field trips, and any special event to make language learning stick.

💚 Join the SIS Membership:

Want ready-to-go therapy materials that build decontextualized language every week?

Join the SIS Membership and get:

• A Google Slides deck each week packed with educationally rich, movement-based literacy activities,
• Home resources to bridge school and family communication,
• Evidence-based materials to target speech, language, and AAC in fun, engaging ways.

🎁 Download a FREE Halloween-themed Google Slides deck to kickstart decontextualized conversations in therapy and at home: https://www.kellyvess.com/halloween

👉 Join here: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

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Are you ready to go digital the right way in your therapy sessions?

Today, we’re diving into the latest systematic review research on using digital tools to improve preschoolers’ language and literacy outcomes. The evidence is clear: digital media can be a powerful tool — when it’s used intentionally.

In this episode, you’ll discover five key strategies that work, including:

• Why children should never be left alone with a device
• How to make digital activities multimodal and engaging
• The language modeling strategies that matter most
• Ways to make alphabet knowledge meaningful and connected to stories
• How to coach families and teachers for lasting impact

Want to skip the overwhelm and have ready-to-go resources at your fingertips?
Join my SIS Membership, where every week you’ll receive:

• A Google Slides deck filled with educationally rich activities
• Movement-based literacy ideas to target speech, language, and AAC goals
• Parent-friendly materials to bridge home and school learning

Make therapy easier, more engaging, and research-based — all while saving hours of prep time.

✨ Join the SIS Membership today: www.kellyvess.com/sis

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If you work with minimally speaking children using low-tech or high-tech AAC, this episode is for you.

A brand-new systematic review just dropped — but the published research is sparse, messy, and often mislabeled. Today, we’ll dig through the “recycle bin” of studies to uncover what actually works, why commenting is more powerful than requesting, and how to take action on Monday morning.

You’ll learn:

• Why many so-called “commenting interventions” are really prompted responses, not true initiations
• The pivotal role of combining words in AAC for speech development and generative language
• Why modeling and scaffolding work — and what research says about prompting hierarchies
• How to apply the triangle of evidence-based practice when published protocols don’t exist
• Download my free 30 Minute M.O.D.E.L. workshop to share with colleagues and caregivers: https://www.kellyvess.com/aac

💡 Ready-to-Go Tools:
Don’t waste hours planning therapy. Get empirically-based, literacy-rich, movement-based activities delivered to you every week inside the SIS Membership
. You’ll get:

• Weekly theme-based Google Slides decks for individual, group, and teletherapy sessions
• Engaging multisensory activities that target speech, language, and literacy — all ready to use

Join now at https://www.kellyvess.com/sis
and transform your therapy sessions with tools backed by research and designed for real-world success.

Spencer, T. D., Tönsing, K., & Dada, S. (2025). Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions that promote commenting: A systematic review. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 1–14.

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Is telepractice just as effective as in-person therapy for treating speech sound disorders? In this episode, we take a realistic, research-driven look at what the evidence really says about speech telepractice—and what factors determine whether it works.

You’ll discover:

• The exact client profiles that are NOT a good fit for telepractice.
• The active ingredients that make telepractice sessions as effective as in-person therapy.
• Why dose isn’t just about reps—and how complex targets create massive gains.
• Brand-new research on final clusters and how to apply it in therapy.
• The key role of caregivers as co-therapists in virtual sessions.

If you’re a school-based SLP, private practitioner, or just considering telepractice, this episode will help you deliver high-impact, evidence-based therapy online—while avoiding the pitfalls.

💛 Get ready-to-go therapy plans every week inside the SIS Membership:
https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

You’ll get theme-based movement activities, literacy-rich speech therapy materials, and a home-to-school 'Google Slides Deck' bridge that’s ready for immediate use.

Potapova, I., John, A., Pruitt-Lord, S., & Barlow, J. (2025). Extending complexity to word-final position via telepractice: Intervention effects for English-speaking children with speech sound disorder. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(1), 42–57. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_lshss-24-00020

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Are your speech therapy goals actually creating change or just filling space on an IEP?

In this episode, I share the three biggest mistakes I made in writing goals (and what to do instead). You’ll learn how to:

• Write measurable annual goals that track real growth.
• Use complex clusters and the complexity approach to accelerate progress.
• Show parents exactly how to cue, fade prompts, and buy-in to accomplish the quarterly objective so they become co-interventionists right from the start.
• Avoid clunky goals that stall progress and force unnecessary amendments.

Want done-for-you treatment targets, cueing visuals, and movement-rich literacy-based activities? Join the SIS Membership today at www.kellyvess.com/sis
. You’ll get ready-to-use weekly therapy materials that help you write smarter goals, coach parents with confidence, and create massive speech gains — without reinventing the wheel. Work smarter, not harder.

Don't delay and download my free goal cheat sheet by clicking on the link in 'The Preschool SLP Facebook Group': https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepreschoolslp

P.S. This week's episode was excerpted from my recent 'How to Write Speech Goal that WORK' Workshop. To access the free workshop and free accompanying goals sheets, go to 'The Preschool SLP Facebook Group': https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepreschoolslp

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If you work with children with speech sound disorders, this episode is for you. I’m breaking down my simple 3-step method for writing speech goals that not only improve clarity but also empower parents and the entire intervention team to stay on the same page.

You’ll learn how to:

• Use your single word standardized speech tests to track progress with confidence
• Write easy to measure annual goals that are reliable to connected speech
• Create clear, evidence-based objectives that scaffold from maximum to minimal support

This approach has been a game-changer in my 20+ years of practice, making goals measurable, parent-friendly, and easy to implement across settings.

✨ Want ready-to-use literacy, speech, language, and AAC activities delivered weekly—complete with movement-based themes, large group lessons, and teletherapy/large group/parent home practice Google Slides decks? Join the SIS Membership and transform your sessions: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Want to see exactly how I write these goals step by step—and get a downloadable cheat sheet you can use right away? Join me in The Preschool SLP Facebook group 👉 https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepreschoolslp
.

I’ll be going live on Monday, August 25th at 12 PM ET with an hour-long training that breaks this all down in detail. Can’t make it live? No worries—the replay and resources will be waiting for you inside the group.

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Why isn't 'Mama' a first word for many children with Autism, yet it is for their neurotypical peers? There are four underlying physiological causes for this difference. Let's dive in to explore these four reasons why 'Mama' is not just naturally developing and what we need to do differently to encourage the development of this pivotally important word. Ready to work more effectively with children with autism by treating the whole child with done-for-you, ready-to-use activities delivered weekly in your inbox? Don't delay and learn about the SIS Membership at https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Looking forward to seeing you at the SIS drawing board,💚Kelly

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How can speech-language pathologists determine whether a child’s communication challenges are due to a language difference or a language disorder—and then choose the most impactful language intervention strategies?

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Celeste Roseberry-McKibbin, one of the leading experts in culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse (CLED) populations. With over 70 scholarly publications and 16 books, she has dedicated her career to ensuring SLPs can assess children fairly and provide evidence-based interventions that truly change outcomes.

You’ll get research-backed, Monday-morning-ready tools you can use right away to evaluate students from under-resourced backgrounds and target goals that will boost both communication and academic skills.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why standardized tests often misrepresent abilities in children from economically diverse backgrounds
• How working memory and nonword repetition tasks can reveal developmental language disorder (DLD)
• Fine and gross motor skills as powerful screening indicators
• Practical dynamic assessment techniques that reduce cultural and linguistic bias
• How parent responsiveness speed drives early language growth
• Goal-setting priorities from infancy through school age for maximum impact
• Building phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and narrative skills
• Why tier 2 vocabulary and paper books improve long-term literacy outcomes
• Free and low-cost strategies any caregiver can implement—no matter their literacy level

If you’re ready to put these strategies into practice, join the SIS Membership. You’ll get weekly, empirically based language and literacy activities that improve phonological awareness, literacy, and print skills—all ready to use for therapy every week. Perfect for working with preschoolers, early elementary students, and children from culturally and economically diverse backgrounds.

🎯 Start improving outcomes today → www.kellyvess.com/sis

Connect with Guest Dr. Celeste Roseberry-McKibbin:

TikTok: @celesteroseberry

Instagram: @dr.celesteroseberry

YouTube: Celeste Roseberry

Dr. Celeste's Website: www.lovetalkread.com

Download Dr. Roseberry-McKibbin's Supplementary PowerPoint Handout

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Verbal cues may feel like the least intrusive form of prompting in speech therapy—but research and practice show they are actually the most restrictive.

In this episode, I share three powerful reasons why verbal cues hold children back and why you need to fade them quickly:
✅ How verbal cues undermine self-efficacy and independence
✅ Why verbal cues take away valuable executive function practice
✅ How verbal cues prevent true mastery and create prompt dependency

You’ll learn practical ways to shift toward multimodal cueing strategies that empower children to take ownership of their learning.

👉 Want ready-to-go activities that integrate evidence-based strategies, treatment target cards, and innovative approaches you won’t find anywhere else? Join the SIS Membership today before the price goes up: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

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Are you using the Natural Language Acquisition (NLA) framework in your autism intervention?
This episode of The Preschool SLP pulls back the curtain on Gestalt Language Processing (GLP) and challenges you to think critically about what’s truly supported by research—and what isn't.

SLPs are increasingly encouraged to adopt GLP-informed interventions, but a recent article by Venker and Lorang (2025) in response to Hadock et al. (2024) raises five concerns you can’t afford to ignore. In this episode, we break down each criticism with clinical insight and offer evidence-aligned strategies you can use immediately in your therapy room.

🔍 In this episode, you'll learn:

• ✅ What aspects of the NLA framework are backed by empirical research
• ❌ Why there’s currently no published GLP intervention program to evaluate
• 🧠 How mislabeling children as “Gestalt processors” can lead to unsupported assumptions
• ⚠️ The risks of avoiding verbs or grammar in early language modeling
• 🧪 What data you should be tracking with spontaneous language samples
• 🦢 Why eclectic, evidence-informed practice beats one-size-fits-all intervention

📚 Want done-for-you, research-backed materials aligned with what actually works?

Skip the guesswork.
My SIS Membership provides weekly, ready-to-use intervention tools grounded in empirical research—designed to help preschool SLPs like you make real progress with children on the autism spectrum, including those who use gestalts to communicate.

