In this episode, I’m revisiting an older episode in honor of a special event that I'm doing in the month of September, 2024.

I'm so excited to participate in the National Literacy Month series of podcasts, which we're presented in partnership between the Be Podcast Network and Reading Is Fundamental (RIF).
 
De Facto Leaders is part of the BE Podcast Network (Link here: https://bepodcast.network/), so I’ll be participating in this effort.
 
About Reading Is Fundamental (RIF):
 
Reading Is Fundamental is a nonprofit that focuses on connecting educators and families with materials and training aligned with evidence-based literacy instruction. Not only is their model aligned with the science of reading; they also offer unique book ownership solutions for professionals and families to address book equity issues. You can learn more about Reading is Fundamental here: https://www.rif.org/
 
What’s happening on De Facto Leaders as part of the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) campaign:
 
In September, I’ll be featuring a series of guests to talk about how we can improve the nationwide literacy crisis. As part of this effort, I’ll be publishing two episodes a week during the month of September. 
 
In October, I’ll resume the standard once a week schedule and will publish some shorter episodes that outline my key take-aways based on the September interviews. These shorter episodes will give you a chance to catch up on listening to the extra episodes; and will also give you the chance to hear my take on each interview. 
 
To celebrate this special partnership, I’m giving my listeners 25% off their tuition when they join either Language Therapy Advance Foundations (Link here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy) and the School of Clinical Leadership (Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership) between September 15 and October 15. 
 
To get access to this special rate, all you need to do is enter coupon code RIF25 on the checkout page. 
 
In this re-release episode, I share:

✅What the current literacy trends show as far as the impact of texting.

✅The 3 tenets of effective literacy intervention.

✅Common mistakes people make when teaching kids to use reading strategies.

✅Three essential skills kids need in order to become fluent readers and spellers.

In this episode, I mention the School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers develop a strategic plan for putting executive functioning support in place in collaboration with their school teams. You can learn more about that program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

In this episode, I mention the Word Study Toolkit, which comes with Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that helps SLPs create a system for language therapy. You can learn more about Language Therapy Advance Foundations here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/

You can get 25% off either program when you join between September 15-October 15. Just enter coupon code RIF25 on the checkout page to get this special rate. 

Here’s what you can do right now to support this campaign and ensure you don’t miss any of these amazing interviews/commentary. 

1. Go to Apple, Spotify, or any other directory you use for podcasts and subscribe to the De Facto Leaders podcast.

2. Once you listen to an episode or two, leave me a rating and review. This helps get my show into the hands of people who need the information.

3. Do you have a colleague or friend who needs to learn more about the research surrounding language and literacy? Do you want to spread the word about practices and ideas you’d like to see in your school, community, or state? If so, tell them about the De Facto Leaders podcast so they can listen to all the episodes in this special campaign. 

Reading Is Fundamental is a nonprofit that focuses on connecting educators and families with materials and training aligned with evidence-based literacy instruction. Not only is their model aligned with the science of reading; they also offer unique book ownership solutions for professionals and families to address book equity issues. You can learn more about Reading Is Fundamental here: https://www.rif.org/

You can also learn more about the other BE Podcast Network shows at https://bepodcast.network

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

I’m a huge supporter of professionals taking ownership of their careers; regardless of the systemic issues at play.

But having said that, I ALSO like to help educators get to a place where they can work towards addressing systems issues head on.

That’s why I was so excited to talk with Kurtis Hewson about the Collaborative Response Framework in episode 174 of De Facto Leaders.

Kurtis Hewson is an award-winning former administrator and teacher, as well as teaching faculty at the post-secondary level. He is the co-founder of Jigsaw Learning, a co-author of the text, “Collaborative Response: Three Foundational Components That Transform How We Respond to the Needs of Learners” (Corwin, 2022), and currently works with districts and schools nationally and internationally establishing Collaborative Response frameworks and interacting with thousands of educators annually.

Good teachers, therapists, and administrators often develop toolkits they can use to offer a continuum of support to students. But as Kurtis points out, they’re often operating in “silos of excellence”. 

What would happen if team members worked together to pool their resources? 

We discuss this topic in this episode, including:

✅People in education talk a lot about the problems with “the system”. But what is the “system” and how do we improve it?

✅Is talking about individual student needs always the best use of time at team meetings?

✅Meetings sometimes feel like an obligation or a waste of time. How do we change that?

✅What types of meetings should district level teams have and what’s the purpose of each?

✅Why school teams need 4 tiers of support rather than the traditional 3 tiers of RtI.

In this episode, I mention the School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers develop a strategic plan for putting executive functioning support in place in collaboration with their school teams. 

You can learn more about that program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

You can learn more about how to connect with Kurtis and his work at: https://www.jigsawlearning.ca/

Read about the Overview of Collaborative Response here: https://bit.ly/CR-overview 

Read the Introductory Chapter of the text Collaborative Response - https://bit.ly/CR-intro

Learn about the Layers of Collaborative Teams Here: https://www.jigsawlearning.ca/publications/blog-posts/scaffolding-our-collaborative-response-purposeful-layering-t

Learn the Five Considerations to Transform Your Team Meetings here:  https://www.jigsawlearningonline.com/five-planning-considerations-to-transform-your-team-meetings

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Teacher preparation programs should equip reading teachers with the knowledge they need to provide explicit intervention for students who have dyslexia or other disabilities. 

But what if they don’t? 

Unfortunately, this situation is quite common. 

That’s why I invited Mary Saghafi and Shannon Betts from the Reading Teachers’ Lounge Podcast to episode 165 of the De Facto Leaders podcast to talk about how reading specialists and other service providers can emerge as literacy leaders; whether it be in their current job or within a career transition. 

The Reading Teachers’ Lounge is a podcast where listeners can eavesdrop on professional conversations between elementary reading teachers. Shannon and Mary are passionate about literacy and strive to find strategies to reach all learners. Shannon and Mary are neighbors who realized they were “literacy soul sisters” at a dinner in their Atlanta Neighborhood. Once they started chatting about reading, they haven’t really stopped. Shannon is currently teaching part time as a reading resource teacher while she continues to create teaching materials on Teachers Pay Teachers and Boom Learning. Mary is a private tutor and dyslexia advocate. They began their podcast in 2018 and are currently finishing their sixth season.

In this conversation, we share:

✅How a litigious situation turned into a reading reform initiative and inspired Mary to make a career pivot.

✅When there’s conflict between schools and parents; should you be a united front with your school team, even if you resonate more with the parent’s point of view? 

✅The parent advocacy perspective: How parents can advocate for their kids AND the school staff at the same time. 

✅Should schools be using the “dyslexia” label (and what do the laws require vs. allow)? 

✅Will voicing your opinion have a negative impact on your career (plus Shannon’s experience with being the squeaky wheel on her team)? 

You can find Shannon’s Teachers Pay Teachers store here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Rdng, and her Boom Learning resources here: https://wow.boomlearning.com/author/rdng?collection=Decks&sort=publishDate&order=-1

Connect with Shannon and Mary on their Patreon community for literacy professionals here: https://www.patreon.com/readingteacherslounge

Follow the Reading Teacher’s Lounge Podcast on Instagram @readingteacherslounge https://www.instagram.com/readingteacherslounge/, on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/readingteacherslounge, or on their podcast website here: https://www.readingteacherslounge.com/podcast-home

Listen to the Reading Teacher’s Lounge Season 6, Episode 13 (Link here: https://www.readingteacherslounge.com/season-6-episodes/s6-e-13-the-intersection-of-speech-reading-and-language)  where I was a guest, and we discussed the partnership between speech-language pathologists and reading teachers here.

I mentioned the following resources in this episode:
EP 141: No, kids do not learn to read and write naturally with (with Melanie Brethour) Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-141-no-kids-do-not-learn-to-read-and-write-naturally-with-melanie-brethour/

EP 159: Co-morbidities and Differential Diagnosis (ADHD, DLD, Dyslexia) Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-159-comorbidities-and-differential-diagnosis-adhd-dld-dyslexia/

Williams, V. (2023) Letter from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services on the use of “Developmental Language Disorder” for special education eligibility. Office of Special Education Programs. Retrieved from: https://www.asha.org/siteassets/advocacy/comments/OSEP-Response-Letter-to-ASHA-on-DLD-5.30.23.pdf

Yudin, M. K. (2015). Letter from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services on the use of “Dyslexia” for special education eligibility. Office of Special Education Programs. Retrieved from: https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/policy_speced_guid_idea_memosdcltrs_guidance-on-dyslexia-10-2015.pdf

In this episode, I mention Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that helps SLPs create a system for language therapy. You can learn more about Language Therapy Advance Foundations here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

There’s often a typical expected career path for pediatric clinicians, regardless of the discipline. It can often feel a bit constraining, especially if it doesn’t fully align with your strengths; or if the system you’re working in limits the way you serve your caseload. But what if you weren’t limited to the typical model, or the traditional job postings? What if you could design a clinical career on your own terms? This idea is exciting…but scary. Especially if you’re in a job that you enjoy and that feels “almost” in line with what you’d want to be doing. Many clinicians have this nagging feeling. They love what they do…but they wonder if they could be doing more for their field and in their career. I felt this way when I was nearing the end of my doctoral program and was working the school systems. I knew the next stage of my career was coming…but I wasn’t exactly sure what direction I should go. Private practice? Higher ed? School administration? Something else? To answer this question, I did what I refer to as career “micro-experiments”.

This is one of the strategies I used to launch my business while I was working in the schools full time.

In this episode, I share:
✅Why doing “test-runs” can help you discover your strengths, build your resume and skills, and serve your current caseload at the same time

✅Why I turned down a job interview that could have led me towards what I thought was a “dream job”

✅How to start building your leadership experience NOW, without leaving the security of your current job. In this episode, I mentioned the Clinical Leadership Roundtable, an ongoing event for pediatric clinicians that want to plan a career path that finally allows you to serve in a way that feels aligned and impactful. 

