There’s a lot of “us vs. them” thinking happening relating to what’s going on in the school systems. Parents feeling like teachers don’t want to accommodate students with diverse learning needs. Teachers feeling like administrators don’t understand because they aren’t in classrooms anymore. Therapists feeling like teachers don’t want to reinforce strategies in their classrooms,…
Tag: literacy
EP 158: Literacy and background knowledge: Essential skills for life (with Dr. Pamela Snow)
The most effective reading instructional practices aren’t always the ones that gain traction. It’s the ones with the most successful marketing campaigns. The best marketer wins; but this certainly isn’t a win for the students who go without effective instruction or the school staff struggling to support them. That’s why I was so excited to…
EP 157: Unpacking the early literacy debate and building a foundation in PreK (with Jane Gebers)
The literacy space has become increasingly polarizing since the reading wars began. There are a number of debates and questions that continue, including: Will kids learn to read “naturally”? What did the whole language approach get right, if anything? Is explicit phonics instruction just a pendulum swing (and is focusing on phonics enough)? Are we…
EP 155: Becoming a literacy leader and advocating for the right to read (with Brianna Guild)
Related service providers are often considered subject matter experts. Our role is to support other members of multidisciplinary teams like teachers, parents and administrators. But many clinicians I’ve talked to started their careers feeling like a “jack of all trades, master of none”. Some feel that graduate school was all theory and no practice. Others…
EP 154: Therapy session structure, narrative language, and commentary on gestalt language processing
In this episode, I share a special Q & A session I did with the members of Language Therapy Advance Foundations; my program that provides service providers with a research-based framework for language therapy. I get a lot of questions about how to make the transition between preschool to school-age, what language therapy activities are…
EP 151: Does your SYSTEM support your policy and your curriculum? (with Jalita Johnson)
If we try to make schools in the US more like schools in other countries, will that result in more effective practices? Why do policies work in some districts, but not others? Many ideas sound good on paper; but the people working with students or leading schools are telling a different story. That’s why I…
EP 149: Audiobooks, homework research, and the “read for 20 minutes” rule
If the schools are devoting time and money to improving reading instruction, how should the rest of the day look for kids as it pertains to literacy? Should parents be working with kids at home? If so, how much? What about reading? Can we use apps to help build language skills? How about audiobooks? A…
EP 98: How to become a children’s book author (with Valerie Doherty)
On episode 98 of the “De Facto Leaders” podcast, I had the opportunity to interview children’s book author and veteran SLP, Valerie Doherty. Valerie has over 30 years of experience as an SLP, and in 2011 her passion for language and literacy inspired her to start writing children’s books. Readers need physical books they can…
EP 71: DLD, CAPD, dyslexia, and hyperlexia and supporting literacy
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;…
EP 029: Literacy skills and technology: The pros and cons
In episode 29 of the Are they 18 yet?™ podcast, I did part 3 of a 3-part series on literacy (you can find parts 1 and 2 in episode 27 and episode 28.) Since the influx of technology, a lot of us are left wondering how this will impact our children’s learning; especially their reading and writing…