👉 Join the SIS Membership at www.kellyvess.com/sis

Inside, you’ll find:

• 🎯 Multimodal therapy treatment targets
• 🔁 Materials for consistent, high-frequency language use that boosts progress

00:00 Introduction to Natural Language Processing

00:30 Evidence-Based Practices in Language Development

01:54 Intervention Strategies and Challenges

03:05 Criticisms of Gestalt Language Processing

06:59 Understanding and Measuring Language Processing

10:44 The Role of Gestalts in Language Learning

17:43 Final Thoughts and Practical Advice

Haydock, A., Harrison, L., Baldwin, K., & Leadbitter, K. (2024). Embracing gestalt language development as a fundamental neurodiversity-affirmative practice. Autism, 28(5), 1055–1059. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241234598

Venker, C. E., & Lorang, E. (2024). Continuing the conversation about echolalia and gestalt language development: A response to Haydock, Harrison, Baldwin, and Leadbitter. Autism, 29(3), 821–824. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241287577

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This week, Kelly shares a powerful, research-driven strategy that she developed—almost by accident—that has become a game-changer in her therapy room and for countless SIS members.

🔍 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why traditional “plus one” language modeling often isn’t enough—and how to break free from the chisel-and-hammer approach.
• The story behind how a speech sound disorder bootcamp accidentally became the birthplace of an effective language intervention for children with autism.
• How using a repetitive, multisensory paragraph-based strategy can lead to spontaneous, complex language—even in non-speaking children.
• The dangers of over-praising or applying pressure—and how loss aversion can backfire in autism intervention.
• Why comments matter more than requests—and how shifting from "I want" to "Look at" can be transformative.
• How to embrace gestalt language processing with intention, evidence, and child-led wisdom.
• The cascading impact: how one paragraph can ignite spontaneous language, natural intonation, and even why questions you've never explicitly taught.

🧠 Evidence + Experience = Results

You’ll hear how Kelly used both data and lived clinical experience to build this method, drawing from motor planning research, storytelling science, and decades of observing how autistic children truly learn.

The result? Gains in speech clarity, sentence complexity, and utterance length—even after just five sessions. And for many children, spontaneous language emerges naturally, without the artificial scaffolding of sentence strips and forced modeling.

“We need to stop being gatekeepers asking, Can they do this? and start asking, How can we help them do this?”

💡 Want to Try This Strategy?

The exact language target paragraphs Kelly describes in this episode are exclusive to the SIS Membership. But today, she’s sharing the methodology so you can start seeing the cascading gains in your own practice—starting Monday morning.

🚀 Ready to Change Lives One Paragraph at a Time?

The SIS Membership gives you access to:

• Treatment target paragraphs for speech & language
• Research-based strategies that actually work in real-world settings

👉 Join the SIS Membership today at www.kellyvess.com/sis
Your next language breakthrough starts here.

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Are you using the Gestalt Language Processing (GLP) approach in your language assessments—or wondering if you should? In this episode of The Preschool SLP Podcast, we cut through the noise to break down what’s evidence-based, what’s not, and how to make informed, practical decisions starting Monday morning. Whether you're a speech-language pathologist or a parent of a child with autism, this episode will equip you to approach Gestalt language development with discernment and clarity. In This Episode, you'll Learn: What is Gestalt Language Development and where it comes from (Marge Blanc, Barry Prizant, Laura Lee)? Why does current meta-analytic research cast doubt on many GLP intervention programs? Which active ingredients of the Gestalt paradigm align with spontaneous, generative language development? What are the biggest red flags in GLP that may hinder progress? The #1 evidence-based assessment tool you should be using (Hint: It's a spontaneous language sample—only 25 utterances needed!)? How to measure growth using: Repetition reduction, Type-token ratio, Verb diversity, Subject-verb combinations, Syntactic + grammatical complexity? Why do verbs matter more than nouns in assessing vocabulary gains? How to “be discerning like a swan” and combine the best of multiple intervention models? This episode isn’t just theory—it’s practical, raw, and backed by real research. If you're looking to create impactful change in language development, this is your blueprint. 🔗 Resources Mentioned: ResearchGate: 25-Utterance Language Sample Study, Barry Prizant’s work on Echolalia, Marge Blanc’s six stages of GLP, Laura Lee’s Developmental Sentence Scoring. Want Tools That Make Monday Easier? Get ready-to-use multimodal activities for autistic learners in the SIS Membership? Join hundreds of SLPs transforming their therapy with SIS Membership's evidence-based tools you can download and use today. 👉 Join the SIS Membership now at www.kellyvess.com/sis

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We're combining two of the most highly requested topics—Gestalt Language Processing and AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication)—into one conversation with Farwa Husain of First Phrases. We're answering some key questions about AAC + Gestalt: What do we actually know about integrating gestalts with high-tech AAC systems? What’s missing in the research? How can SLPs move forward confidently on Monday morning without waiting for perfect data? What Gestalt Language Processing really means (and why you can’t “give” a child a gestalt)? What common AAC myths are holding children back—and what to do instead? Is the child “stimming” on AAC devices (spoiler: it’s often exploration-a good thing)? Why focus on relationship-first therapy? How can we model extensively and in a meaningful manner? What are some joyful learning strategies for introducing AAC to Gestalt Language Processors in preschool? Whether you're a seasoned SLP or just getting started, this episode is packed with actionable insights and evidence-informed best practices for Monday morning therapy with autistic preschoolers.

Guest Bio: Farwa Husain is a specialist in Gestalt Language Processing and AAC integration. Follow her on Instagram @firstphrasesofficial and learn more at www.firstphrases.com.

Roll up your sleeves and join the SIS Membership today! Get ready to implement what you hear on the podcast with done-for-you, ready-to-use literacy, music, and movement-based activities that treat the whole child. The SIS Membership is your go-to toolbox for engaging, evidence-based, educationally rich, neurodiversity-affirming therapy activities that treat the whole child in preschool and elementary school settings. Get AAC support, weekly movement activities, visuals, behavior supports, AAC strategies, Google Slides Decks, and more—all aligned with best practices discussed in today’s episode. I look forward to seeing you at the SIS Membership drawing board. Join now at www.kellyvess.com/sis

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Is the way you’re working… actually working?
In this candid and empowering episode of The Preschool SLP, I sit down with the SLP Happy Hour host, Sarah Lockhart, to talk about what no one tells you in grad school: the path to sustainability as an SLP is rarely linear.

Together, we unpack what it really takes to thrive in this field—from navigating burnout to rebuilding self-trust, shifting careers, and defining success on your own terms. Whether you’re in public schools, private practice, teletherapy, or contracting, this conversation will meet you exactly where you are.

What You'll Learn:

• The hidden costs of perfectionism and overworking
• When private practice becomes unsustainable
• The real pros and cons of contracting, teletherapy, and salaried school positions
• How to build a fulfilling SLP career through self-trust and clinical intuition
• Why working smarter (not harder) is the key to staying in this field long term

If this episode hit home, and you’re craving less prep and more purpose in your therapy sessions, then it’s time to join the SIS Membership.

Inside SIS, you’ll get:

✅ Weekly ready-to-go, research-backed therapy materials

✅ Tools like the Behavior Flip Cards and Progress Diplomas featured in this episode

✅ Multimodal strategies that support the whole child

✅ A system that protects your energy so you can focus on what matters: being present

Join now and start working smarter today: www.kellyvess.com/sis

00:00 Introduction and Inspirational Opening
02:33 Sarah's Journey as an SLP
04:16 Challenges and Realities of Private Practice
04:46 The Shift to Telepractice
07:24 Balancing Work and Personal Life
18:12 Top Recovery Tips for SLPs

Get your Behavior Rule Flip Cards + Behavior Diplomas at:
🔗 www.kellyvess.com/behavior

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If you work with or have a child with communication impairments, today's episode, dedicated to improving behavior, is a 'must-listen'. I’m pulling back the curtain and giving you access to two powerful tools straight from my SIS Membership that are helping SLPs across the country transform their therapy sessions—without burning out.

Heat up your laminator and get ready for success.

🔧 Tool #1 will help your kiddos develop prosocial communication behaviors.
🔧Tool #2 will support celebrating and generalizing prosocial communication behaviors.

These tools are designed to be effective, easy to implement, and evidence-based for kiddos with communication challenges.

Download both free tools by going to www.kellyvess.com/behavior

Receive ready-to-go, empirically-based, engaging activities (with parent home practice) in your inbox every week by joining the SIS Membership today at www.kellyvess.com/sis

Join SIS and be present this year.

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Take your recovery as seriously as the work. In this episode, I share my five current favorite health hacks for achieving optimal health and well-being, both mentally and physically. P.S. Prevent burnout by becoming a SIS member and receiving educationally rich, ready-for-use materials in your inbox weekly. Don't delay and join the SIS Membership today at kellyvess.com/sis

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Over 20 years ago, I moved from the "I want" sentence strip to the "Look at" one in working with children with Autism. Why? This episode explores the advantages of using a "Look at" sentence strip over an "I want" sentence strip to optimize gains in the development of communication skills in children with autism in both the short and long term. Ready to take action? Don't delay and join me at the intervention drawing board by joining the SIS Membership today at kellyvess.com/sis

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We're diving into one of the most common and heart-wrenching challenges faced by parents, educators, and therapists—separation anxiety. Leave this episode with a simple, yet effective, four-step process to ease anxiety and build relationships with confidence and compassion. Make sure to set yourself up for success by understanding a child’s temperament, triggers, and favorite things—before they walk in the door by downloading the tried and true, free parent input form now at kellyvess.com/parentinputform Don't delay by rolling up your sleeves and taking action today b joining the SIS Membership at kellyvess.com/sis

P.S. If you loved this episode, please follow, rate, and review the show. Your support helps spread responsive, evidence-based practices around the world.

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Are you working with anxious children who are exhibiting challenging behavior? What can you do to help? Check out this episode for six actionable steps you can take right now to make a difference.

Don't delay and join the SIS Membership today at kellyvess.com/sis to receive educationally rich activities weekly that treat the whole child and empower you to focus on what matters most: meaningful interactions.

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This week, we are diving into play. We will discuss the importance of transitioning from sensory to symbolic play levels. Ready to take action and engage in educationally rich play activities during your sessions? Don't delay and join the SIS membership today at kellyvess.com/sis

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Researchers estimate that a majority of children with developmental delays have Sensory Processing Disorder. What to do? Let's dive in!

Raevsky, M., Nabalta, C. A., & Atiles, J. T. (2025). Managing sensory processing disorders in an early childhood classroom: Evidence-based strategies for teachers. Early Childhood Education Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-025-01904-z

Ready to put research into practice every week? Join me at the drawing board by joining the SIS Membership at https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

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We're diving into the latest scoping review of the impact of intervention focused on reducing echolalia for children with Autism. A question we must ask: Is echolalia something to embrace or extinguish to optimize outcomes?