You can join the Clinical Leadership Roundtable here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

A lot of the clinicians I work with feel very “boxed in” when it comes to the typical career path for therapists. They’re boxed in by the way they have to provide services within the system, which often dictates how, when, and how often they see students/clients. They may feel boxed in by their schedule, their setting, or even their earning potential. Usually, they enjoy what they do, but have a nagging feeling that they could be doing more for their caseload, their field, and their community. What I’ve observed over the last 5 years of mentoring clinicians is that they often go through “levels” of clinical practice. I like to refer to this as “Clinical Leadership”. Many therapists don’t think of themselves as leaders; especially if they aren’t in an “official” leadership position…but I think that every clinician has an opportunity to be a leader regardless of their official job title.

Once therapists get comfortable with the traditional model of therapy, they’re often ready to transcend to the next stage of their career. So many of them are super talented, creative individuals; but they feel limited by what they see in the standard job postings. I’ve designed what I refer to as the “Pillars of Clinical Leadership” to help people get out of this career rut, so they can create a career unique to their own skills, talents, and preferences…and so they can make a bigger impact with the way they serve. In episode 78, I outline the common stages of leadership people go through, as well as the pillars for successful clinical leadership.

If you don’t feel fully aligned or excited by the typical career path for clinicians, or if you love your job but want to discover creative ways to be of service, you won’t want to miss this episode. In this episode, I mentioned the Clinical Leadership Roundtable, an ongoing event for pediatric clinicians that take you through a series of exercises designed to help you craft your career path based on your unique skills, talents, and preferences.  You can join the Clinical Leadership Roundtable here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

There are a lot of challenges that we face as therapists; but not all of them need to prevent us from delivering quality services. By facing our problems head on, often we can mitigate them or eliminate them completely. This doesn’t happen from avoiding or ignoring them. Instead, we need to get them all out on the table to figure out how to minimize them. This is also key in determining if you’re on the right career path, or if it’s time to pivot. I talk about how to think through this risk mitigation process in episode 77. Getting this “risk mitigation” process out of the way is often the key to freeing up mental resources that allow you to think bigger about the way you show up for your caseload. In this episode, I mentioned the Clinical Leadership Roundtable, a special event for pediatric therapists who want to make a bigger impact with their services. When you’ll be taken through a 3-stage process where you’ll start to design a plan for feeling more empowered in your work. You can join the Clinical Leadership Roundtable here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

When people talk about assets, they’re often thinking about personal finance. They’re talking about things like real estate, index funds, crypto and other things aimed at giving you some kind of return on your investment. But I want to talk about how therapists can apply this concept to what they do, because it's the key to making a bigger impact. When we make the “leadership shift” and start thinking about service delivery in the broader sense, we have to start thinking about how to coordinate an entire service plan for a student. This means utilizing other people and thinking creatively about how we can ensure that kids are getting the support they need across the day; rather than just focusing on what’s going on when they’re in a therapy session or in your classroom. One of the biggest challenges therapists face is that they don’t have enough time with their clients to address all the skills they need to cover. This is exactly why we need to stop functioning in silos and instead see ourselves as part of the bigger picture, like puzzle pieces that fit together seamlessly. It’s remiss to imply that people working in education and healthcare have endless resources at their disposal.

But many times, they have more power than they realize. And when they use their time the right way, they can actually create more time, resources, relationships, and impact. In this episode, I mentioned that I’m about to open the doors to my Clinical Leadership program. This program is designed to help pediatric therapists be better leaders, so they can make a bigger impact with their services. If you’re a therapist or an educator working with kids, and you want to think bigger about how you serve your caseload, community, and your field, then this program is for you. You can join the waiting list here to be notified when program enrollment is open. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

One of the most common questions I get is “What am I supposed to do in therapy with students/clients?” Many of my readers want to know what strategies and techniques they need to do in therapy in order to help move their students forward. They’re very focused on “planning for therapy” or “lesson planning”; especially if they’re in the school systems. I think it makes sense to focus on these things some of the time. The way we’re trained often focuses on that “medical model” of service delivery. A lot can be accomplished with this model, and it’s a part of what some kids need to be successful; depending on what their needs are. It’s easy to start with the question, “What is MY role and what should I be doing in my sessions to support this student?” But I think we need to look at things in reverse. Instead of saying “What do I do in therapy?” we need to be asking “What does this student need, and how do I make sure they get it?”

In this episode, I mentioned that I’m about to open the doors to my Clinical Leadership program.

This program is designed to help pediatric therapists be better leaders, so they can make a bigger impact with their services. If you’re a therapist or an educator working with kids, and you want to think bigger about how you serve your caseload, community, and your field, then this program is for you. You can join the waiting list here to be notified when program enrollment is open. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Therapists and teachers (and anyone else in a “helping people” profession) always have to take care of OTHER people…which is hard to do if you’re burnt out all the time. But most of the advice they’re given about “self-care” and achieving a “work-life” balance is unhelpful. There are a lot of “tips and tools” out there for stress relief and productivity. In the self-care realm, it ranges from reasonable suggestions like gratitude journaling or meditation to more questionable things like “crying in your car” or “hide in the bathtub with a bottle of wine and drown your sorrows”. Perhaps the biggest issue of all is the myth of a “work-life” balance. When people say they want a “work-life” balance, what they’re really saying is: “I don’t have enough energy and time to devote to things that matter to me.” We don’t accomplish this by striving for “work-life” balance, nor do we get there with a disjointed list of superficial tips. In episode 73, I share an alternative way of looking at “balance”, fulfillment, and career satisfaction.

This is what I used to maintain some sense of peace while I was working on my dissertation and working full time in the school systems. It’s the opposite of what most people do, and I believe it’s why 60% of the people in my doctoral program end up ABD (“all but dissertation”). It’s always why so many talented therapists and teachers leave “passion projects” on the backburner and get stuck in the day-to-day hustle. In this episode, I mentioned that I’m about to open the doors to my Clinical Leadership program. This program is designed to help pediatric therapists be better leaders, so they can make a bigger impact with their services. If you’re a therapist or an educator working with kids, and you want to think bigger about how you serve your caseload, community, and your field, then this program is for you. You can join the waiting list here to be notified when program enrollment is open. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Therapists and educators supporting K-12 literacy have a lot of diagnoses and labels to navigate, and some of them are controversial. 

In some debates, the diagnosis itself is in question; Central Auditory Processing Disorder being one example. With hyperlexia, some people suggest that there is a certain way hyperlexic people need to learn to read; but the verdict is still out as to whether there is one specific method that is more effective for them.

Diagnoses and labels can give us a roadmap. But this roadmap is often incomplete, with unclear directions for getting to our end destination. That means that clinicians need to have a good clinical problem-solving process to navigate all these debates. I believe that labels are useful; but only when we know what to do with them. That’s why in this episode, I talk about 4 specific labels/diagnoses (DLD, CAPD, hyperlexia, dyslexia) and what they mean for literacy instruction/intervention.

Specifically, I discuss:

✅The DLD vs CAPD debate: The case for DLD and why some people are skeptical about the CAPD diagnosis
 

 ✅Why I don't teach "working memory drills" and how I go about addressing working memory issues in a functional way

 ✅How professionals can engage in healthy discussions about debates in the field without getting defensive
 

 ✅A discussion on dyslexia vs hyperlexia and intervention planning for each. 

 ✅Current research on hyperlexia and red flags for misinformation.

In this episode, I mentioned an article called Why is it so hard to reach agreement on terminology? The case of developmental language disorder (DLD) by Dr. Dorothy Bishop. Please note I made an error in the original recording and said she was an SLP. I was incorrect; she is a psychologist.

I’m talking about this topic because it inspired me to create the system I teach in my online course that teaches pediatric SLPs a system for boosting comprehension and processing,  Language Therapy Advance Foundations.

I’m doing some extra live Q & A sessions in the members group and also opening up some 1:1 consult availability for members in July 2022, so if you’ve been on the fence about joining, now’s the perfect time to take the leap.

If you’re an SLP who wants to learn a framework that will allow you to streamline your therapy so you can show up to sessions confident you’re giving your students the skills they need to thrive,  check out our enrollment page and learn more about how to become a member here.

The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Schools often get criticized for not teaching enough “real world” skills to kids, and there’s a lot of truth to that statement. Most of the therapists I work with are worried that what they do in therapy isn’t functional enough to transfer to day-to-day skills; and this is a legitimate concern.

A lot of the clinicians I mentor have somewhere between 30-40 minutes with students; which means they have to make every second count. Some of them wonder if the traditional “pull out” therapy model is even useful at all. The truth is that there are certain skills that can be effectively addressed in more of an “academic”, small group or 1:1 situation. When we think about the language skills needed to support reading and literacy, it’s actually ideal to address some of the foundational skills in this “school” format. Otherwise kids don’t get the intensity they need to develop automaticity.

So when we ask the question of whether language skills should be taught in an “academic” format vs. a “functional, real-world” format…it’s not a black or white, either/or kind of a thing. School-age kids need a blend of BOTH. With that in mind, schools and the people working in them are doing a lot of things right. This is why I feel disheartened when I see negativity directed towards schools suggesting that they’re not teaching kids anything useful.  We don’t need to burn it all to the ground; we need to find out which things schools are doing right and do more of it. That’s why I aim to help clinicians focus on high-impact skills, and ways to address skills from multiple angles: From very structured situations that isolate skills, to highly functional situations that require kids to integrate many skills at once. (which is what they’ll have to do in the “real world”).

I recently got some great questions from readers about how to do this with syntax skills. Syntax is definitely one of those “high-impact” skills; but the key to making it functional is teaching it in a way that allows kids to learn new language patterns AND develop the internal dialogue needed to learn new words and sentence structures independently.

In this episode, I share how to do that. I’m talking about this topic because it inspired me to create the system I teach in my online course that teaches pediatric SLPs a system for boosting comprehension and processing,  Language Therapy Advance Foundations.

I’m doing some extra live Q & A sessions in the members group and also opening up some 1:1 consult availability for members in July 2022, so if you’ve been on the fence about joining, now’s the perfect time to take the leap.

If you’re an SLP who wants to learn a framework that will allow you to streamline your therapy so you can show up to sessions confident you’re giving your students the skills they need to thrive,  check out our enrollment page and learn more about how to become a member here.

