Well, the flu has hit my house!

Instead of a full podcast episode today, I’m giving you a quick update about our new progress monitoring tools located inside The Speech and Language Kids Hub.

Here’s how it works:

Have everyone on the individual’s team fill out this screening checklist (parents, caregivers, teachers, therapists, SLP, etc.).

Look at the areas that came up as a concern on the screening checklist. Have the team members fill out the specific progress monitoring tool for each of those areas.

This will give you a better idea of what skills need to be addressed. You can also use your formal assessment/evaluation results to fill these out.

Use the results of the individual progress monitoring tools to fill out the Therapy Roadmap. This will include all of the skills that the individual needs support with. Share this with everyone on the team!

Now use your Therapy Roadmap to pick out specific skills/therapy plans that will best support the areas of need for that individual. Here’s how therapy works:

The screener checklist, progress monitoring tools, and the therapy roadmap are all available on our Freebies Plan to The Speech and Language Kids Hub.

In order to access the Therapy Plans, you’ll need a Full, Paid Hub Membership.

Click Here to Choose your Membership Level and Get Started!

The post Speech/Language Progress Monitoring Tools Now Available…Free! appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

One of the top questions I get is about whether or not a child should be saying certain speech sounds.

Let me tell you, there is a WIDE range of normal when it comes to speech sound acquisition.

But in general, we know that certain sounds (like /b/ and /m/) come in early…

…and other sounds (like /r/ and /l/) come in later.

And knowing those milestones can help us decide which children need speech therapy, and which can wait it out.

I’m speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and in today’s episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I’ll be telling you what ages certain sounds should come in by and I’ll be giving you a Therapy Roadmap for how to help them if they’re not.

You can listen to the full podcast episode below:

But before we get to the roadmap, let’s answer the question that everyone is asking:

When should children be able to say each speech sound?

I’ve got it all laid out for you right here:

The following sound chart represent the age of acquisition for the English speech sounds.  The age below indicates that 90% of children are saying this sound consistently when they turn that age.  For example, for the /b/ sound, 90% of children are able to produce the /b/ sound correctly in everyday speech by their third birthday.

Click here to view the research behind this speech sound age chart.

/b/ Sound…………………….3 years

/n/ Sound…………………….3 years

/m/ Sound……………………3 years

/p/ Sound…………………….3 years

/h/ Sound……………………3 years

/w/ Sound…………………….3 years

/d/ Sound……………………..3 years

/g/ Sound (as in “go”)…….4 years

/k/ Sound………………………..4 years

/f/ Sound………………………….4 years

/t/ Sound………………………….4 years

“ng” Sound (as in, “ring”)……4 years

“y” Sound (as in, “yum”)……..4 years

/v/ Sound………………………….5 years

“j” Sound (as in, “jam”)……….5 years

/s/ Sound………………………….5 years

“ch” Sound…………………………..5 years

/l/ Sound…………………………….5 years

“sh” Sound…………………………..5 years

/z/ Sound …………………………..5 years

/r/ Sound……………………………6 years

Voiced “th” (“they”)……………..6 years

Soft “j” (“beige”)………………….6 years

Voiceless “th” (“thumb”)……….7 years

* Keep in mind, most state education departments have their own chart of when children in the public schools qualify for services based on sound.  These ages may be different than the research presented here.

Ok wait!

Before you post a comment telling me I’m wrong….

There is a wide range of “normal”.

Many children acquire these sounds earlier or even later than these ages!

Different research studies put these ages at different levels.

This was a study done in 2020 but other studies have reported different findings.

That’s because all children acquire sounds differently.

Instead of getting hung up on the details…

….look for patterns.

Is the child missing MANY of these sounds?

Then there may be a problem.

If the child is only slightly behind these ages, then we may not need to worry too much.

A speech-language pathologist can do a full evaluation to see if there are enough red flags for us to feel that therapy is warranted.

So what do we do if we feel a child needs help with pronouncing speech sounds?

We follow the roadmap.

The first step of the roadmap is picking which road you want to follow first.

There’s no wrong answer here, just go with the one that makes the most sense right now.

(And revise your path later if they’re not making progress.)

Choose a Road:

Instead of working on specific sounds, you’ll be working on specific word structures, like:

Choose one structure to practice at a time.

When they can do those words, add a sound or add a new structure with sounds they can already say.

Decide if you’ll work on one phonological process at a time or if you’ll use a Cycles Approach.

Target that phonological process through these steps:

Choose a sound to teach.