Learn how to improve outcomes by capitalizing on echolalia using the SIS Membership activities and treatment targets. Join at https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Source: Dinello, A., & Gladfelter, A. (2025). Intervention techniques targeting echolalia: A scoping review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 34(3), 1528–1543. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_ajslp-24-00211

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Are you frustrated by a lack of progress in treating children with Developmental Language Disorder? It could be your treatment target. Perhaps, you are aiming too low. Learn my favorite 'go-to' target to create optimal change in language and literacy skills, and the six-step process that builds agency and automaticity for the child. Only action can create change. Join the SIS Membership and receive complex, language paragraph targets that you can put into practice today when you join: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

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Does having a speech sound disorder put a preschooler at risk for persistent language and literacy delays? The latest research research includes 290 effect sizes that compare children with speech sound disorders to their neurotypical peers. It indicates that the risk for children with speech sound disorders is greater for both language and literacy delays, and these delays, sadly, tend to worsen over time. Check out this episode and leave empowered with three steps you can take today to improve speech, language, and literacy outcomes when treating speech sound disorders.

Ready to DSD? Don't delay. Roll up your sleeves and join the SIS membership at kellyvess.com/sis today. You can join for a month, receive powerful speech and language targets, and simply unsubscribe if it isn't for you.

Walquist-Sørli, L., et al. (2025). Are speech sound difficulties risk factors for difficulties in language and reading skills? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 68(1), 164–177. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_jslhr-24-00170

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Your gains in treating speech sound disorders will largely be based on your treatment targets. How to select powerful targets? This episode will empower you with five questions to ask to determine if your speech treatment targets are as optimal as they can be to create change. Ready to put these empirically-based targets into practice? Don't delay and join the SIS Membership today to immediately receive the powerful sentence and paragraph treatment targets at https://www.kellyvess.com/sis If it's not for you simply unsubscribe after a month.

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SLPs often equate "R" with 'hard work'. However, "R" is your best friend in making someone of the trickiest sounds easy. In this episode, learn how to use "R" to make the most complex treatment targets easy. Hint: Get out your blender. Ready to join me in putting innovative, empirically-based strategies to work on Monday morning? Don't delay and join the SIS Membership at kellyvess.com/sis

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If you work with elementary age children, today's episode is for you. We are diving into game-changing activities that accelerate gains across five developmental domains.

Ready to receive these activities with ready-to-use activities weekly? Check out the SIS Membership at https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

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How can we translate the latest neurological cerebro-cerebellar research into Monday morning practice to improve speech outcomes? Let's dive into tried and true strategies that improve speech outcomes for children with Autism today.

Ready to DSD: Do Something Different? Don't delay and join the SIS membership today at https://kellyvess.com/sis

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The latest research indicates that the type of activity matters in terms of outcomes. This week, we're putting the latest research into Monday morning practice.

Ready to put research into practice? Don't delay and try the SIS Membership out today at https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Su, W., Srinivasan, S., & Bhat, A. (2025). Effects of creative movement, general movement, or seated play interventions on motor performance in children with autism spectrum disorder: A pilot randomized controlled trial. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 119, 102501.

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We are diving into five needle-moving strategies that support children with Autism. Make sure to listen to this episode to the end because each one will produce game-changing results.

Ready to roll up your sleeves and change lives today? Check out the SIS Membership for ready-to-use, effective, and educationally rich activities to be delivered to your inbox weekly at kellyvess.com/sis

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If you work with children with communication delays, this episode is for you. I am sharing a simple, yet powerful, four-step process to improve executive function in speech therapy.

Ready to roll up your sleeves and put research into practice every week? Try the SIS Membership today at kellyvess.com/sis

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This episode will challenge you to DSD (Do Something Different) when treating speech sound disorders to improve outcomes. Learn how you can create optimal change by placing your targets in paragraph form. Doing so will result in gains across developmental domains. See for yourself. If not now, then when? Don't wait another day and join the SIS Membership today to receive the treatment target library that includes multiple paragraphs in speech and language. Get the revised targets for 2025 with video clips that show you how to cue each target. Join SiS for a month to receive both the original and newly revised treatment targets at www.kellyvess.com/sis

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Join me for five lessons from the popular Preschool podcast.

What to do on Monday morning? Check out the SIS Membeship for educationally-rich activities and a Google Slides Deck at kellyvess.com/sis

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Feeling stressed lately? Learn an evidence-based, 100% natural way to lower your stress levels through thalamus tapping and positive affirmations.

Ready to roll up your sleeves and join me at the SIS drawing board? Check out the SIS Membership at kellyvess.com/sis

Blacher, S. (2023). Emotional freedom technique (EFT): Tap to relieve stress and burnout. Journal of Interprofessional Education Practice, 30, 100599. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xjep.2023.100599: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36687311/

John Diamond's Positive Affirmations: https://www.polishukwellness.com/2015-3-22-dailyaffirmations/

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Dive into the episode for three actionable steps to being culturally competent. Being culturally competent is pivotal to being effective in working with families, colleagues, and children with communication impairments.

Enough talk already. Ready to take action? Join the SIS Membership and let's roll up our sleeves together at https://kellyvess.com/sis

Check out the article by Jennifer Lansford in Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/parenting-and-culture/202201/can-parents-be-both-individualist-and-collectivist

You can access 'The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down' by Anne Fadiman on Audible or any major bookstore.

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This episode dives into five common mistakes professionals make with high-tech AAC devices. Check out this episode to learn how we can DSD (Do Something Different) by knowing better and doing better.

Make sure to check out the SIS Membership and receive our updated 2025 speech and language targets with digital clips to illustrate cues at www.kellyvess.com/sis

Join the SIS Membership for a month, have a library of powerful treatment targets, and unsubscribe if you and your kiddos don't love the SIS Membership.

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Join me behind the scenes to review this recent article on AAC for children with Autism. You can access the article at ASHA.org:

Lund, S. K., Quach, W., Weissling, K., & McKelvey, M. (2025). Augmentative and alternative communication assessment for children on the autism spectrum: Protocol development and content validation. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 56(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_lshss-23-00127

To download a free Step-by-Step "How-to" Support Children Using AAC Devices using the M.O.D.E.L. digital workshop, Go to: www.kellyvess.com/aac

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If you work with or have a child with Autism, this episode is for you. We are diving into three strategies that support regulation for children with sensory challenges. Put these strategies into use today, and don't delay and join SIS today. Receive the updated speech and language treatment library, complete with video illustrations at kellyvess.com/sis

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Let's talk data!

In this episode, I share my empirically-based method to monitor gains when treating speech sound disorders effectively. Ready to cut your number of speech errors in half three months into the school year? Don't delay and check out the SIS Membership today at kellyvess.com/sis
Receive newly updated speech and language targets the week you join and optimize your speech and language gains today.

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Putting research into real-world practice can be challenging in the real world, where ineffective practices are commonplace. However, don't let these obstacles deter you from going against the grain in providing empirically-based practices. This episode will give you four strategies to create lifelong change for your clients in less-than-ideal environments. You've got this!

Ready to roll up your sleeves and put research into practice? Don't delay and check out the SIS Membership today at kellyvess.com/sis

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When you are healthier and happier, you perform better both inside and outside of therapy. I am sharing my favorite five self-care splurges in this episode. These brands, for which I have no affiliations, are primarily pure.com and cruchi.com.

If you are ready to uplevel your therapy in 2025, don't delay and check out SIS today with the free "3 Intervention Secrets Workshop" at kellyvess.com:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15nbJ0ocJqIDUiLOTgKAotiM6fB2nY1hW/view

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Here come the holidays! Unfortunately, they can be exceptionally challenging for our kiddos who stutter and tend to become dysfluent during this time. Check out this episode for eight strategies today that support fluency for children who stutter by building resiliency while removing holiday stressors.

Looking for 100% done-for-you weekly activities? Make sure to check out the Free 3 Intervention Secrets Workshop:

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SLPs in the field are reporting an increase in students with selective mutism since COVID. What to do? Check out this episode for eight empirically-based strategies for teachers and SLPs to implement today to support children with selective mutism.

Ready to put research into practice today? Learn about the SIS Membership by watching this free 3 Intervention Secrets Workshop.

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Rapport is everything when it comes to success in speech therapy. How do you build it? Check out this episode for five empirically based strategies.

Click here to download the parent input form.

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Gestalt language learners tend to learn language initially as whole chunks and break them into individual parts over time. How can we capitalize on a gestalt learning style? Emphasize sentences that will provide great social and practical coverage. In this episode, I'm sharing my top ten gestalts to emphasize for early gestalt language processors.

Ready to provide engaging, effective, and empirically-based activities? Check out the SIS Membership at kellyvess.com

Marge Blanc's Natural Language Acquisition Website: https://communicationdevelopmentcenter.com/

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Check out this episode and learn how making this one simple change in treating speech sound disorders will produce significant results in speech, language, literacy, and executive function.

Try implementing complex speech target paragraphs in your practice by joining SIS today. When you join, you'll receive a library of speech targets to download and immediately use.
To learn more about SIS, check out this free, 30-minute workshop by clicking here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15nbJ0ocJqIDUiLOTgKAotiM6fB2nY1hW/view

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Meta-analytic research indicates that speech-language therapists do not improve language comprehension for students with developmental language disorders. However, multiple studies have indicated that explicit narrative, story-retelling interventions can produce robust gains in language comprehension and expression.

Put empirically-based strategies into practice this week by joining the SIS Membership at kellyvess.com

Watch a free, 3-intervention secret workshop by clicking here.

Law, J., Garrett, Z., & Nye, C. (2004). The efficacy of treatment for children with developmental speech and language delay/disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 47(4), 924–943. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2004/069)

Pico, D. L., Hessling Prahl, A., Biel, C. H., Peterson, A. K., Biel, E. J., Woods, C., & Contesse, V. A. (2021). Interventions designed to improve narrative language in school-age children: A systematic review with Meta-analyses. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 52(4), 1109–1126. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_lshss-20-00160

Rinaldi, S., Caselli, M. C., Cofelice, V., D’Amico, S., De Cagno, A. G., Della Corte, G., Di Martino, M. V., Di Costanzo, B., Levorato, M. C., Penge, R., Rossetto, T., Sansavini, A., Vecchi, S., & Zoccolotti, P. (2021). Efficacy of the treatment of developmental language disorder: A systematic review. Brain Sciences, 11(3), 407. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11030407

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Why isn't 'Mama' a first word for many children with Autism, yet it is for their neurotypical peers? There are four underlying physiological causes for this difference? Let's dive in to explore these four reasons why 'Mama' is not just naturally developing and what we need to do differently to encourage the development of this pivotally important word.