The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Topic maintenance is a skill I’ve seen on many language therapy IEPs in the category of “pragmatic language”, but often it’s a surface-level symptom of something else. When we’re talking about “topic maintenance” we’re often referring to someone’s ability to stay on a topic during a conversational exchange. Yet when we focus only on what we’re seeing externally, intervention can end up being unproductive. In some cases, it can even reinforce a negative self-image.

That’s why in episode 69, I wanted to talk about the root causes behind topic maintenance issues and how we can support students in a way that builds connection and self-esteem. I’m talking about this topic because it inspired me to create the system I teach in my online course that teaches pediatric SLPs a system for boosting comprehension and processing,  Language Therapy Advance Foundations. I’m doing some extra live Q & A sessions in the members group and also opening up some 1:1 consult availability for members in July 2022, so if you’ve been on the fence about joining, now’s the perfect time to take the leap.

If you’re an SLP who wants to learn a framework that will allow you to streamline your therapy so you can show up to sessions confident you’re giving your students the skills they need to thrive,  check out our enrollment page and learn more about how to become a member here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

I get a lot of questions about how to write language therapy goals… I ALSO get a lot of questions about whether I offer goal banks in any of my courses. I do offer a version of a “goal bank” in Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my course that teaches SLPs a framework for building metalinguistic awareness and independent word learning...but it’s not a goal bank in the traditional sense.

In my opinion, goal banks do both students and clinicians a huge disservice. While I understand that clinicians need tools to help them be efficient with their paperwork, I think there’s a better solution.

That’s why in this episode I share what that is.

Specifically, I talk about:
 
✅Why my course curriculum for clinicians focuses on vocabulary FIRST before I address high-level comprehension and executive functioning. 

✅ Do we need to work on the “observable/measurable” behavior? Or the strategy? 

✅My alternative to the “goal-bank” and why it helps drive more effective intervention.

In this episode, I mentioned the Effective Language Therapy for SLPs Facebook group, where I share regular tips and strategies for building language and literacy skills in K-12 kids. You can join the group here.

I’m talking about this topic because it inspired me to create the system I teach in my online course that teaches pediatric SLPs a system for boosting comprehension and processing,  Language Therapy Advance Foundations.

I’m doing some extra live Q & A sessions in the members group and also opening up some 1:1 consult availability for members in July 2022, so if you’ve been on the fence about joining, now’s the perfect time to take the leap.

If you’re an SLP who wants to learn a framework that will allow you to streamline your therapy so you can show up to sessions confident you’re giving your students the skills they need to thrive,  check out our enrollment page and learn more about how to become a member here.

The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Is it functional to work on parts of speech?

Is sentence diagramming useful?

How do we improve word-retrieval in kids with developmental disabilities, and is it similar to what we’d do for an adult with a brain injury?

How can we make therapy academically relevant and functional beyond just getting a good score on a standardized test?

I invited speech-language pathologist and Language Therapy Advance Foundations student Katy Wyatt to the show to share answers to these questions.

I’m always excited to connect with people who are using the frameworks I teach; because I’m always amazed at some of the creative ideas they come up with to expand on what I’ve given them.

If you’re a Language Therapy Advance Foundations student, and you want some practical ways to use the tools I’ve given you, you'll really enjoy this interview. And if you’ve been lurking and considering whether the program is for you, this will give you an idea of what you’ll learn if you do decide to join.

Katy Wyatt graduated from California State University, Los Angeles in 2017, with a Masters of Arts in Communication Disorders. After moving to North Carolina, Katy has worked in head starts, homes, schools, skilled nursing facilities, and assisted living facilities with clients ages 11 months to 99+ years. Katy is a board-certified cognitive specialist, and has also been certified in the SOS approach to feeding. Katy currently works in the schools full time with Kinetic Physical Therapy and Wellness; she works with students to improve their language, articulation, and fluency skills, develop alternative means of communication, and improve their social and academic functioning. Katy also serves as the compliance coordinator and SLP-Assistant supervisor with Speech Inspirations PLLC.

In this conversation, we discuss:

✅The parallels between therapy for aphasia and child language disorders.

✅Why therapy focused on vocabulary and background knowledge can ALSO address executive functioning skills like the ability to self-question, generate and evaluate ideas, and plan/executive them.

✅Parts of speech and sentence diagramming: How to embed this kind of work into structured but contextualized activities.

✅Syntax as a vocabulary skill: How to help kids understand what words MEAN and what words DO.

✅Why it’s impossible to define what vocabulary skills are “age-appropriate” at each grade level; and how to reframe the way you think about scaffolding across grade levels and varying student needs.

✅Generalization: How to focus on explicit instruction of content and strategy in direct therapy while ALSO giving students retrieval tools they can use outside sessions.

The Language Severity Rate Scale and Classroom Communication and Learning Checklist from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) can be found here: https://www.dpi.nc.gov/documents/ec/speech-guide/download

Katy's Semantic Feature Analysis Song Video can be found here: https://youtu.be/Qdw3M1ZiaSM

I mentioned this conversation in this interview: EP 148: Unlocking success through sensory processing and team collaboration (with Maude Le Roux) Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-148-unlocking-success-through-sensory-processing-and-team-collaboration-with-maude-le-roux/

Katy is a member of Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives SLPs and other service providers create a system for language therapy. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

When people ask me where they should start in language therapy, I usually say they should start by building vocabulary. That usually results in a couple raised eyebrows and questions...mostly because they aren’t really sure how I’m defining “vocabulary”. That’s why in episode 67, I wanted to talk about what I actually mean when I say we should “work on vocabulary”, and why it’s so important to giving kids the skills they need to thrive.
 
Specifically, I share:
 ✅Why vocabulary is much more than naming and identifying words.

✅The 5 linguistic skills that impact word knowledge and why they support vocabulary growth.

✅How to “work on vocabulary” in a way that supports literacy, executive functioning, and independent word-learning.

In this episode, I mentioned the Effective Language Therapy for SLPs Facebook group, where I share regular tips and strategies for building language and literacy skills in K-12 kids. You can join the group here. I’m talking about this topic because it inspired me to create the system I teach in my online course that teaches pediatric SLPs a system for boosting comprehension and processing,  Language Therapy Advance Foundations. I’m doing some extra live Q & A sessions in the members group and also opening up some 1:1 consult availability for members in July 2022, so if you’ve been on the fence about joining, now’s the perfect time to take the leap. If you’re an SLP who wants to learn a framework that will allow you to streamline your therapy so you can show up to sessions confident you’re giving your students the skills they need to thrive,  check out our enrollment page and learn more about how to become a member here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Back when I first started practicing, I found language therapy to be super overwhelming. 

There were so many peer-reviewed articles, books, and seminars, and it was hard to sift through it all and determine how to apply it to therapy.  These days, we not only have to sort through lots of quality information…we have to ALSO sort through lots of inaccurate information.  This can make it really hard to make it hard for professionals and parents to figure out how to support kids' language and literacy skills with the little time you have with your students. I do what I do in order to be a solution for that problem. 

I get hundreds of emails each month from SLPs sharing their most common language therapy challenges, and although times have changed, the basic questions stay the same. 

I hear things like:

"Where do I even start?"

"How do I know what skills are most important/how to sequence/what to focus on?"

"How do I write good goals?"

When I dig a little deeper, I usually find that people are making ONE of three common mistakes. Now it goes without saying...these are SUPER common. I know because I used to do every single one of them due to lack of clarity and info overload. So if any of this sounds familiar, you're certainly not alone. These three patterns are what informed the framework I teach SLPs designed to build the language skills kids need to support language processing, literacy, and high-level strategic thinking. I’m talking about this topic because it inspired me to create the system I teach in my online course that teaches pediatric SLPs a system for boosting comprehension and processing,  Language Therapy Advance Foundations.

I’m doing some extra live Q & A sessions in the members group and also opening up some 1:1 consult availability for members in July 2022, so if you’ve been on the fence about joining, now’s the perfect time to take the leap. If you’re an SLP who wants to learn a framework that will allow you to streamline your therapy so you can show up to sessions confident you’re giving your students the skills they need to thrive,  check out our enrollment page and learn more about how to become a member here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In episode 65, I take a break from the regular content to talk about burnout and boundaries; and specifically how I use systems to help me set healthy boundaries and reduce burnout. Back when I started working as an SLP in 2004, I found there was one area of my life (work-related) that caused an exponentially larger amount of stress than other things in my life. ​So much, in fact, that this ONE thing was impacting me in other areas of life outside of work. Like health and relationships.

That’s why in this episode, I share:
➡️ What I didn’t feel prepared to deal with when I first started my career (that I was NOT expecting).

​➡️ How having one super stressful responsibility at work had a snowball effect on other areas of life.

​➡️ Why not having a system for a challenging area at work took a toll on my relationships at home.

​➡️ The questions you can ask yourself to identify the ONE area of your life causing the most stress (that if addressed, could lead to improvements in all other areas).

I’m talking about this topic because it inspired me to create the system I teach in my online course that teaches pediatric SLPs a system for boosting comprehension and processing,  Language Therapy Advance Foundations. I’m doing some extra live Q & A sessions in the members group and also opening up some 1:1 consult availability for members in July 2022, so if you’ve been on the fence about joining, now’s the perfect time to take the leap. If you’re an SLP who wants to learn a framework that will allow you to streamline your therapy so you can show up to sessions confident you’re giving your students the skills they need to thrive,  check out our enrollment page and learn more about how to become a member here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In episode 64, I share a Q & A from the Language Therapy Advance Foundations members’ group about working on complex sentences with students in early elementary school. Part of the framework I teach focuses on building skills like morphology (e.g., knowledge of word parts like prefixes & suffixes) as well as syntax (the rules of how sentences are put together). These skills can not only boost a student's ability to decode what they’re reading, they can also have a positive impact on their ability to process the big picture of what they’re reading/and or writing. I get a lot of questions about when students are “ready” for this kind of work. There’s a misconception that these skills should be reserved for “older” students in late elementary and secondary school.