Target that sound through these steps:

Teach the child how to overexaggerate their sounds and slow down.

Teach over-articulation through these steps:

We have step-by-step therapy plans that will take you from start to finish on each of these skills.

Get easy-to-follow plans that work for real kids in real sessions.

Available with the Full, Paid Hub Membership here.

The post When Should Children be Able to Say Certain Sounds? (And How Can We Help?) appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

On today’s episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I’m taking you inside our members-only area!

Listen in as we run one of our monthly planning calls.

We’re helping members build sessions and plan a full month of therapy at once.

Join us as we combine the magic of our therapy plans with our session builder tools to create some AMAZING session ideas!

You can listen to the full podcast episode below:

Forget one-off activities, our full treatment guides will walk you through therapy from start to finish.

The 5-Step Process:

These our the AI-powered bots that we’ve built to make your job SO much easier!

Simply answer a few questions about what you’re looking for and our generators will create custom materials that are tailored to what your students need to work on and what they’re interested in.

Here are the tools we have right now:

All of these amazing resources (along with our planning calls) are located inside The Speech and Language Kids Hub!

Join today, free trials are available!

The post Listen in on our Live Speech Therapy Planning Call appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

“My child isn’t talking yet but he can sing songs or repeat lines/scripts from movies.”

Or…

“My child simply repeats what everyone else says.”

These are the kinds of things I hear from parents of children who are learning language….

….differently.

See, it turns out there are two main ways that children learn language.

Some children learn language one word at a time.

Other children, learn language in chunks by repeating whole sentences or scripts that they hear elsewhere.

These children are called Gestalt Language Processors.

I’m speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and on today’s episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I’m going to share my top 6 steps for helping those gestalt language processors find their voice.

You can listen to the full podcast episode below:

Children who learn language in chunks or scripts known as “gestalts”.

They may repeat entire phrases, sentences, or scripts that they have heard from other places.

These still have meaning to them but it may not be the same meaning as the specific words would lead you to believe.

Here’s where it gets tricky: if a child isn’t speaking much (or at all), it can be hard to tell which way they are learning language.

Here are some signs you may be working with a GLP (and therefore want to model more language chunks instead of single words):

Often the gestalts that children are saying are trying to convey something other than what the words literally mean.

For example, a child who says “do you wanna build a snowman” may not be trying to tell us about snowmen at all.

Maybe they are remembering how they saw that movie with their grandma and they want to talk about her instead.

Pay attention to the things the child is saying and try to guess what the actual meaning may be.

Even if you’re not sure, respond anyway!

These scripts are communication and we need to respond to the child to let them know we understand that they are trying to connect with us.

Therapy for this group is not drill and practice.

It’s about letting the child lead the play or interaction and being there to model language along the way.

Imitate what the child does and says.

Respond to their communications even if you don’t understand.

GLPs grab chunks of language by listening for pauses on either end.

Model simple sentences with silence on either end, such as…

silence ~ It’s snack time. ~ silence

Have you ever noticed that gestalt language processors (GLPs) tend to pick up more phrases and scripts that are full of excitement or emotion?

This is because they are tuned in to the intonation or the pitch of what is said.

Gestalts that vary from high pitch to low pitch are more fun to say and will stick with our GLPs better than a more monotone one.

Once the child has a large enough repertoire of gestalts, he will start breaking those down into their individual parts or words.

We can help facilitate this by modeling gestalts that are easy to break down into smaller part, and easy to use in a variety of situations.

Try modeling sentences that start like these:

Remember how I said we’d be breaking down those gestalts later?

As the child gets better at using gestalts to communicate, model mixing and matching parts of the gestalts like this:

Shorten Long Gestalts:

Recombine Smaller Chunks to Create New Utterances:

Are you looking to learn more about supporting gestalt language processors?

We have a ton of great resources inside The Hub, including…

…courses

…therapy materials

…handouts

…and more!

Join us inside The Hub to get the best resources on helping the GLP in your life:

The post From Echolalia and Scripting to Original Speech: Top Strategies for Gestalt Language Processors appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Augmentative/Alternative Communication (AAC) allows a child who can’t speak to let us know what they want or need.

It reduces frustration and increases communication.

And with smart devices being so readily available, AAC apps make it even easier to access these tools!

I’m speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and on today’s episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I’ll be telling you about a few of my favorite AAC apps and showing you how to use them to support a child who is struggling to speak.

You can listen to the full podcast episode below:

Ok I’ll admit that I haven’t tried every AAC app out there so I’m sure I’m missing some.