Ready to work more effectively with children with autism by treating the whole child with done-for-you, ready-to-use activities delivered weekly in your inbox? Don't delay and learn about the SIS Membership with this free 30-minute, 3-intervention secret workshop. Looking forward to seeing you at the SIS drawing board,💚Kelly

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Check out this episode and learn ten simple ways you can modify educationally-rich activities for diverse groups of children on your caseload.

Focus on what matters by having done-for-you, ready-to-use, educationally-rich activities delivered to your inbox every week. Learn about the SIS Membership in this free, 3 Intervention Secrets workshop.

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How can you help children with Developmental Language Delays? Check out this episode, in which I share three powerful, empirically based strategies that you can put into practice today.

If you are ready to put these strategies into practice with ready-for-use, done-for-you activities delivered to your inbox weekly, check out the SIS Membership at kellyvess.com. To learn more about SIS, check out this free, 30 minute, 3-intervention secrets workshop.

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SLPs can understandably get uncomfortable when it comes to holidays. Cultural bias is an obvious concern. However, this doesn't mean that they should be written off. Research indicates that discussing near holiday events positively impacts language, cognitive, and social-emotional development. Trick or treat? Halloween treats the whole child.

Ready to put research into practice today? Check out the SIS Membership with this free 30-minute, 3-intervention secrets workshop:

Reference:
Chernyak, N., Leech, K. A., & Rowe, M. L. (2017). Training preschoolers’ prospective abilities through conversations about the extended self. Developmental Psychology, 53(4), 652–661. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000283

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Join me with Afton Clark, mother, autism advocate, and creator of Alchemizing Autism. She shares cutting-edge ways to holistically support children with Autism's minds, hearts, and bodies. Connect with her on Instagram @alchemizingautism or email aftonclark@alchemizingautism.com

Book referenced in this interview: "Cracking the Autism Code" by Dr. Kyle Daigel

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If you work with children who are minimally speaking, this episode is for you. Kelly Vess is sharing how to develop consistent speech using books.

Ready to put research into practice with Done-for-You weekly, educationally-rich activities? Check out the SIS Membership and begin creating massive change today. Learn more about the SIS Membership at KellyVess.com

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What speech errors should you pay attention to? Speech errors can indicate whether or not a child is at risk for concurrent language delay. Dive into this episode about six errors that you want to pay attention to when assessing speech.

To learn more, check out my clinical textbook, Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment

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Have you ever been in a rut where you find yourself stuck in a toy box filled with cause-effect sensory toys? I've been there, done that and have three effective strategies to support an increase in diverse play experiences in working with preschoolers with Autism.
To learn more about how you can uplevel your therapy with the SIS Membership, check out this free 30 minute video (click here).

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Autism is a multifaceted condition that requires a multi-faceted approach. For this, collaborative group interventions can be highly effective. Check out this episode for strategies that set your groups up for success.

Ready to put research into action with your kiddos? Learn more about the SIS Membership by clicking here.

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Where to begin on the first days of therapy? What do you do on days one, two, three, and four of therapy? It's time to build relationships. How? Check out this episode for a simple 3-step process to pave the way for success.

Ready to put research into practice with ready-to-use, educationally-rich materials? Check out the SIS Membership. Learn more about the membership with this free, 30-minute workshop.

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Research indicates routine home practice improves outcomes. What can we do to make home practice a habit? Learn three ways to make home practice engaging and effective in this episode.

Join the SIS Membership to put these home practice strategies into practice today. Click here to learn more about the SIS Membership.

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High-tech AAC devices are becoming more readily available. However, many SLPs and families are uncomfortable using these devices. This episode shares the M.O.D.E.L. strategy to help parents and professionals effectively implement high-tech AAC devices throughout the child's day.

Ready to put research into practice? Learn about the SIS Membership and receive a 30-minute digital workshop illustrating the M.O.D.E.L. strategy when you join.

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Many children with Autism learn to talk through gestalt language processing. This episode dives into how we can capitalize on this learning style to optimize gains when neuroplasticity is at its peak.

Ready to 'roll up your sleeves' and put research into practice? Learn more about SIS with this free 30-minute workshop on how to make therapy easy and effective with the SIS Membership.

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What metric is most important to pay attention to when language sampling children with Autism? Let's dive into the latest research on language sampling that captures progress in gestalt language processors.
Ready to put research into practice? Learn more about the SIS membership here.

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Is 'synesthesia' part of your vernacular? If you work with children with Autism, it should be. Capitalizing on the strengths that come with synesthesia can truly accelerate gains across motor, social, speech, and language domains. Check out this episode, and let's dive into what you can do today.

Capitalize on synesthesia by joining the SIS membership today. Ready to learn more? Learn more about SIS in this 30-minute free workshop.

Just wanted to share a 1-minute laugh: YouTube Clip of Impersonations of Color: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aYBnTOZ1AgM

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The research continues to grow, indicating multiple benefits of adding music to speech and language therapy. How can you add music to your speech therapy sessions today to improve? Let's dive in!
Put research into practice today by joining the SIS Membership. Learn more about SIS here with this free, 30-minute workshop.

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How should you schedule your therapy to make the most out of limited time in the face of high caseloads? Let's dive into the research on sessions ranging from 5 minutes to one hour in length? How often should therapy be scheduled every week? What's an time n terms of both session duration and frequency in treating speech sound disorders? Let's take a closer look at variables to consider before creating your schedule. Ready to put research into practice this week and create optimal change early on? Join the SIS membership at kellyvess.com/sis

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How can you use family photos to improve conversational speaking skills for preschoolers with autism? In this episode, we're diving into evidence-based strategies to educate parents on how to use family pictures to improve communication skills. Learn evidence-based strategies that you can adopt into your practice today.

Ready to put research into in-person therapy or telepractice? Check out the SIS membership and join me at the intervention drawing board today.

Citation: Bhana, N., Raulston, T. J., Ousley, C., & Bagawan, A. (2023). Photographs and parent training to support conversations about past events between caregivers and children with autism. Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 8(2), 311–323. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41252-023-00333-6

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Unfortunately, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines are rarely discussed in Speech-Language Pathology. However, they are absolute game-changers in engaging children and optimizing outcomes. Check out this episode to learn about UDLs and how you can incorporate them into your practice today.

Download the UDL Guidelines here.

Learn About the SIS Membership and uplevel your practice with UDLs today.

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What's causes workplace burnout? What can you do to stop it? Let's roll up our sleeves and figure this out together. P.S. If you're ready to do DSD (do something different) with educationally-rich activities 100% done-for-you every week, check out the SIS Membership 3 Intervention Secrets workshop. Join today and don't miss July and August bonus "How-to-do-it" workshops at kellyvess.com

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What does the largest ADHD research study indicate to be the five strengths of having ADHD? How can we use this information to empower those with ADHD? What are the next steps in understanding the strengths of neurodiversity? Let's dive into strengths that were reported from 200 individuals with ADHD.

Make sure to bridge the latest research into practice every Sunday by signing up for my free newsletter: Kellyvess.com

Source: Schippers, L. M., Horstman, L. I., Velde, H. van, Pereira, R. R., Zinkstok, J., Mostert, J. C., Greven, C. U., & Hoogman, M. (2022). A qualitative and quantitative study of self-reported positive characteristics of individuals with ADHD. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.922788

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What does the meta-analytic research indicate about non-pharmacological treatments for ADD? Can they replace medication? Can they complement medication? Can they be used to lessen the dosage of medication? Let's dive into the latest research and explore options to discuss with your medical professional.

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When treating speech sound disorders, you can do everything right and still not have the expected results. This episode examines three challenges beyond speech that can prevent success in speech therapy. Check out this episode to learn how to overcome these obstacles for optimal results in treating speech delays.

Don't delay and put 100% done-for-you, top-shelf weekly intervention activities into practice today by joining the SIS membership at kellyvess.com. To learn more about SIS, check out this link.

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The latest research indicates that AAC intervention can be as effective remotely as in person for minimally speaking children with Autism. So, how do you do it? Let's explore five steps to put into practice today.

-Check out the Telepractice in Speech-Language Therapy: The Use of Online Technologies for Parent Training and Coaching by Melinda Snodgrass et al.

-Don't delay and check out the SIS Membership today for 100% done-for-you activities delivered to your inbox weekly.

-Check out my book "32 Intervention Strategies for Children with Autism that Causes Lifelong Change" on Audible or in Print

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What has research found to be eight barriers that keep us from growing? Let's dive in and discuss what we can do to overcome these barriers to innovate our practice today to create massive change.

Bridge the latest research into practice every Sunday with my free newsletter

Join the SIS Membership and put research into practice today.

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Today, I'm going to share with you the latest research on how to make language sampling easier, more effective, and more efficient. We will focus on a super easy language sampling strategy you can use with young preschool to early elementary age today. Our special focus will be language sampling children who are minimally speaking with Autism. For more information on treating children with Autism, check out my 32 Lesson in Autism book. For more information on treating speech sound disorders, check out my Speech Sound Disorders book. For 100% done-for-you educationally rich activities delivered to your inbox weekly, check out the SIS Membership.

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Join me in stepping back and viewing CAS from a wide-angle lens. It's time to evaluate and treat it as the multi-faceted condition it is. We're going to bridge the latest research into Monday morning practice.

Join me in DSD (Doing Something Different)

Ready to put educationally-rich activities into your practice that are 100% done-for-you every week? Check out the "3 Secrets to Making Intervention Easy Workshop" at kellyvess.com

Ready to Learn More? Check out My Book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment"

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Movement matters! How can you improve communication outcomes through movement? Let's dive into six ways you can improve communication outcomes based on the latest research. Looking to learn more? Check out my autism series at speechpathology.com Looking to do more? Check out my SIS membership with activities 100% done for you at kellyvess.com

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Children with Autism are more likely to experience victimization and co-occurring psychiatric conditions. Yet, these psychiatric conditions are often overshadowed by Autism and go under-identified and untreated. What can we do today to make a difference? Let's dive in!