That’s why in this episode, I wanted to share why waiting until students are “ready” to work on syntax is a fallacy, and what we should do instead. I also share how to teach kids in early elementary school to use difficult sentence-types, even before they’re able to read and write difficult words or long sentences. This episode was taken from a Q & A session with Language Therapy Advance Foundations members. Language Therapy Advance Foundations is my course that teaches pediatric SLPs a framework for language therapy designed to give them the vocabulary and language processing skills needed to thrive in school and life. If you’re an SLP, and you want a better system for language therapy so you can show up to sessions confident you’re setting your students up for success, check out the Language Therapy Advance Foundations enrollment page here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In episode 63, I share a Q & A from the Language Therapy Advance Foundations members’ group about dyslexia diagnosis and treatment, as well as working memory goals. 

I get a lot of questions about who is qualified to diagnose and treat dyslexia; especially when it comes to the SLP’s role in the process. Understanding the process of dyslexia diagnosis in the schools vs. medical settings can be especially confusing.  

That’s why I wanted to share this Q & A session with my LTA members where I talked about the SLP’s role in the process; including the differences between school vs. medical settings. Another topic that comes up with diagnoses like dyslexia is working memory; and I get asked all the time if addressing “working memory goals” in therapy is a good use of time (this is also relevant when considering things like ADHD or auditory processing disorder).  

In the second part of this Q & A, I share how to make the best use of therapy time considering the available research; including how to keep therapy functional and focused on tasks that are likely to improve “real-world” skills (as opposed to rote drill exercises with weak carryover).  

Some of the questions I address in this Q & A include:

✅Where can you go to get an “official” dyslexia diagnosis?

✅Are school therapists “qualified” to treat dyslexia, even though they might not be able to officially diagnose it?

✅Is it a good use of therapy time to focus on auditory memory and working memory exercises?

✅If you suspect that a child has language processing issues AND weak working memory, what should we be working on with them? 

In this episode, I mention this position statement from the  American Speech-Language and Hearing Association about the speech-language pathologist’s role in reading and writing.

This episode was taken from a Q & A session with Language Therapy Advance Foundations members. Language Therapy Advance Foundations is my course that teaches pediatric SLPs a framework for language therapy designed to give them the vocabulary and language processing skills needed to thrive in school and life.

If you’re an SLP, and you want a better system for language therapy so you can show up to sessions confident you’re setting your students up for success, check out the Language Therapy Advance Foundations enrollment page here.

The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

There’s been an increase in depression and anxiety in kids in recent years, which is why I wanted to have an expert on the show who’s had years of experience working with childhood trauma and anxiety.

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Ambroes Pass-Turner, who has worked in mental health for over 20 years and has experience working with children and adults. Dr. Pass-Turner is an expert in working with behavioral and emotionally disturbed children, adults, families, and offenders within the criminal justice system. She is a Doctor of Counseling Psychology and the owner of APT Counseling Services, LLC. She is a professor at Grand Canyon University in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and Georgia Military College.

In this conversation, we talk about:
✅ Red flags of anxiety and depression in kids; as well as signs and symptoms of abuse and trauma.

✅ The school-to-prison pipeline: What it is and how to take steps to prevent it

✅Navigating special education eligibility for kids with mental health diagnoses; as well as effective educational accommodations for kids with anxiety. 

✅How to use self-talk to build self-esteem in kids.  

✅How to encourage kids to take care of their mental health, even when they don’t want to.

Dr. Ambroes Pass-Turner is an author and published the books, Rex’s Journey: Helping Children Understand and Cope with Emotions and Childhood Sexual Abuse: Pathway to Mental Health Issues and Delinquent Behavior.

You can learn more about Dr. Ambroes Pass-Turner at her website here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

I get a ton of questions about how to support kids who have weak word-retrieval, so I wanted to share a powerful technique you can use to address this. 

When kids have poor word-finding skills, it’s often because they’re not engaging in the internal dialogue needed to pay attention to important features of words and store that information efficiently. The key to boosting these skills is to help kids develop this internal self-talk needed to learn words independently. As an SLP or other professional supporting kids, you can’t teach kids every word they need to know. 

What you really need to do instead is to give them the metacognitive skills they need to learn words independently. That’s why in this episode, I wanted to share a special Q & A session that I did for the members of Language Therapy Advance Foundations.

In this Q & A I discuss:
✅My go-to strategy for boosting word-finding (hint: this DOES NOT involve drill activities that encourage rote memorization). 

✅How to help kids develop the internal dialogue they need to keep learning words, even after they leave your therapy room

✅Is there a place for drill-based activities (like rapid naming of categories, associations, and synonyms)? If so, how does it fit into an effective language therapy protocol?

✅How to use semantic feature analysis to boost student engagement and get kids excited about words, so they actually look forward to sessions.

In this episode, I mention a blog post where I outline an example of how to do semantic feature analysis for adjectives, which is an activity I use to improve word-finding. The videos in this post are taken directly from the Language Therapy Advance Foundations member’s area, so it’ll give you a sneak peak of what’s inside the program. You can check out that post here. If you want to learn more about how to boost students’ word-finding and vocabulary, as well as improve their ability to learn independently, check out the Language Therapy Advance Foundations enrollment page here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

When it comes to supporting autistic kids, I’ve come across a lot of resources that help with the home and school environments. 

But many families aren’t sure how to navigate unexpected and novel situations with their kids; which means travel is often out of the question.

That’s why I wanted to interview special needs travel columnist and author, Dawn Barclay. Dawn’s book on traveling with autistic children will be available August 2022, she interviewed hundreds of families and experts in the process of writing it.

In our conversation, we discuss some highlights from the book, including:
✅The biggest fears of families with autistic children when it comes to travel.

✅How to find autism-friendly travel locations (including certified locations where staff have been trained). 

✅Common challenging situations and how to advocate for your kids 

✅Popular travel destinations for autistic kids.

Dawn M. Barclay is an award-winning author who has spent a career working in different aspects of the travel industry. She started as an agent with her parents’ firms, Barclay Travel Ltd and Barclay International Group Short-Term Apartment Rentals, and then branched out into travel trade reporting with senior or contributing editor positions at Travel Agent Magazine, Travel Life, Travel Market Report, and most recently, Insider Travel Report. She is a mother of two and resides in New York’s scenic Hudson Valley. She also writes fiction as D.M. Barr and holds leadership roles in several writer organizations. You can learn more about her book on her blog here: http://www.dawnbarclayink.com/

In this episode, I also mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that teaches SLPs a systematic process for building the language skills kids need to support comprehension and academic skills. You can learn more about how to become a member here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagefoundations
I also shared that I’m currently reworking my program offerings relating to executive functioning and social-problem solving. However, you can get more information about executive functioning and how it impacts kids in my free parent guide. You can get a free copy of the parent guide here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/parentguide

The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

When it comes to working on executive functioning and “social skills”, one of the biggest complaints I hear from therapists is that their clients don’t generalize.   

That’s often because when it comes to working on these types of skills, direct therapy alone isn’t enough to help kids apply skills. I often encourage SLPs to think beyond just direct therapy when it comes to designing services.   That’s why I invited Lori Melnitsky to come on for episode 59.   Lori is a private practice speech-language pathologist who has been in the field for over 30 years. She specializes in stuttering therapy, and also does coaching for young adults with ADHD who need support with executive functioning.   

In this interview, Lori and I discuss:
✅How to know if kids need support with executive functioning in elementary school, middle school, and high school.
✅How to know when you should coach the student vs coach the parents to support executive functioning (and when you need to focus on both).
✅The relationship between executive functioning and anxiety, and how they both impact each other
✅The importance of consistent positive praise and feedback for people with ADHD; no matter the age.

Lori Melnitsky, MA CCC-SLP has specialized in stuttering for over 25 years for children and adults. She founded All Island Speech and Stuttering Therapy and is now online in NY, NJ, CT, and PA. Lori is a person who stutters and entered the field to help others communicate. She has run National Stuttering Association Chapter meetings and taught graduate courses on stuttering. She is a sought after speaker at local school districts and speech associations on the topics of stuttering and ADHD. Lori is Lidcombe trained, Prompt Certified, MPI 2 certified for stuttering, and an ADHD coach. Additionally, Lori founded the FB group and podcast Stuttering DeMystified. Lori was also a mentor on an episode of the Children’s show Arthur and is a published author in the Journal of Fluency Disorders. Her website is Home | All Island Speech and Stuttering Therapy | Plainview, NY To learn more about how you can connect with Lori and learn more about her courses and services for stuttering and ADHD/executive functioning, you can visit her website here or follow her on Facebook here.  You can also check out her podcast “Stuttering Demystified” here.

In this episode, I also mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that teaches SLPs a systematic process for building the language skills kids need to support comprehension and academic skills. You can learn more about how to become a member here. I also shared that I’m currently reworking my program offerings relating to executive functioning and social-problem solving. However, you can get more information about executive functioning and how it impacts kids in my free parent guide. You can get a free copy of the parent guide here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

How do you know if an intervention is neurodiversity affirming and evidence-based? Are child-led interventions actually in a child’s best interest? What’s the right way to build social skills, “pragmatic language” and social communication skills? I’ve done a lot of soul-searching surrounding this topic. The typical pragmatic language interventions that focused on preaching the “right” way to act in social situations never felt right to me. Yet I didn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. So in this episode, I wanted to share the framework I currently recommend for teaching social problem-solving. The truth is, there are a lot of truly ableist practices going on; but there’s also a lot of misinformation (I know…such a buzzword these days!). That’s why I’m going to break down a couple key points to help therapists, teachers, and parents navigate through it all so they know how to raise well-adjusted kids. I share what I know from 4 different angles: Research/evidence-based practice, clinical experience, being a parent, and being neurodivergent myself.

Specifically, I’ll talk about:
✅The difference between academic language interventions and social-problem solving interventions (and why what works for one doesn’t work for the other).
✅Why many social skills groups and therapy sessions are ineffective in teaching kids social-problem solving skills.
✅How to help kids be more resilient, flexible, and effective at developing social relationships (without gaslighting them or being ableist). ✅What it really means to be “neurodiversity affirming” and “child-led”, and how to do it in a way that helps kids feel safe and secure.

In this episode, I explain why I approach academic language that build comprehension and processing in a much different way than I do social problem-solving. In light of that, I mention two different programs I offer for speech pathologists. First, I mentioned the Social Language Roadmap, which teaches a set of strategies designed to teach kids the social problem-solving skills they need to thrive in school, community, and vocational settings. It’s designed for SLPs, but may also be helpful to other people working with school-age kids. You can learn more about how to join the Social Language Roadmap here. Second, I mention Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that teaches speech-pathologists a framework for supporting the language process skills needed for strong reading comprehension, writing, and other academic tasks. You can learn more about how to join Language Therapy Advance Foundations here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Preparing young people for adulthood is all about providing them with the right blend of experiences; both in and outside of school. Building literacy, numeracy, and content knowledge will give students a foundation for success; but we need to pair that with real-world experiences where they can apply that knowledge in real time.

When we think about “real-world” experiences; we often think of internships, “on the job” skills, or daily tasks and other things we’d categorize as “adulting”. 

However, outdoor excursions offer kids and young adults the opportunities to explore and experience things beyond the day-to-day. 

It’s one thing to learn about water health and environmental studies in a classroom; but when you get the chance to do a multi-week excursion along the Hudson river and drink from a natural water source, you amplify your learning to a new level. 

That’s why I invited Greg Morrissey to the De Facto Leaders podcast for episode 163. 

If you enjoy hiking, skiing, and other outdoor activities you’ll want to listen. 

Trust me, you’ll thank me later :)

Greg Morrissey is an educator, explorer, and founder of Mountain Goat Movement -- an organization that provides transformative adventures for students while connecting them to leading explorers, educators, and storytellers. Think: education through adventure. Projects can be as short as one day or as extensive as a multi-week expedition, everywhere from the Adirondacks to Antarctica. Greg has raised over $140,000 for students from low-income backgrounds to experience the power of the great outdoors.

In this conversation, we discuss:

✅Bringing traditional curriculum and content areas to authentic outdoor experiences.

✅How to use excursions to help kids work as a team and form connections with peers.

✅The concept of “tiered” expeditions: Offering different activities to support different levels of experience with the outdoors

✅What habits and skills can you practice in daily life to prepare for a multi-day or multi-week adventure

✅A behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to prepare for quality outdoor education; including what Greg is doing to raise funds for scholarships to increase equity. 

Be sure to check out the BE podcast network for educators and aspiring leaders. If you’re looking for shows to inspire you to level up in your career or more effectively serve students, we’ve got you covered. Learn more about the BE podcast network at http://bepodcast.network.com/

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Navigating the special education eligibility process is confusing for all parties involved (parents, professionals, etc.).   That’s why I wanted to get some insight from someone who understands the process inside and out.   

In episode 57 of Are they 18 yet?® I interviewed my colleague Jil Stauter, a school psychologist who has worked with students from preschool all the way through high school. I was fortunate enough to work on a team with her for a number of these years. In this in-depth interview, Jil and I deconstruct the process of determining if students are eligible for special education services under the label of “specific learning disability”.

She also shares some essential advice for anyone who aspires to work in the school systems and be a part of the special education process.

Here’s a breakdown of what we cover in the interview:
✅What types of data a school psychologist needs in order to determine if a student is eligible for services under the category of “specific learning disability” using the RtI process.
✅What confuses people most about special education services in the schools (as it relates to learning disabilities and other diagnoses). ✅What happens if a school IEP team disagrees with the recommendations of an outside evaluation.
✅Plus more about the ins and outs of eligibility for services in the schools, and how special ed teams can work together. You can listen to the entire interview here.

In this episode, I mention my Ultimate Guide to Sentence Structure. In order to build strong language comprehension needed for reading, writing, and other important life skills, kids need to have a solid understanding of sentence structure. In this guide, I outline common challenging sentence types, how to write goals to target them, and some evidence-based strategies for working on them. >>>You can get a free copy of the Ultimate Guide to Sentence Structure here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In this episode, I talk with Lauren Haines from Busy Bee Speech about childhood stuttering.

Many people don’t realize this, but there are a TON of misconceptions in the general public about stuttering. It’s also a highly specialized area of speech-language pathology, so many clinicians are left feeling unprepared to support stutterers who come to therapy. That’s why I wanted to dispel some myths about stuttering and offer some practical tips for therapists, educators, and parents of school-age kids.

In this conversation, we discuss:
✅What are the signs that stuttering will persist past childhood, and is it possible for kids to “outgrow” speech disfluencies?

✅What does stuttering look like in kids? How do we know when a child needs to go to therapy?

✅What are the key pieces of intervention for stuttering, and what can therapists, educators, and parents do to help?

✅Why “stuttering” should not be an off-limits word when talking to kids about their speech.

✅What’s the cause of stuttering and how can we have realistic therapy goals for kids?

To get more information from Lauren about childhood stuttering, check out these resources:

Busy Bee Speech Fluency blog posts.

 Preschool Interactive Fluency Binder.

 Interactive Fluency Binder for Speech Therapy.

I’m excited to announce that I’m partnering with MedBridge to help clinicians keep their clinicals sharp and increase patient outcomes and engagement.

That’s why I have a special offer that allows you to get $175 off your MedBridge subscription.

With your MedBridge subscription, you get access to their continuing education library and their client engagement portal where you can share home exercises with your clients. There are membership options for SLPs, OTs, PTs, ATs, and RNs. To get this special offer, use promo code KAREN80 when you sign up for MedBridge here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In this episode, I sit down with college admissions coach Kim Duckworth from Bridge Education Center to talk about helping kids expand their options after high school. Many of my listeners are parents and professionals of K-12 kids, and many of them often wonder if they're doing the right things to prepare kids for young adulthood.

That's why I thought Kim would be the perfect guest to discuss this topic, because she's helped hundreds of kids successfully get in to their "dream schools".

In this interview, Kim and I discuss:
✅The importance of having a plan A, plan B, and plan C when thinking about the post-high school years.
✅Common options to consider post-graduation (not just college) and how to help your child decide which one is for them.
✅The right and wrong way to do a "gap year" if your child is considering it.
✅The ONE habit your child can do to expand their options when it comes to life after high school-especially if they're considering college (spoiler alert: it has to do with vocabulary and books)
✅Why the post-high school on-ramp starts in middle school, and what you can do at each age to help children have well-rounded high school experiences.

If you have a child who is considering college as a post-high school option, you don't want to miss this interview. Kim Duckworth is the author of “Parents, Are You Ready? The Practical Guide to Launching a Successful High School Student”. She is a graduate of Stanford University, where she received her B.A. in Communications-Journalism. She was the first woman in her family to attend college. She worked in Sales and Marketing for IBM in Silicon Valley and White Plains, NY for over 10 years. She has called Arizona her home for the last 25 years. Currently, Kim is an independent college admissions coach and member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling. She personally consulted with over 7,500 high school families as the co-owner of Scottsdale Education Center (a college preparatory center) for over 12 years. She’s been married 35 years, has three daughters and three grandchildren. She enjoys hiking, Labrador retrievers, travel, and Telluride, Colorado You can learn more about Kim's services, including her college admission coaching services on her website here: https://parentsareyouready.com/about/

Also, I highly recommend checking out her book here: https://parentsareyouready.com/books/book/

Finally, don't forget to check out the Ultimate Guide to Sentence Structure, which helps kids build the vocabulary and syntax skills they need for strong reading comprehension and written expression. You can grab a free copy of that guide here: https://drkarenspeech.com/sentencestructure The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In this episode of Are they 18 yet?™, I talk with my friend and former colleague, Joann Briggs.

Joann was a special education teacher in the public school systems for over 30 years, and I had the opportunity to work with her for a good portion of my time as a school speech pathologist.

While I always harp on the fact that SLPs can make a huge impact on literacy and language, it really is a team effort. That’s why I wanted to sit down with Joann and share how we were able to work together to serve our elementary caseload in the school systems.

If you’re an SLP or a teacher who wants to know how to collaborate to build vocabulary skills, this is a must listen.

It’ll also be helpful if you’re a parent and you want to get a better understanding of what happens as your child’s school.

In this conversation, Joann shares:

✅How to co-teach effectively with general education teachers to serve a special education caseload.

✅Her experience going through a lengthy due process hearing with a student on her caseload.

✅How SLPs can add value in the teaming process when it comes to language and literacy.

✅How to get parents involved in the IEP process to so they feel like valued team members. In this episode, I mention my Ultimate Guide to Sentence Structure.

In order to build strong language comprehension needed for reading, writing, and other important life skills, kids need to have a solid understanding of sentence structure.

In this guide, I outline common challenging sentence types, how to write goals to target them, and some evidence-based strategies for working on them.

You can get a free copy of the Ultimate Guide to Sentence Structure at drkarenspeech.com/sentencestructure. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Recently, the Center for Disease control updated the early developmental milestones, and there's been a lot of debate about what this means. In a lot of my SLP professional groups, there have been questions about whether this will allow kids to fall through the cracks. I've also heard the concern that developmental milestones in general focus on neurotypical development and don't take neurodivergents in to account. That's why recently, I did a training for the member's of  SLP Learning Academy (my mentoring program for SLPs) to help them continue to provide quality services for kids who need them. In this episode, I share the audio from this training.

In the training, I cover:
✅What updates were made to the developmental milestones and concerns that have popped up in professional discussions.
✅Why developmental milestones are often misinterpreted and what to do about it.
✅What happens if a kid isn't following a "typical developmental progression"? What does that mean we should do?
✅What to do if a child IS meeting developmental milestones, but they're still having a difficult time functioning in school or social environments.
✅Why meeting developmental milestones shouldn't be the goal of therapy (and what to focus on instead).

In this episode, I mentioned  this slide deck with a flow chart for making decisions during screenings/evals (taking milestones in to account). This episode was taken from a training in SLP Learning Academy, my mentoring program that helps SLPs develop leadership skills and deliver high-quality services without burnout.  You can learn more about how to become a member here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

We don’t want to be “helicopter parents” who coddle our kids…but we don’t want to be so militant that we traumatize them either. 