For more information on putting the latest research into Monday morning practice,

1. check out the SIS Membership at kellyvess.com/sis
2. check out my Autism series on speechpathology.com
3. check out my latest book 32 Lessons that Create LIfelong Change In Autism Intervention

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Does what speech test you pick matter? Yes. Let's dive in to this important topic.
Ready for educationally-rich speech activities 100% done-for-you? Check out the SIS Membership at kellyvess.com/sis

Work with children with Autism? The Autism Intervention Series at SpeechPathology.com

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What's the relationship between intervention and neurodiversity in autism? Let's dive in. For more information on Autism, learn as you like.
Continuing Education: For more on Autism, check out April's Autism awareness series at speechpathology.com on Thursday at 12 PM Eastern Time
Book: Check out "32 Intervention Strategies that Create Lifelong Change in Autism Intervention on Audible or Paperback
Monday Morning Practice: 100% Done-For-You Activities at https://kellyvess.com/sis

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Do you work with children with Autism who are learning to talk? What can you do to help them? Check out this episode to learn an evidence-based strategy that will be highly effective for some of your clients. This game-changing tool is a must have for your intervention toolbox.

Ready to learn more?
Are you a reader? Check out my latest book "32 Intervention Strategies for Autism that Create Lifelong Change in Autism Intervention," on Audible

Are you a continuing education SLP?
Check out my 2024 April Autism Series on speechpathology.com

Are you a roll your sleeves up and do it?
Check out kellyvess.com/sis

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Mirror, mirror on the wall, what's the most effective cueing strategy of them all? We're covering the strategy that is demonstrating gains across developmental domains for diverse groups of students with its evidence base consistently growing. Let's dive in!

Have educationally-rich, 100% done-for-you activities arrive in your inbox weekly by joining the SIS Membership today at https://kellyvess.com/sis

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Are you legal when it comes to AAC? The U.S. Department of Education clarified legal mandates for 2024 under IDEA. Many SLPs in public education would be hard pressed to affirm compliance to these mandates. Let's dive into the current legal to practice lag.

P.S. Read to put research into practice today with weekly activities 100% done-for-you? Check out the SIS Membership.

Check out my latest book "32 Lessons that Create Lifelong Change in Autism Intervention" on audible or paperback.

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The latest research indicates there's a right way to do AAC and a wrong way. Let's put the research into Monday morning practice. Dive in with me on the top 10 NOT-to-dos.

Looking for more on Autism? Check out my latest book, "32 Lessons that Create Lifelong Change in Autism Intervention," on Audible or paperback.

Ready to put research into practice with done-for-you activities today? Check out the SIS Membership at kellyvess.com/sis

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Self-care must be a top priority if you work with or have a child with special needs. In this episode, I share my favorite supplements for self-care. Consult your naturopath, doctor, or dietitian about which supplements work best. Note: I forgot to mention my Nordic Naturals Omega 3's here.

P.S. Ready to have your weekly lessons planned and prepped for you? Check out the SIS Membership at kellyvess.com/sis

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Do you do movement activities with upper elementary students? Yes! Check out this episode for six highly effective, evidence-based strategies to put into place today. Ready to roll up your sleeves and put TOMTx activities in to practice today? Don't delay and check out the SIS Membership today at kellyvess.com/sis

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Let's unpack why task-oriented movement activities are a MUST for your speech and language therapy sessions. To have 100% done-for-you task-oriented movement activities sent to your inbox weekly, check out www.kellyvess.com/sis

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Is speech home practice necessary for the child to make significant gains? How can we make speech home practice easy, engaging, and effective? Let's unpack this. To put research into practice today, check out the SIS Membership at kellyvess.com/sis

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Your room has been torn to pieces. There's been lots of tears with few words. What to do in the face of chaos? Put these three strategies into place to challenge yet support your students with autism. For 32 more strategies to put into place, check out my book 32 Strategies that Create Lifelong Change in Autism Intervention on audible or in print.

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What can you do to make 'R' easy? Check out this episode and leave with three evidence-based, effective strategies to put into practice today. Sign up for my weekly newsletter at kellyvess.com.

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Join me in cleaning house and getting rid of ineffectual goals. Then, we can focus on pivotal goals that truly change communication skills. To learn more, check out the goal writing workshop in The Preschool SLP: KellyVessSLP Facebook Group.

For how to put the goals into practice, check out The 3 Intervention Secrets Workshop.

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Ready to uplevel intervention in 2024? Where to start? Goals. Check out this episode for the four game-changing principles that are pivotally important when writing goals. Know your 'why'. Get ready to jump into the 'how' as I walk you through the step-by-step process in our free 3-day workshop in "The Preschool SLP: KellyVessSLP" Facebook Group. Don't delay and join today.

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To qualify or not to qualify? That is the question. Communication impairments are multi-faceted. They require a multi-faceted approach in assessment and intervention. Check out this episode for how to conduct a multi-faceted evaluation. Let's dive in! To take a holistic approach to intervention, check out the SIS membership and make sure to join before 2024 when rates will increase for new members only.

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Keep speech targets the same or change them? There are obvious benefits to both. What does the latest research say? Dive into this game-changing topic, and check out my latest research. Leave this episode deciding to do something different or not. P.S. Make sure to check out the SIS Membership to lock in the current low rate. It will be increasing on January 1, 2024.

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Put the very latest research into practice. Learn how to best get and analyze language samples of minimally speaking children. To learn more about autism intervention, check out my latest book in print or audiobook "32 Lessons That Create Lifelong Change in Autism Intervention." For 100% done-for-you, educationally-rich weekly activities, check out the SIS membership at kellyvess.com/sis.

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Looking to end this season strong mentally and physically? Try my six favorite self-care swaps for this fall-winter season. Thank you for being with me at today's drawing board to create better tomorrows.💚KellyVessSLP P.S. Ready to roll up your sleeves and join me in the intervention? Check out my free, 30-minute, 3 Intervention Secrets Workshop.

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The idea that all (wo)men are created equal is misleading. Each child you work with presents with unique strengths and challenges. Intervention must reflect that and be individualized to ensure that all children are thriving. Check out this episode as we talk about why you should actually take a stance against equality in favor of equity.

For more information on treating children with Autism check out my book 32 Lessons in Autism Intervention That Create Lifelong Change on Audible or print

For more information on treating children with Speech Sound Disorders, check out my book with 120 digital clips Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment

For 100% evidence-based, done-for-you activities delivered weekly to your inbox, join my SIS Membership at kellyvess.com/sis and make a difference today.

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Looking for a reliable and valid literacy screener? Check out this episode to learn about the ATLAS-PA. In this episode, I'm sharing modifications I've made to make the ATLAS-PA work. Ready to put research into practice today? Check out the SIS Membership at kellyvess.com/sis. Would you like to learn more first? Check out the FREE "3 Intervention Secrets" workshop.

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Is there a piece of the intervention puzzle that you're missing? Are you honing in on the Motor Speech Disorder? Autism is a multifaceted condition that requires a multi-faceted approach to intervention. Check out this episode to hear my very latest research on speech development for preschoolers with autism.

Ready to put research into practice today? Check out the SIS Membership at https://kellyvess.com/sis
Looking to learn more about Autism Intervention? Check out 32 Lessons That Create Lifelong Change in Autism Intervention in print or audible:

More about speech intervention? Check out Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment

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How many letters should your preschoolers know? Do letters even matter? Yes. Research indicates that not only does it matter if preschoolers know their letters, but also their sounds, and at a fluent level. How can we help children develop their alphabet knowledge meaningfully to prepare them for success in elementary school? To learn more, check out my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" To do it, join the "Sparkle in School Membership" today at kellyvess.com/sis.

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Has Common Core unfairly got a bad rap? Can we have our cake and eat it too by mastering the fundamentals and applying them to higher-level learning?

Check out this episode in which I share a method to encourage higher-level thinking to put into practice today.

How does Common Core apply to the preschool level? Check out your state's early education standards here.

Ready to put the latest research into practice? Check out my latest book "32 Lessons That Create Lifelong Change in Autism Intervention" on Audible".

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Do you work with or have a highly anxious child? What to do? Check out this episode for four game-changing takeaways to put into your practice today. Listen to my latest book on Audible: 32 Lessons That Create Lifelong Change in Autism Intervention.

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Mirror, mirror on the wall, what is the best autism intervention of them all? No intervention is comprehensive enough to meet the multi-faceted needs of autism intervention. What to do instead? Be eclectic and selective in adopting only the active ingredients from evidence-based approaches. Ready to learn more about Autism Intervention? Check out my just-released audiobook on Audible or Amazon: 32 Lessons That Create Lifelong Change in Autism Intervention.

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How often do you change your speech treatment targets? Too often? The child does not have enough practice to develop mastery or automaticity. Too little? The child adapts to the target and is no longer challenged, resulting in a plateau. Let's unpack this topic and balance automaticity with novelty to create optimal change today. Ready to roll up your sleeves and put the latest research into practice? Don't delay and join SIS today at kellyvess.com/sis Learn more about the membership here.

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How do you track gains in communication and behavior in a meaningful manner? Check out this episode and let's unpack what to pay attention to and what to ignore to gauge whether your intervention is working. Ready to put research into practice? Check out my "3 Intervention Secrets Workshop" at kellyvess.com

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Are you picking the right treatment targets? Our research has found that your treatment target can dramatically impact your outcomes. In this episode, I'll share our latest 2023 findings on which treatment targets you should choose and which ones you should pass on. Get treatment targets that work right now by joining the SIS Membership today. Learn more by checking out my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment."

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If you work with children with special needs or at risk populations, Social Emotional Learning (SEL) strategies are game changers not only for the immediate present, but also for the future. Check out this episode to learn the research behind SEL and what you can do to put evidence-based strategies into practice today. If you are interested in putting evidence-based strategies into practice today, check out the 30-minute SIS Membership "3 Intervention Secrets" webinar today. 

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Who benefits from print? The latest research indicates that print benefits all children in improving language learning. How can we embed print in a meaningful manner throughout our therapy sessions? I'll give you the step-by-step process of how I put research into practice in this episode in my SIS Membership. To learn more about literacy and language intervention, check out my "Early Literacy Series" at speechpathology.com or my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" at Amazon. To put research into practice, join the SIS membership at www.kellyvess.com/sis for weekly activities 100% done-for-you at your fingertips.

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Join me in putting the latest research into practice with these three simple steps to efficiently improve language, literacy, and executive function skills. To put research into action today, check out my SIS membership at kellyvess.com/sis To learn more, check out the "Early Literacy Intervention Series" at speechpathology.com or my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment."