When it comes getting kids to do essential, but non-preferred tasks that ultimately help them thrive in the long run…the key to finding the right balance is learning how to scaffold. 

The term “scaffolding” is used to describe the foundation of a building, but it's also used to describe how teachers, therapists, and parents can teach kids challenging skills over time.

Ideally, we are providing JUST enough support that kids are challenged, but not so much support that they never progress.  This can be applied to basic independent skills like making meals, basic hygiene, managing a schedule and deadlines (for homework and other things), among other things that are necessary life skills we want kids to be able to do. 

That’s why in this week’s episode, I share the second half of my conversation with my friend and colleague, Brittany Bohach, a neurodivergent speech-language pathologist. 

In this conversation, we share a number of tangible examples of scaffolding in the school settings-both in preschool and through elementary and secondary school. 

Specifically, Brittany shares why something as simple as snack  or lunch time can be difficult for a child in the preschool setting, and how to work through this situation in a way that has the child’s best interest in mind. 

We also discuss another scenario that involved scaffolding from elementary school all the way through high school, and how a student was able to manage challenging sensory needs and develop communication skills in the process. 

If you’re a therapist, parent, or teacher who wants to support kids in a neurodiversity affirming, healthy way (that also builds resilience), you’re going to love this episode. 

To connect with Brittany Bohach, check out her private practice, Satellite Pediatric Therapy Services on Instagram at  @satellitepediatrictherapy. 

Additionally, we mentioned the work of Dr. Ross Greene on this episode, which you can learn more about here. 

Finally, I also mentioned the Time Tracking Journal, my resource for parents and therapists who want to help kids build executive functioning skills during common non-preferred or challenging daily tasks (e.g., chores, homework). The Time Tracking Journal gives you a set of strategies to help kids complete daily routines independently by giving them the problem-solving skills they need to plan their day strategically. You can learn more about the Time Tracking Journal here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

When kids show negative behaviors, it’s often because they’re struggling to do what they’re being asked to do. This unfortunately happens a lot in school settings. You may have heard the saying “Kindergarten is the new 1st grade”. Kindergarten used to be focused on play, and its becoming increasingly more academic.

When “behavior problems” come up, we have to consider the demands being placed on kids. Are they truly “behavior issues”, or are we simply asking kids to do too much too soon?

In episode 50, I dive into this topic with my friend and colleague, neurodivergent pediatric speech-language pathologist, Brittany Bohach.

Specifically, we discuss:
✅Popular pre-k classroom activities and accompanying behavior problems that go along with them.
✅What’s really causing kids to act out, and why punishment isn’t the best option to solve the issue.
✅Common environmental classroom triggers that can result in meltdowns in emergent communicators
✅Why kids resist common school activities (circle time, calendar time, snack), and why standard behavior management strategies can cause more harm than good.

If you’re a therapist, parent, or teacher who is helping a child with “Kindergarten readiness” and school in general, you’re going to love this episode. To connect with Brittany Bohach, check out her private practice, Satellite Pediatric Therapy Services on Instagram at  @satellitepediatrictherapy. 

Additionally, we mentioned the work of Dr. Ross Greene on this episode, which you can learn more about here. 

Finally, I also mentioned the Time Tracking Journal, my resource for parents and therapists who want to help kids build executive functioning skills during common non-preferred or challenging daily tasks (e.g., chores, homework). The Time Tracking Journal gives you a set of strategies to help kids complete daily routines independently by giving them the problem-solving skills they need to plan their day strategically. You can learn more about the Time Tracking Journal here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Are "natural" remedies really better when it comes to ADHD, autism, and related conditions? What does it mean to use a "natural" treatment or intervention?
 
In this episode, I discuss why those questions aren't easy to answer.

Specifically, I discuss:
✅The "appeal to nature" fallacy, what it is and why it's potentially harmful.
✅Common "natural" treatments for conditions like ADHD (such as diet, sleep hygiene, supplementation)
✅How to avoid distorted thinking when making decisions about medication and other treatment options.
✅The problem with "child-led" interventions, and how to reframe that term in a way that helps kids build resilience.

In this episode, I mentioned  this episode about homeopathy from the Unbiased Science podcast. I also mentioned the book "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer. If you want to create healthy home environment that supports executive functioning and independence in school-age kids, check out my program for therapists, teachers, and parents, Executive Functioning for Success. Executive Functioning for Success provides a 12-week plan for optimizing your home for learning, and helping kids become more independent with daily tasks at the same time. Whether it be simple chores, basic self-care and hygiene, or academic tasks; this program will show you how to teach your kids the critical thinking skills to work through it.

You can learn more about how to join here: https://drkarenspeech.com/executivefunctions (Disclaimer: This episode should not be considered medical or legal advice, and should not be used to diagnose or treat any specific medical condition). The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Am I choosing the right language screening tool? How do I know when a child should be screened and evaluated? I get these questions a lot. That's why in this episode, I wanted to bust some common myths about language screenings and evaluations.

I'm going to share:  
✅The difference between a screening and evaluation (plus common mistakes people make).
✅Why thinking of a screening as a "test" is problematic.
✅When you might not have to use a formal language screener (and what you can do instead).
✅A simple tool I use to simplify the screening process, so I make sure I'm evaluating the right students.

In this episode I mentioned the Academic Language Skills Rating Scale, a tool I use to streamline language screenings, so students don't fall through the cracks. You can download your copy of this tool at: drkarenspeech.com/languagescreening. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Does class size matter? Is homework effective? What's the best way to help kids learn to read?  Why do some teachers (and schools) succeed while others fail? Dr. John Hattie attempted to answer these questions in his meta-analysis, published in his book, Visible Learning. This meta-analysis has been widely cited and used in teacher preparation programs all over the world, and has also been used to make decisions regarding educational policy and funding. But are the conclusions accurate? In this episode I dig in to that question as I share some critical reviews of Dr. Hattie's work. Specifically, I share the problems that come when using statistics like effect size (used in Hattie's meta-analysis) to make practical decisions in education. Additionally, I share one specific place where I disagree with Hattie's conclusions, plus some additional research that supports my point of view; specifically when it comes to sentence-combining, language processing, and comprehension. You can find Dr. John Hattie's site here. You can find some critical review of his work here and  here. I also mentioned that research supports the use of sentence-combining with certain students. You can find several studies that support this  here,  here, and  here. I also share some additional support for sentence-combining and explicit work on syntax in my Ultimate Guide to Sentence Structure, which you can download here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

My heart sinks when I see how polarizing topics in education have become, as well as the tendency for people to have “all or nothing” thinking.

I’ve seen an increasing amount of activities pitted against each other as if doing one means we can’t ALSO do the other:

👉Standardized testing vs. real-world observations/stakeholder interviews.

👉Year-round school vs. traditional summer break.

👉Critical thinking skills vs. foundational skills.

👉Play vs. academics during non-school time (after school or over the summer).

👉Soft skills vs. technical skills.

What if we stopped thinking about all of these things as opposing viewpoints, and instead tried to integrate them together? 

What if we stopped saying, “Should I do this or that?”, and instead started asking “How can I find a way to do this AND that”? 

I invited my colleague David Schipper to episode 162 of the De Facto Leaders podcast to ponder some of these questions.
 
Specifically, I wanted to tackle the “summer slide” debate. 

This topic is near and dear to me because I was a “summer slider”. I was almost held back in first grade because I was behind in reading, and my parents took it upon themselves to spend time with me after school during the school and over the summer to get me remedial instruction in reading through a combination of things they did at home, as well as tutoring programs they invested in. 

I was also shy and anxious, and needed a nudge from my very extroverted mom to participate in activities that allowed me to work with others, build friendships, handle frustration and learning curves, and develop mental flexibility. These experiences were essential in helping me to fully leverage the skills I was working on concurrently, like reading. But going to the pool for swim meets in the summer did not teach me to read; my academic instruction did. 

Had my parents decided to just “let me catch up naturally” and eliminated the reading tutoring from my early years, I wonder what kind of impact that would have had. 

Would I have turned into a lifelong learner? 

Would I have felt even more anxious due to the combination of struggling academically AND being really shy? 

Would the issue have been identified if standardized testing wasn’t done? 

In this interview David and I talked about how we can better answer these questions, starting with a discussion of the summer slide. 

David Schipper is the director of Strategic Learning Clinic, a position he has held since 2013. David obtained a B.A. in English Literature from Concordia University in 1998 as well as a B.Ed. in Secondary Education (English and History) from McGill University in 2002. After some work as a local teacher in Montreal, David founded 2Torial Educational Centre in 2007. Aside from his ability to put both parents and students at ease, David is able to help families get to the root of the problem(s) and propose the most suitable programs to resolve these issues. As a father of two children, David knows how to relate to the concerns of parents and as an experienced educator and passionately understands the struggles of students. His passion and dedication to teaching and learning is second to none.

*We briefly discussed a presentation that covered a sensitive topic in this interview. 

In this conversation, we discuss:

✅Is the summer slide real? Who is it impacting the most?

✅This isn’t just about summer: It’s about what we’re prioritizing in school.

✅The case of too many accommodations: What happens in the college years when we don’t build foundational academic skills before students graduate high school.

✅The layering of academic skills with executive functioning: Real life examples of how it looks when teenagers are planful with their time and when they aren’t. 

✅Tutoring: Yes, it’s needed; but what does good tutoring look like? 

In this conversation, I mention a number of other interviews relating to the topic of early literacy, so be sure to check the show notes for links to all of those other interviews in the show notes here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-162-the-summer-slide-real-phenomenon-or-invented-by-tutoring-companies-with-david-schipper/

In this episode, I mention Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that helps SLPs create a system for language therapy. You can learn more about Language Therapy Advance Foundations here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/

I also mentioned the School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers develop a strategic plan for putting executive functioning support in place in collaboration with their school teams. You can learn more about that program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In this episode, I continue the discussion about language processing and how to support it. I continue the discussion of difficult sentence types, and dive in to one very challenging syntax skill that tends to cause processing problems. Working on this skill can not only improve language comprehension, but it can also help kids more effectively express themselves verbally or in writing. If you're working with kids who have difficulty with reading comprehension, have difficult following directions with multiple steps, or if you have a child who has a hard time keeping up with the pace of daily routines, you'll find it really helpful.