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Where to start when it comes to literacy intervention? Let's unpack three heavy-lifting phonological awareness skills that will create generalized, optimal gains in literacy development. Ready to put the latest research into Monday morning practice? Check out the SIS membership, my Speech Sound Disorders book, or the "Early Literacy Series" at speechpathology.com

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Print, digital, or both? What does the latest meta-analytic research have to say about eBooks for preschoolers? Join me in putting the latest research into practice. Ready to put best the latest literacy intervention research into practice? Check out my SIS membership at kellyvess.com/sis or my  early literacy intervention series at speechpathology.com

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Let's talk attention-the foundational skill upon which all learning is dependent. Dive into this episode for six simple, evidene-based strategies that work.

Learn more about implementing effective strategies with my latest book, "32 Intervention Strategies for Children with Autism." Or, put these strategies into practice today with the SIS membership at kellyvess.com/sis.

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Children with executive function challenges are at greater risk for persistent literacy delays. We must ask, 'Why?' How do executive function difficulties specifically impact literacy? Let's dive in.  For 100% done-for-you, ready-to-go, educationally-rich activities delivered to your inbox weekly, check out the Sparkle in School Membership at kellyvess.com/sis

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Do you lack the time to assess literacy skills with your preschoolers? I've got you covered with three literacy assessments that can be completed in 5-15 minutes. Let's dive into how to efficiently assess pint, phonological awareness skills, and verbal working memory. Sign up for my free Sunday newsletter at kellyvess.com

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For the 'magic' to occur in therapy, five foundational pillars must be in place. Check out this episode to set the pillars in your practice today. For evidence-based, highly effective, educationally-rich activities that are 100% done for you every week, join the SIS membership today at kellyvess.com/sis

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How can we impact behavior outside of therapy? Check out this episode as we dive into small to large steps you can take to change lives outside of the school day. For 160 more game-changing strategies, check out my new book, "32 Lessons That Cause Life-Long Change In Autism Intervention," from Amazon today.

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Light, camera, action! Ready to do something different? This episode dives into four ways to use video recording to uplevel your practice. For 160 more strategies to uplevel your intervention, check out my new book, "32 Lessons That Create Life-Long Change In Autism Intervention."

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How do children with Autism develop gestalt language? How can you capitalize on these natural gestalt strengths to improve outcomes? This can't-miss episode leaves you with three takeaways to put into practice today. For over 160 more game-changing strategies, check out my new book "32 Lessons That Create Life-Long Change in Autism Intervention" at Amazon.

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Do you know a child with Autism who talks yet is never heard? This episode shares ten simple speaking rules that children with Autism often follow that can make their speech difficult or nearly impossible to hear or interpret. If you know or work with children with Autism, this is a 'must-see' episode. For more on Autism intervention, check out my new book "32 Lessons That Create Life-Long Change In Autism Intervention."

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Is developmentally "appropriate" a euphemism for "ableism"? This episode dives into four reasons why the words "developmentally appropriate" stifle instead of innovate practice in early childhood education. Can we do better? A change of terminology is proposed. Ready for 160 game-changing tips to put research into practice right now? Check out my new book, "32 Lessons That Create Life-long Change In Autism Intervention" on Amazon today!💚 If you're a doer, roll up your sleeves and join the SIS membership. Don't miss next week's 100% done-for-you activities by joining before Friday. KellyVessSLP

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It's the end of the year progress report time. When was the last time you evaluated yourself, and how you're doing? This episode is about you having balance across domains of your life so you can be your best you. Ready to put research into practice? Check out my brand new book, "32 Lessons That Create Life-long Change In Autism Intervention" on Amazon today!💚KellyVessSLP

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Let's talk about diversity that improves innovation, efficiency, and motivation. Cognitive diversity is a game-changer across disciplines. What role should cognitive diversity play in autism intervention? Let's dive in! To put the evidence-based, field-tested strategies into practice, check out my new book "32 Lessons That Create Change in Autism Intervention."

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True or False? Autism is a lifelong condition. Stakes are high when it comes to autism intervention. Accuracy matters. Stakeholders deserve reliable information. Dive into this important episode for five tips on how to create lifelong change for children with autism.

Ready to roll up your sleeves and take action? Join the SIS membership at kellyvess.com/sis

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Are there life lessons in reality TV worth discussing? Yes. Let's dive in and learn from others' transformations. How can we be agents of change that transform lives? This is a must-see episode if you provide intervention to children with communication impairments. If you're ready to take action, don't delay and join the SIS membership today at https://kellyvess.com/SIS

Don't miss next week's activities that are 100% done for you by joining before Friday.

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What is the single most important skill to focus on with children with Autism? This episode empowers you with six tips to put into practice today. Take action by joining the SIS Membership today and get  educationally rich materials in your inbox every Friday morning at kellyvess.com/sis

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Children learn faster and retain it better when they're engaged and enjoying therapy. How can we up the engagement factor? This episode empowers you with five sensory tricks to add spice to your therapy today. Just.Do.It. Don't delay and join the SIS Membership today: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

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Gestalt is good! So, how can you embrace gestalt language development to accelerate language gains? I'm sharing Lesson #19 from my upcoming book "32 Lessons that Create Life-Long Change in Autism Intervention."💚KellyVessSLP To put research into practice today, check out https://www.kellyvess.com/sis To join my free weekly newsletter, go to https://www.kellyvess.com

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What to do on Day 1 when it comes to AAC + Autism?  In this episode, we're putting the latest AAC research into Monday morning practice. If you're ready to bridge research into practice, don't delay and join SIS today at kellyvess.com/sis for educationally rich activities 100% ready-to-go in your inbox every week. 

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Can 'over-responding' to a child's first words actually result in them producing less speech? In this episode, I'm sharing Lesson #7 from my upcoming book 32 Lessons That Create Lifelong Change in Autism Intervention. In tonight's recap, I share three reasons excitedly reacting to speech can inadvertently impede speech development. Learn the message from my mess as I recount my experience of excitedly responding to a first word and its effects. Thanks for joining me at today's drawing board to create a better tomorrow.💚KellyVessSLP

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Are you incorporating movement into intervention? Great. What kind? The research indicates the type of movement activity matters if you're going to make minimal or substantial gains in motor skill development. Check out this episode in which I share my personal experience with two types of movement activities and what the latest meta-analytic research finds. Put highly effective movement activities into your practice by joining SIS today at kellyvess.com/sis. 

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This is a can't miss episode if you work with children with Autism. We are talking about the Speech Motor Disorder + Autism connection. Check out this episode from Lesson #3 in my upcoming book "32 Lessons That Create Lifelong Change."

To learn more, check out my book Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment.

To do more, join Sparkle in School Membership today to get educationally-rich activities planned and prepped for you in your inbox every week.

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How can you break through the sea of distractions caused by sensory overload? Check out this episode for 5 tips to put to use today to create a signal that cuts through the background noise. I'll be sharing Lesson 15 from my upcoming book "32 Lessons that Create Lifelong Change for Children with Autism."

To learn more, buy my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment." To put research into practice today, check out my SIS Membership.

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What to do on day one in working with children with Autism who are minimally speaking? Let's talk AAC! This episode is an excerpt from Lesson #4 in my upcoming book "32 Lessons for Lifelong Change for Children with Autism."This book took over 20 years of specializing in Autism treatment to write and it's coming out next month! To put the latest research into practice check out the Sparkle in School (SIS) Membership today. Don't miss next week's lessons by signing up before Friday. 

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What cues dramatically improve speech? More importantly, how should they be introduced and faded?

Click here for 100% FREE multimodal speech consonant cues cards with digital clips. Don't delay and join SIS today to receive next week's activities 100% done for you this Friday at 5:30 ET. Learn how to multimodal cue effectively with Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment

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Let's talk about quality instead of quantity when it comes to speech treatment targets. How complex is the speech target? How challenging is the speech target? Do complexity and challenge outweigh frequency of production? To download the complex speech targets in a paragraph format, check out "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" To download the latest developed treatment target paragraphs, check out the SIS Membership.

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Let's talk about letters. Should they be a piece of the preschool intervention puzzle? Check out this episode, and we'll dive into the latest research and how to bridge into Monday morning practice.

Ready to put research into practice today with done-for-you educationally-rich activities? Don't delay, and join SIS today. Don't miss next week's activities by signing up before Friday. 

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Your speech sound disorder treatment target matters. Effective strategies can't undo a poor speech sound disorder target. What three common speech sound disorder "because someone said so" rules should you rethink? Check out this episode and let's dive in. To learn more, check out "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment." To do more with 100% ready-for-use treatment targets and educationally-rich activities done for you, check out the "Sparkle in School" membership today.

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The greatest lifetime gains in executive function occur during the preschool years. What can you do to optimize gains early on? Check out this episode to learn four areas that'll you want to consistently focus on to improve executive function at the preschool level.

To see best practices in improving executive function, check out my book with over 100 digital clips: Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment

To put these strategies into practice this week, join the Sparkle in School Membership: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

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What's the latest meta-analytic research on evidence-based interventions for children with autism? How can you take a multifaceted approach that doesn't rely on a single approach to optimize gains and effectively treat children with Autism? Check out this latest episode for a comprehensive review of what works to empower you to take a multifaceted approach to intervention.

Ready to make your intervention easy and ridiculously effective? Don't delay and join SIS today at kellyvess.com

Looking to learn more? Check out my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment"

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Your thinking will impact how successful you are as an SLP. Learn creative and three powerful visualization strategies to get you on track to achieving your goals and materializing your dreams in the face of adversity. For more on actions to take today to create success in your work, check out the free limited-time replay of my "Challenge Creates Change: How to write Game Changing Goals" Boot Camp. Learn more about literacy intervention in "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" Just do it with weekly, ready-for-use materials in the Sparkle in School Membership.

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Dialogical reading prompts are evidence-based and widely used in preschools across the U.S. How can they be effectively implemented with preschoolers with developmental language delays? Check out this episode to learn how you can effectively implement dialogic reading prompts with one child to groups of children with developmental language delays. For more information on effective literacy intervention with preschoolers....

Check out the free limited-time replay of my "Challenge Creates Change: How to write Game Changing Goals" Boot Camp.

Learn more about literacy intervention in "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment"

Just do it with weekly, ready-for-use materials in the Sparkle in School Membership.

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Ready to up-level your language intervention goals? Check out this episode with an excerpt from this week's "Challenge Creates Change: How to Write Game Changing Language Goals" boot camp challenge from our "The Preschool SLP: KellyVessSLP" Facebook Group. For ready-for-use materials, join SIS today and put research into practice today. To learn more, check out Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment for video and text support.