Specifically, I'm going to share:
✅Why language processing issues can often be mistaken for "behavior issues", and why this can be damaging to a child's self-esteem. ✅One powerful skill kids need in order to be able to comprehend sophisticated language during conversations or book reading.
 ✅How to support kids' language skills during reading and other daily activities (by emphasizing one key syntax skill). In this episode, I also mention my Ultimate Guide to Sentence Structure, that takes this information a step further.

This guide walks through some of the common skills that cause language processing problems and how to work on them with kids.

Inside this 36-page guide, you’ll learn:

• Simple strategies proven to boost sentence structure, comprehension, and written language.
• The 4 sentence types your students need to know in order to comprehend language successfully.
• A deceptively simple way to write language goals; so you’re not spending hours on paperwork (for my SLP listeners).

You can download your free copy on my website at: drkarenspeech.com/sentencestructure. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Language skills are essential to a child's ability to succeed in school and life. But when processing language is a struggle there can be a global impact across a child's entire day. Language comprehension issues can be such as challenge for therapists, parents and teachers because they're difficult to spot. Often they look like a "behavior problem" when a child doesn't follow instructions, or when they appear to be off-task. On top of that, when kids repeated fail at a certain task and no one can figure out why, it's only natural for them to stop trying or willfully avoid it.

That's why in this episode, I'm getting the word out about language processing and why it's so important to develop in school-age kids. Here's what I'll be discussing in this episode:
✅The difference between "speech therapy" and "language therapy".
✅Red flags of language processing issues and how to spot them.
✅One of the most common culprits behind processing issues (that's often overlooked).
✅The 4 types of sentences that are difficult for kids with language processing issues. In this episode, I also mention my Ultimate Guide to Sentence Structure, that takes this information a step further.

This guide walks through some of the common skills that cause language processing problems and how to work on them with kids. You can download your free copy on my website at: drkarenspeech.com/sentencestructure. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Vocabulary growth is one of the biggest predictors of language growth and academic success. That's why in this episode, I talk about what speech pathologists, parents, and teachers can do to help kids build strong vocabulary skills across elementary school through high school.

Specifically, I share:
✅Why it's hard to pinpoint what language and vocabulary skills are "age-appropriate" between Kindergarten and 12th grade.
✅What types of words we should be emphasizing to help kids learn words more efficiently.
✅Some practical ways to improve kids' vocabulary in the home environment.

To learn more information about how to build language skills across the school-age years, check out my blog here: https://drkarenspeech.com/blog/ If you want more specific information about the language therapy framework I teach SLPs that I mentor (that's specifically designed to build the vocabulary skills that support strong comprehension), then check out my free online presentation. You can sign up for spot here: https://drkarenspeech.com/language The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Reading comprehension is one of the most important skills for academic success. It's a skill that can help us to continue to learn new information throughout our lives. On the other hand, kids who struggle to understand what they read are at a disadvantage when it comes to getting in school and beyond. When I worked in the school systems as a speech-language pathologist, a large portion of my caseload was referred to me because of language and literacy challenges.

Poor reading comprehension was often the red flag that resulted in those referrals. The challenge was knowing what to do for those students.

That's why in this episode, I aim to answer the question of "Whose job is it to support kids' reading comprehension skills?"
Specifically, I share:
✅The typical scope and sequence of reading instruction across K-12, and why some kids struggle with it.
✅The common causes of reading comprehension difficulties, and what schools and professionals typically do to address them.
✅What SLPs, teachers, and parents can do to work as a team in supporting reading comprehension. In this episode, I share my brand new presentation that walks through my framework I teach SLPs I mentor.

This process is designed to help professionals like SLPs give kids the foundational skills they need to support strong reading comprehension. I designed it with SLPs in mind, so if you're a speech pathologist supporting a K-12 caseload, it will give you a ton of clarity. If you're a teacher or a parent, you're welcome to check it out as well (or share with your child's speech pathologist). You can save your seat in this presentation here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

When raising kids in elementary school, junior high, and high school, a lot of parents wonder if they're preparing their kids for what lies ahead in college and adulthood. We can't look in to a crystal ball and predict the future, but we can bring insights from our own failures and successes to the way we parent. 

That's why in this episode, Joe and I continue our conversation about his experience going through school, including:  ✅How he initially failed out of college, but then later went back and got a master's degree from the same university.  ✅What he wishes he would have learned after being evaluated for ADHD, and how we bring these insights into the way we parent.  ✅How he learned to be more disciplined and structure his environment so you he can perform his best and focus (without using medication). 

If you want to better prepare your K-12 kids for what lies ahead, you'll get a ton out of listening in to this episode. 

(Disclaimer: This episode should not be considered medical or legal advice, and should not be used to diagnose or treat any specific medical condition). If you’re a parent who wants to set your kids up for success as adults, then then you’re going to love my free parent guide, which I mentioned in this episode. In this guide, I share the executive functioning skills kids need in order to stay organized, focused, and motivated during their day-to-day tasks like chores and homework. You can sign up for the guide here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/parentguide The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

We all have a point where the demands of life become too overwhelming and we lose our ability to self-manage and stay disciplined. For people who have a diagnosis of ADHD, that point can come sooner rather than later. 

In this episode, my husband (Joe) shares what happened when he hit his breaking point, including: ✅His experience growing up with an "almost ADHD" diagnosis ✅How he managed to fall through the cracks and squeak by in elementary and secondary school.  ✅What happened when he went away to college and didn't have his built-in accountability systems (a.k.a., his parents). 

If you have a kid in K-12 and you want to learn what challenges might lie ahead for your kids and what red flags to look out for in elementary and secondary school, you're going to love this episode

And spoiler alert: This story has a happy ending. This is just the first of a two-part interview. 

(Disclaimer: This episode should not be considered medical or legal advice, and should not be used to diagnose or treat any specific medical condition). If you’re a parent who wants to set your kids up for success as adults, then then you’re going to love my free parent guide, which I mentioned in this episode. In this guide, I share the different types of executive functioning skills kids need in order to stay organized, focused, and motivated during their day-to-day tasks like chores and homework. You can sign up for the guide here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/parentguide The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

When it comes to supporting kids with ADHD or other conditions that impact executive functioning, it can be challenging to understand some of the behaviors we’re seeing.

Sometimes figuring out why they act the way they do can be confusing, especially when it appears that they’re engaging in certain self-sabotaging behaviors.

This might include (but not be limited to) avoiding certain, inevitable situations or procrastinating…even if it means more work in the long run.

Or even if it means missing out on something that might be important or enjoyable.

When any of the above happens, cognitive distortions (a.k.a. distorted thinking can be the culprit).

That’s why in this episode, I define and discuss cognitive distortions and how they relate to ADHD.

Specifically, I share what cognitive distortions are, why we want to minimize them as much as possible.

I start out with busting some myths, including why distorted thinking isn’t related to intelligence.

I also talk about cognitive distortions that may pop up when someone has ADHD and how this can impact their ability to fulfill daily obligations (like chores, homework, etc.).

Then, I wrap up by sharing some tips for working through distorted thinking. In this episode, I mentioned the work of Dr. Aaron Beck and Dr. David Burns as it pertains to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and defining cognitive distortions.

You can find more information about Dr. Aaron Beck’s work here.

You can find more information about Dr. David Burns’s work here.

I also mentioned the Time Tracking Journal, a tool to help parents and educators support kids in engaging in positive self-talk and self-reflection during day-to-day tasks. It’s intended to help kids be more independent with tasks that require sequencing and planning; but it can also help kids reflect on social situations as well. It is particularly helpful in working through cognitive distortions, such as magnification and labeling.

You can get more information about the Time Tracking Journal here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/timejournal The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Ableism is the discrimination against disabled people.

As we learn more and more about autistic people, those with ADHD, among other populations…this word continues to come up in conversation.

Many of the interventions we’ve traditionally done to support children who need different educational and medical interventions are now under scrutiny for having ableist qualities. This has left a lot of clinicians, educators, and caregivers in a tricky situation as they support kids’ social, emotional, and cognitive development. 

That’s why in this episode, I have a discussion on the top of ableism, including what it is and what it isn’t.

I also share tips for parents and clinicians so they can help kids without being ableist. In this episode, I mention the Time Tracking Journal, a tool to help parents and educators support kids in engaging in positive self-talk and self-reflection during day-to-day tasks. It’s intended to help kids be more independent with tasks that require sequencing and planning; but it can also help kids reflect on social situations as well.

You can get more information about the Time Tracking Journal here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/timejournal The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

When I was going through school back in the late 90s and early 2000s, I was taught that “person-first” language was the most respectful way to refer to my clients.

For example, they weren’t “disabled people”, they were “people with disabilities”.

Fast forward to the 2020s, and now we’re hearing a different story.

Now, there are many people who actually prefer “identity first” language.

If you’re someone supporting someone who has some particular diagnosis or disability, it’s confusing enough to navigate the system when it comes to educational and medical services.

Add language and terminology on top of that, and it gets even more overwhelming.

I’ve heard this debate from multiple angles.

Some have a strong preferences for one type of language over the other. Others are more flexible.

And then there is a group of people who aren’t even fully aware of this debate and what it means…especially if they are brand new to the world of educational or medical services for kids.

That’s why in this episode, I wanted to share the background and rationale behind both “person first” and “identity first language” based on my experience working as a clinician since 2004 and also as someone who has a diagnosis myself. In this episode, I mentioned some research relating to labeling theory and self-fulfilling prophecies.  Here is some more information about that. Also, here is some information about  where the term originated.

I also mentioned the Executive Functioning Guide for Parents in this episode. In this guide I outline what executive functioning is and why it’s so important to helping kids grow up to be resilient, adaptable, and independent.