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Challenge creates change. Research in speech, language, and literacy indicates that the more complex the target, the greater the gains. Check out this episode to dive into the why and how behind complex treatment targets. Make sure to join "The Preschool SLP: KellyVessSLP" Facebook Group to learn the step-by-step in creating goals that matter. Ready to put the latest research into practice? To know better, check out "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" To do better, roll up your sleeves and join the "Sparkle in School Membership" today.

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In our field, intervention aimed at improving verbal working memory has been dismal. Until along came oral narrative intervention, which has demonstrated efficacy in improving language comprehension and expression at the preschool to school age level. Leave this episode with a little-known, powerful strategy that improves outcomes for children with developmental language delays. To learn more, check out "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" To do better, join the "Sparkle in School Membership" today.

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What are the early indicators of developmental language delay (DLD)? What's the hallmark impairment of DLD? How can we reliably assess DLD using standardized tests and spontaneous language samples?

If you'd like the key points of each episode, sign up for my free Sunday newsletter.

If reading is your learning love language, order my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" today.

If you're like me and learn best by doing, join my "Sparkle in School Membership" today. Let me help you make intervention easy, engaging, and effective every week.

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Should you assess grammatical morphemes at age 3? The combination of a lack of normative data, great variability, and unreliable assessments suggests grammatical morpheme assessment of three-year-olds is simply not an evidence-based practice. Let's take a closer look at this common practice.

Interested in learning more? Check out my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment"

Ready to put research into practice? Join the Sparkle in School Membership

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Today, I share my single greatest mistake in 20 years of being an SLP in my misguided attempts to encourage speech as well as five effective strategies that promote speech development for children with Autism. Thank you for joining me at the drawing board today to create a better tomorrow. You're first, Kelly

For more...

-Sign up for my free weekly Sunday newsletter.

-Read "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment"

-Join Sparkle in School Membership for Weekly Ready-for-Use Activities

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Do you assess speech perception? How much of an impact does it have on overall literacy development? In this episode, I share my super simple, quick method of evaluating speech perception and how speech perception challenges and twelve other factors can play a role in a child's risk for literacy challenges at school age.

To learn more, check out my book: Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment

To put research into clinical practice today, join my Sparkle in School membership

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What literacy challenges are children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech at risk for? This episode dives into the latest research regarding the multi-faceted nature of literacy challenges for children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Knowing literary challenges that lie ahead empowers SLPs to prevent these challenges through early literacy intervention.

To learn more about treatment, check out my book: Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment

For ready-for-use materials to put research into Monday morning practice, check out The Sparkle in School Membership

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Today, more than ever SLPs need to draw a line in the sand between emotionally-based practice and evidence-based practice. Research your practice. Your clients' response to intervention will tell you what to do less of and what to do more of. Pay attention to your numbers to create lifelong change.

For more information on evidence-based practices at the preschool level, check out my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment"

For ready-to-use educationally-rich intervention activities delivered to your inbox weekly, join my "Sparkle in School Membership"

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Are you like me, always struggling to improve your practice with AAC? I'm always at the drawing board with a vision of AAC being used seamlessly by all of my students with limited speech.

Check out this episode to learn from my personal 3 big mistakes in AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication).

To learn how to develop communication skills, check out my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment"

If you're looking to be "One and Done," by putting research into practice with weekly ready-for-use, educationally-rich materials that give you everything you need for therapy, teletherapy, and home practice, check out my Sparkle in School Membership. Sign up today so you don't miss another week of materials.

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If a beginning SLP were to ask me for my absolute best, single piece of advice to create change, my advice would easily be to research your practice. It's true. I've learned the most game-changing strategies from my research over the past 20 years. Perhaps, more important, I also learned the ineffectual strategies through researching my practice and cut them out, making better use of limited therapy time. Researching your practice will give your clients a voice in letting you know what's effective and what isn't. Their behavior is communication. This is the key to innovating practice: Listen to your clients. This episode walks you through the simple steps to research your practice in the real world today. Details matter.

To learn how to research your practice with step-by-step support, check out Chapter 10 of my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment"

If you're looking to be "One and Done," by putting research into practice with weekly ready-for-use, educationally-rich materials that give you everything you need for therapy, teletherapy, and home practice, check out my Sparkle in School Membership. Sign up today so you don't miss another week of materials.

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How can we help children with ASD move beyond letter knowledge? The latest research gives us insight into limitations in print knowledge unique to preschoolers with Autism. This episode covers five evidence-based strategies that make print meaningful in improving concept knowledge, phonological awareness, and comprehension. To learn more about these strategies, check out Chapter 8 of my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment." To put these strategies into practice today, check out my Sparkle in School (SIS) Membership.

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Are you applying non-speech principles of motor learning to speech motor disorders? Should you be? There simply isn’t an evidence base to support putting principles of motor learning into your speech therapy practice. What is the evidence base or lack of evidence regarding principles of motor learning? What strategies do the current research support? Check out this episode to critically rethink intervention and put research into practice today. To learn more about generalization that works, check out “Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment” To educationally rich, ready-for-use activities into practice today, check out the Sparkle in School Membership.

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Ready to master the "R"? How do neighboring sounds make "R" easy and hard. What sounds are good for the establishment phase? Which ones are good for generalization? Check out this week for facilitating phonetic contexts that you can put to use today. Be highly effective at "R" by working smarter, not harder.

Make sure to check out the SIS Membership to make therapy super easy, effective, and engaging. The founding member rate is expiring this week.

Be open-minded and try it out. Nothing to lose. 14-day refund if you don't like it and you can cancel anytime with the monthly membership. The feedback from founding members has been awesome at the early intervention, preschool and elementary school level.

Looking forward to seeing you in the SIS group. Check it out at https://www.kellyvess.com

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What is the most powerful treatment target in treating speech sound disorders? S-Blends. Yet, all s-blends are not created equally. Some are powerful. Others, not so much. This episode covers four guiding principles to selecting game-changing s-blends in effectively treating speech sound disorders. To learn innovative practices in treating speech sound disorders through best practice videos and interactive guides, check out my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment." Let me help you make therapy engaging, easy, and effective by joining the Sparkle in School Membership at www.kellyvess.com

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If you know a child with ASD who presents with restrictive, repetitive behaviors (RRBs), this is the episode for you. The impact of RRBs may be best described by Harvard medical researcher Ya Wen who refers to restrictive, repetitive behaviors as having a "Russian doll" impact in which observable physical and social changes are also present at the neurological and cellular level. This episode not only tackles the pervasive impact of RRBs on children with ASD, but also what can be done to create lifelong change through Task-Oriented-Movement (TOM) intervention.

To learn more about TOM, check out my book: Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment

To have ready-for-use, printable TOM activities delivered to you weekly, check out the Sparkle in School Membership.

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This episode covers five strategies to make it easy this school year. Create educationally rich, developmentally appropriate activities, that treat the whole child. Check out this episode and be 'one and done.' Take your lunch hours, evenings, and weekends back. Check out the Sparkle in School Membership (SIS) today at https;//www.KellyVess.com and be ready on every Friday. 

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Ready to give Google Slides a try? This episode shares how Google Slides improve attention, engagement, and participation to maximize gains. To receive weekly educationally-rich Google Slide decks with therapy activities, join my Sparkle in School (SIS) Membership today as a founding member for only $9.99/month at https://www.kellyvess.com

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Ready to add technology to your therapy in a way that encourages personal interaction and enhances learning? This episode covers how to intelligently integrate technology to optimize gains in: 1-Language Comprehension 2-Inferential Thinking Skills 3-Story Grammar 4-Phonological Awareness Skills 5-Vocabulary.

To learn how to target early literacy skills, check out Chapter 9 of my book, "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment." It has over 100 actual videos demonstrating innovation in evidence-based practices, ready-for-use downloads, and step-by-step guides. P.S. Stay tuned next week in which I'll be announcing my S.I.S. membership. Let me do the background work for you so you can be present. Can you guess what S.I.S. stands for?

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The latest research shows the cerebellum's pivotal role in communication impairments. This is particularly true for children with ADD, ASD, and CAS. How can we target the cerebellum when early on, when neuroplasticity is high? This episode covers how Task-Oriented-Movement (TOM) activities directly target the cerebellum. To learn how to create TOM activities in your therapy, check out my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment". You'll get both video and step-by-step support to show you how.

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Task-Oriented Movement (TOM) activities improve executive function, but how? TOM activities directly improve the core executive function skills of preschoolers: 1)Inhibitory (Self) Control; 2)Working Memory; 3)Cognitive (Mental) Flexibility. For videos and interactive guides on how to create TOM activities in speech therapy, check out my book “Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment.”

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Ready to move away from the table and chairs in speech therapy and get moving? This episode covers how to treat the whole child by incorporating movement in speech therapy. Guest OTR/L Joseph Evens shares strategies to improve core, gross motor, fine motor, and visual motor integration skills. You don't have to be a movement therapist to improve motor skills. For actual therapy videos with step-by-step interactive guides. Ready to move away from the table and chairs in speech therapy and get moving? This episode covers how to treat the whole child by incorporating movement in speech therapy. Guest OTR/L Joseph Evens shares strategies to improve core, gross motor, fine motor, and visual motor integration skills. You don't have to be a movement therapist to improve motor skills. Be empowered to immediately put effective movement strategies and improve motor skills into practice with “Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment.” Rate, Review, & Follow. Please consider rating and reviewing my show! This helps me support more people. Tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Let me know what you loved most about the episode!

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A top priority in speech-language therapy is how to help our students develop an internal locus of control. This episode discusses strategies to increase intrinsic learning in the domains of speech, language, literacy, and executive function. Guest Denise Stratton, CCC-SLP joins us to share her favorite meta-cognitive strategies in each of these areas. (See below for her links). For step-by-step interactive guides with actual digital clips of therapy on how to increase an internal locus of control at the preschool level, check out my book 'Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment' at Amazon or major international booksellers. Videos Using Conjunctions with Tinker Toys https://www.thespeechumbrella.com/blo... Snack Time Theory of Mind https://www.thespeechumbrella.com/blo... Self Monitoring with School Age Articulation https://www.thespeechumbrella.com/blo... Podcasts Runaway Conjunctions https://www.thespeechumbrella.com/blo... Where Everybody Knows Your Name (consistent characters for beginning storytellers) https://www.thespeechumbrella.com/blo... The Conversation Game https://www.thespeechumbrella.com/blo... Materials on my website Snack Time Social Skills https://www.thespeechumbrella.com/off... 3 Illustrated Stories with the same character are available in the Free Resource Library https://www.thespeechumbrella.com/free Impossible R Made possible https://www.thespeechumbrella.com/r-c...

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How can you start positive parent relationships with the real-world constraints of a 30-day school timeline and a high prevalence of dual-income households? How can you build cross-cultural relationships? Guest Melanie Evans, CCC-SLP, shares her expertise in multicultural competence for SLPs. Join us as we walk through every step of the evaluation process in this episode. For more information on effectively completing an initial evaluation, check out "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" by Kelly Vess for videos with interactive guides illustrating best practices. Melanie Evans can be reached at @pediatricspeechsister on Instagram or by email at Melanie@pediatricspeechsister.com.

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What supplements, drinks, and foods optimize blood sugar?

In this episode, I share my personal blood sugar hacks and improve my focus despite having both ADHD and a high level of sugar sensitivity.

If you'd like any information regarding any specific product names or dosage discussed, email me at kelly@kellyvess.com or DM me on IG at  @KellyVessSLP  

Please Note: I accidentally referred to dairy as 'glucose' instead of 'lactose' 3/4's though on the podcast. I prefer to keep this episode unedited as all 'The Preschool SLP' episodes are. Embrace imperfection. Also, please note that I have no affiliation with any products shared in this episode. I just like them.

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Join me in speaking to a parent of a twice-exceptional child: with both ADD and giftedness. She shares her family's vegan diet which she attributes to improving her child's focus. She also shares her personal dos and don'ts in following a vegan diet. Note: This is not medical advice from a trained medical professional, only a parent's perspective. Please seek your individualized professional advice from your medical doctor or dietitian.

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Developing fundamental ball skills are essential for communicating with peers. This episode with Early Childhood Expert Dr. Julia Smith leaves listeners with plenty of ideas for Monday morning practice. For best practices in treating the whole child (not just a mouth) in speech therapy, check out "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" by Kelly Vess. It's sold at Amazon and other international booksellers. This book contains over 100 digital assessment and therapy clips with easy step-by-step guides.

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This article is often erroneously cited as research against the complexity approach. However, a closer look at this study indicates major flaws in the a) intervention goals, b) intervention treatment targets selected, and c) measurement of progress. The outcomes of this study only add further evidence to a well-developed knowledge base that earlier sounds develop before later ones regardless of the intervention provided. To learn how to create change through the combination of complex treatment target selection and only the most effective based practices, check out "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" by Kelly Vess. It's sold at Amazon and other international booksellers. This book contains over 100 digital assessment and therapy clips with easy step-by-step guides.

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What does the latest systematic review of 26 randomly controlled speech and language therapy DLD studies tell us? Some intervention works for DLD and some simply don't. To learn best practices in the treatment of DLD through actual therapy videos and step-by-step guides, check out "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" today. It is available at Amazon and major international booksellers.

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Research indicates that very often the future does not look bright for children with DLD. This episode dives into the specific challenges that lie ahead. How can we prepare children early on to transcend future social and academic obstacles?

Learn how to provide intervention that creates lifelong change through digital clips with step-by-step guides in 'Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment' at Amazon and other international booksellers.

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Is LAMP on to something with their never-changing 84 symbol core vocabulary board starting point? What can we learn from LAMP's strength's in AAC practice regardless of the device or program used? This episode covers the 6 ways that LAMP sheds light on how we can innovate practice in AAC for children with limited speaking skills. For more information on creating educationally-rich activities for children with limited speech, check out "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" by Kelly Vess. It has over 100 digital clips that show how-to put strategies in therapy and ready-for-use downloadable materials to use today.

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You've probably used PECS in your practice with many children on your caseload. In this episode, we take some time to rethink PECS for both its strengths and weaknesses.

For the "step-by-steps" in innovating practice to develop communication skills for children with ASD, check out my book 'Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment' at Amazon or major booksellers internationally.

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Pulled in many directions? In-person, teletherapy, classroom, home setting-all in a single day?   
In this episode, I show how to keep it simple. To sign up for my 2-Hour May 15th workshop "Keep it Real in a Digital World," check it out at www.kellyvess.com today.   

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Get your google slide decks ready and up-level intervention with the world at your fingertips. Here I cover only three of many reasons getting Google Slides into therapy is a best practice. Sign up today for my 2-Hour LIVE Google Slides Workshoptoday on May 15th. I am going to deliver the goods at KellyVess.com today.

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If you're looking to get optimal gains with the /l/ sound, should you 'splash' or 'spray 'in therapy'? Our latest findings will surprise you. This episode is a 'can't miss' for its relevance in treating speech sound disorders. For easy 'how-to's' with over 100 digital clips and ready-for-use materials, check out Kelly Vess's book today Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment. It is available on Amazon and major booksellers internationally.

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Single-word speech sound tests have a bad reputation. Research has found them to greatly vary from test to test in terms of types of sounds tested, scores, and age of developmental norms. So, how valuable are they really? Let's take a second look at single-word speech tests through fresh eyes with the very latest findings. To learn how to give speech evaluations with ready-for-use printables, case history forms, and a cluster screener, check out "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" today from Amazon or major booksellers internationally.

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What are the three executive function skills that directly impact a child's ability to learn to read? This episode covers the skills that determine success or failure in learning to read.

For step-by-step, ready-to-use literacy activities for preschool to primary grade levels, check out "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" by Kelly Vess today.

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What five speech errors should you take seriously? This episode will go over the five errors at the preschool level that indicate risk for language and literacy challenges at the elementary age. For the step-by-step how-to's with video clips and interactive guides on evaluating and treating communication impairments, check out 'Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" by Kelly Vess, CCC-SLP today. It is sold on Amazon and at major booksellers.

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Looking to improve your focus? In this episode, I share my favorite five focus-enhancing supplements. These increase and sustain my focus throughout busy, back-to-back days providing therapy. (I have absolutely no affiliations with these companies.) Thanks for joining me at the drawing board today to create better tomorrows.

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L-Blends are recommended by experts as being powerful treatment targets. But are they? This episode suggests that we can and should do better. For the step-by-step on how to select powerful treatment targets in treating speech sound disorders, check out Kelly's book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment."

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What is the #1 mistake in treating children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS)? The treatment targets are too often way too simple. Overall progress in therapy will largely depend on the complexity of the target selected. The more complex the target, the greater the gains.

For a step-by-step guide and digital clips on how to select the most effective targets and provide therapy using only the most effective strategies, check out "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment."

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What are the secrets to improving complex conversational skills? This second part episode will cover four more game-changing strategies that target literacy, language, comprehension, and executive function development.

To learn highly effective and innovative strategies to improve literacy skills through videos and step-by-step guides, check out Kelly's book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment." Sign up for Kelly's free newsletter in which she shares her weekly links to google slides at KellyVessSLP.com. Make sure to sign up today to not miss this week's educationally-rich activities.

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What are the secrets to improving complex conversational skills? This episode will cover four game-changing strategies that target literacy, language, comprehension, and executive function development.

To learn highly effective and innovative strategies to improve literacy skills through videos and step-by-step guides, check out Kelly's book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment." Sign up for Kelly's free newsletter in which she shares her weekly links to google slides at KellyVessSLP.com. Make sure to sign up today to not miss this week's educationally-rich activities.

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Research indicates that multitasking can reduce productivity by a whopping 40%. This episode shows a little-known method to increase your creativity and productivity.

For strategies to be a ridiculously effective SLP, check out "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" at Amazon. Sign up for 100% free, weekly Google Slides at KellyVessSLP.com

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Should we see attributes associated with having ADHD as being treasured gifts instead of symptoms of a disorder?

Check out this episode on ADHD's unique assets that translate to SLP success. Whether you have ADHD or not, can you relate to these attributes?

If so, capitalize on them to create better.

Fun fact: I recorded this episode on a borrowed laptop as I had left mine at work.

For digital clips, downloads, and step-by-step support on how to innovate practice, check out my book Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment

For free support, check out www.KellyVessSLP.com. Start creating better tomorrows today.💚Kelly

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When language sampling children with ASD, perhaps the most important measurement is analyzing gestalt to generative language development. What's the best way to do it?

This episode will look at subjective and objective options in assessing gestalt to self-generated language development.

For more information on how to effectively improve communication skills for preschoolers with ASD (complete with videos and step-by-step guides) check out Kelly Vess's book Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment

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Language sampling is perhaps the most effective means of evaluating the language development of preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, there are many variables to consider in ensuring that the sample is a reliable and valid measure. This episode covers my top five hacks to making language sampling as reliable, valid, and viable as possible. To learn more about how effectively treat preschoolers with ASD, check out my book 'Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment.' This book includes downloadable, ready-for-use, materials, digital therapy clips, and step-by-step guides to empower the reader to create change today.

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Why is gestalt language so valuable for children with ASD and treating SLPs? This episode explains how SLPs can learn to better understand and teach children with autism spectrum disorders by paying attention to their gestalt speech. Check out Kelly Vess's book Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment to learn highly effective strategies for improving outcomes for children with autism spectrum disorders. Chapter 7 of this book illustrates how to effectively treat children with ASD. This book includes downloadable, ready-for-use, materials, digital therapy clips, and step-by-step guides.

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Are you moving more than you're talking in therapy? If not, it may be time to re-evaluate your practice. Temporal cueing is a powerful technique worthy of mastering. It can globally improve outcomes in speech, language, literacy, and social development. Check out Kelly Vess's book Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment to learn how to embed temporal cueing into educationally rich, hands-on activities with digital clips and interactive guides.

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How can we COVID-proof our practice? The brain doesn't make excuses. Nor should we. Now, more than ever, we need to keep our eye on the prize: Create optimal progress when neuro-plasticity is at its highest level. If you're committed to being an agent of change in the good times and in the bad, this is the episode for you. For step-by-step digital clips with interactive 'how-to' guides, check out Kelly's book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" and start creating better practice today.

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Let's talk about the pivotal skill of commenting for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. What foundational attentional, perceptual, and motor skills are required for children to comment? What do we do that inhibits the development of these foundational skills? Lastly, how can we develop these foundational skills? For more information on the how-to's in developing the skills necessary for commenting through TOM (Task-Oriented Movement) activities, check out my book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment" at Amazon.com. To sign up for 100% free, weekly Google Slides, check out KellyVessSLP.com