In this guide I walk through red flags of executive dysfunction, as well as how to identify specific areas of executive functioning where your kids might need support. You can get the free parent guide at drkarendudekbrannan.com/parentguide The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

How do we hold students accountable for their actions, but acknowledge their unique neurological profiles at the same time? How do we help neurodivergents (e.g., ADHD, Autism) build genuine connections with others and succeed in academic, vocational, and social situations?

In this episode, I invited special guest Miriam Campbell, founder of Skills for Connection (https://skillsforconnection.com/), to help answer these questions. Miriam is a speech-language pathologist and a social worker who works with students directly through her private practice. She also provides professional development for therapists and educators who support students with diagnoses that impact communication and academic skills.

In this interview, Miriam and I discuss:
✅Why don't "social skills" we teach in therapeutic settings transfer to real-life situations?
✅How emotional regulation impacts our ability to connect with others, and how to help kids understand and navigate their own emotions. ✅How to help kids take responsibility for their behaviors in a way that builds a positive self-image.
✅How to help kids advocate for their sensory, emotional, and communication needs and still develop the skills for connecting with others.

To connect with Miriam and learn more about her professional development opportunities and strategies for building connection, email her at miriam@skillsforconnection.com or visit her website here: https://skillsforconnection.com/

In this episode, I mention the Time Tracking Journal, (https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/timejournal), a tool to help parents and educators support kids in engaging in positive self-talk and self-reflection during day-to-day tasks. It's intended to help kids be more independent with tasks that require sequencing and planning; but it can also help kids reflect on social situations as well.

You can get more information about the Time Tracking Journal here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/timejournal

The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Helping families feel involved in their children’s education goes beyond checking the boxes to make sure you’re following legal guidelines.

That’s why I invited Dr. Kristin Vogel-Campbell to De Facto Leaders to talk about how school teams can make the IEP process more welcoming to families, especially those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. 

Dr. Kristin Vogel-Campbell (she/her/hers) is a veteran Special Educator with over 20 years in the field. She has served in various roles from paraeducator to Director of Student Services and Special Education. She was a classroom teacher for a decade in the San Francisco Bay Area, working with students from Kindergarten through 8th grade. She is a systems-focused educator, working at the district level with school teams to ensure that students with disabilities are provided high-quality, research-based instruction and that all students are treated with dignity and respect in the Least Restrictive Environment. In addition, she has supported new site leaders in deepening their understanding of Special Education, including laws and protections for students and families. 

Kristin is a practitioner-researcher, working with families to share their experiences and perspectives. Informed with this familial knowledge, teams can make practical shifts needed to move to a collaborative partnership with culturally affirming, sustainable, and equitable families. She has presented at AERA (American Educational Research Association), NAME (National Association of Multicultural Education), and ACSA (Association of California School Administrators, among others. Articles have appeared in Leadership (ACSA magazine), The Journal of Leadership, Equity, and Research, and the KQED Education blog. Her book “Partnering with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families in Special Education” was published in December 2023 by Rowman & Littlefield.

In this conversation, we discuss:

✅You’ve provided the “procedural safeguards”, but do families really understand their rights? 

✅What’s going on when parents don’t show up for parent-teacher conferences and IEP meetings?

✅Why environmental set-up matters during IEP meetings; including seating arrangements and how/when the team enters the room. 

✅Navigating language barriers, transportation issues, and logistical constraints. 

✅Finding the balance between family schedules and staff contractual time when setting up IEP meetings.

✅Tips for managing nerves during IEP meetings so you can make your report feel conversational (and less technical).

You can connect with Dr. Vogel-Campbell on LinkedIn here (https://www.linkedin.com/in/drvogelcampbell/), and on Instagram here (https://www.instagram.com/drvogelcampbell/).
 
Be sure to check out her book “Partnering with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families in Special Education” here (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538180365/Partnering-with-Culturally-and-Linguistically-Diverse-Families-in-Special-Education).

Be sure to check out these other episodes of De Facto Leaders where I talked about how to improve community and family engagement:

EP 113: Making literacy accessible and equitable (with Cassandra Williams) 
Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-113-making-literacy-accessible-and-equitable-with-cassandra-williams/

EP 118: Coaching aspiring leaders in school turn-around and community outreach (with Edward Gordon II) Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-118-coaching-aspiring-leaders-in-school-turn-around-and-community-outreach-with-edward-gordon-ii/

EP 96: Supporting bilingualism in K-12 kids (with Briana Wagner) 
Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-96-supporting-bilingualism-in-k-12-kids-with-briana-wagner/

EP 143: Developing a cultural competemility mindset (with Melanie Evans) 
Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-143-developing-a-cultural-competemility-mindset-for-educators-and-clinicians-with-melanie-evans/

I also mentioned The School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers guide their teams to support students’ executive functioning across the day. 
This program will help you plan direct therapy, but will also help you lead change management on your team, no matter your job title. You can learn more about the School of Clinical Leadership here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In episode 36, I talk about 3 common "problem" food categories when it comes to kids diets; plus tips for making sustainable changes across eat of these areas. Contrary to popular belief, you don't need to offer rewards for eating healthy foods. Acquiring a taste for different textures and flavors is a skill that develops over time. That's why it's so important to pay attention to kids' sensory preferences when you're introducing new foods. Sometimes minor differences in flavor or texture may not register to an adult with a broad palate; but they can make a big impact for someone with sensory sensitivities.

That's why in this episode, I share:
✅Why kids may show some inconsistencies in their tolerance to certain foods.
✅How to gradually reduce additives like refined sugar from your kids' diets.
✅How to expand the amount of fruits and vegetables your kids will eat.

In this episode, I mention my 6-week plan that helps families develop healthy eating habits that build brain development. I'll even show you how to encourage kids to eat vegetables! It's called the Simple Family Meals Guide, and it will walk you through, step-by-step, how to change your kids' eating habits for the better, one meal at a time. You can sign up for the Simple Family Meals Guide here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/mealguide (Disclaimer: This episode should not be considered medical or legal advice, and should not be used to diagnose or treat any specific medical condition). The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Most parents know that eating a balanced diet is important for brain development...but making that happen is easier said than done. Especially when they have "picky eaters"  who are unsure about venturing out of their comfort zone. It's tempting to default to the popular method of using dessert as "positive reinforcement" for eating less enticing food...but often this does more harm than good in the long run. That's why in this episode, I share tips for getting kids to eat healthy food...without "rewards" and "punishment". And a quick disclaimer: I will NOT be promising a magical miracle diet that's going to "cure" ADHD or autism.

What I WILL promise is that this will help you make more sustainable changes AND help your kids think about food and eating in a healthy way.

I'll share:  
✅The #1 mistake people make when it comes to mealtime (plus a simple shift to fix it).
✅Why you don't need to issue rewards for eating "good" foods, and what to do instead.
✅How to help kids buy-in to the idea of trying new foods, without punishment or bribery.

In this episode, I mention my 6-week plan that helps families develop healthy eating habits that build brain development. I'll even show you how to encourage kids to eat vegetables! It's called the Simple Family Meals Guide, and it will walk you through, step-by-step, how to change your kids' eating habits for the better, one meal at a time. You can sign up for the Simple Family Meals Guide here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/mealguide (Disclaimer: This episode should not be considered medical or legal advice, and should not be used to diagnose or treat any specific medical condition). The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

This is part 3 of a 3-part series on the common problems with interventions for ADHD and autism.

When you have some type of neurological variation that causes you to experience the world in a different way, you automatically become an easy target for manipulation.

Those who are easily overwhelmed, or who aren’t sure how to read social cues and self-regulate have to work really hard to participate in day-to-day situations that feel normal and easy for other people. This could include sitting in a desk in a classroom. It could include having a simple conversation with a peers. It could include following directions, or sitting in a noisy public area. These are things many people take for granted. As a result, it may not make sense why others, who have different neurological wiring (ADHD, autism, etc.) cannot tolerate certain tasks or activities. Neurodivergents are commonly accused of being defiant, inappropriate, or difficult. To others it seems like they’re not trying, or that they’re just lazy and unmotivated. But the truth is that most of them KNOW they’re different in some way. Yet when they’re constantly misunderstood, they start to believe they really are broken in some way. Which is why interventions focused “compliance” alone, reward/punishment can not only invalidate their experience…it can also cause them to doubt their grip on reality.

While they may struggle to read social cues and situations, we have to find a way to teach them these skills in a way that’s supportive. That’s why we need to rethink the way we support neurodivergents, and I talk about how to make that shift in this episode.

In this episode, I mentioned the Time Tracking Journal, which is a SIMPLE tool that will help you get through daily routines (like homework) with ease, without bribery, arguments, or constant hand-holding.  The Time Tracking Journal walks you through a strategy you can do in just 10-15 minutes a day that will help kids get tasks done effectively and efficiently, and critical thinking skills and self-confidence at the same time. You can learn how to get instant access here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/timejournal The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still contain some of our old branding. 

Learn more about today's sponsors, Playworks, IXL and Renaissance:

Learn more about Renaissance:

As a global leader in education technology operating in more than 110 countries, Renaissance is committed to providing educators with insights and resources to accelerate growth and help all students build a strong foundation for success. We believe that technology can unlock a more effective learning experience, ensure that students get the personalized teaching they need to thrive, and help educators and administrators to truly, fully, See Every Student. Learn more at renaissance.com.

We’re proud to be sponsored by Playworks, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with evidence-based practices that help schools improve the health and well-being of children by increasing opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play.

If you’re a school or district leader struggling with the challenge of chronic absenteeism, as so many are across the U.S., you may not realize that structured recess is a research-backed approach to keep kids in school. In fact, a UC Berkeley study of Title I schools found that those partnering with Playworks had significantly lower chronic absenteeism rates. Further, Mathematica research demonstrated that Playworks schools spent 27% less time transitioning from recess back to learning, saving teachers valuable instructional time. 

These results are possible for your students, too. Learn how Playworks can help you improve student-educator relationships, belonging, and attendance by signing up for a quick no-obligation conversation. 

We’re also thrilled to be sponsored by IXL. 

IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.