But here are a few of my favorites based on the ones I’ve gotten my hands on:

I know, I just gave you several choices and didn’t rank them.

But here’s the thing…

The best AAC app…

….is the one you have access to!

In all honesty, these AAC apps will all have the same basic features.

Yes, some may have a feature that you like more than others.

Or a look that appeals to you/the child more.

But they’re all basically the same.

So go with the one that you can access!

Price, device type, and other factors may impact what you can get your hands on.

So try not to get too hung up on which one is best and just grab one to get started.

And if they have a free trial or version, even better!

If you have access to a speech-language pathologist who has experience in the different platforms, you can have that person recommend a specific app as well.

I’ve reviewed the features of some of these AAC apps here.

So let’s dive into how to use these apps to help children!

The idea is that the child will be able to push a button to tell you what they want or need if they can’t speak their message in a way that is understood by others.

How does this help?

And no, research shows that using AAC will NOT stop a child from learning to speak.

I’m going to simplify this down as much as possible.

The best way to teach a child to communicate using an AAC app, is through modeling.

When you are talking to the child, push a button that corresponds to what you’re saying.

Push those buttons all day long!

Push one button at a time.

Combine two buttons together to make a longer utterance.

Show them where things are on the device.

And yes, this means you need to get to know the app yourself and figure out where stuff is.

Awesome!

You know what that is?

Babbling.

All babies do it.

They may have missed that step.

They need to learn what the app can do, and that means pushing random buttons.

Allow time for that.

In addition to modeling, you also need to provide reason for the child to use the device.

Put a snack they want in a sealed jar and model “open” on the device.

Then wait, and see if they push that button themselves.

If not, provide some prompts, like pointing at the button or nudging their hand in that general direction.

If they get frustrated, model again and do the thing they want.

There are many words that you could teach them on their AAC app.

But not all of them are equally helpful.

“Car” is only helpful if there is a car present.

But “go” could be used in literally any situation with movement.

Focus on these general words first.

We call these “Core Words” and they’re generally found on the front/main page of the AAC app.

We have so much more information on using AAC with children!

In fact, I have full courses and AAC therapy kits inside The Hub

Come join us inside The Hub to access our courses and AAC starter kit:

The post AAC Apps and How to Use Them (in 2025) appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

There is a lot of uncertainty in the world of education right now.

And even before talks of reducing funding for education, speech-language professionals were overworked and under-supported.

But amidst this stress and uncertainty, I bring you a message of hope.

Because this is also a time of unparalleled technological advancements.

New technologies have the potential to save us, if we’re willing to try something new.

I’m Carrie Clark and on today’s episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I’m going to show you that together, we can use these emerging technologies to find solutions to our profession’s biggest problems.

And find ways to support our clients, our families, and ourselves in ways that we didn’t even know were possible.

You can listen to the full podcast episode below:

I want to take you back to the year 2020.

I remember first hearing about Coronavirus, just a chuckle during a meeting when someone told of others doubting that they should be traveling to China right now and everyone else thinking those people were overreacting.

I remember feeling that fear grow as the virus spread.

And I remember when it finally hit that my kids weren’t going back to school and we were all locking down.

My first reaction was fear for myself and my family.

But once that initial fear wore off and we were hunkered down, I realized I had an amazing opportunity to help all of you.

Because you were suddenly thrust into a world of online therapy with zero time to prepare or get trained.

I started out with a simple “crash course in teletherapy” video and it spread like wildfire.

You guys were drowning and you latched onto that video like a life preserver.

And so we made more.

And we continued to grow and support you through the new situation you found yourselves in.

Well…I think that today, 5 years later, we find ourselves at the brink of a new reality shift.

You’re all drowning again, though it looks different this time.

And many of you seem like you’re on the brink of burning out or quitting.

Meanwhile more and more kids are needing our support.

So once again I find myself with an opportunity…or maybe….and obligation….

to throw you a life preserver.

Yes the world is chaotic.

Yes things are stressful.

But I find an amazing amount of hope in the new technologies that are available to us and improving at a breakneck pace!

Computers and artificial intelligence (AI) can now provide us with quicker and easier ways to do the “grunt work” parts of our job so that we can spend our time and energies on helping the kids.

There are emerging technologies that have the potential to save us hours of work per week…if we use them well.

And yes, of course there are ways that these technologies could be used irresponsibly.

But that’s all the more reason for you and I to step in now and start leading the way in using these new technologies the right way.

I know that you don’t have the time to sift through these new technologies and learn how to make them work for you.

I know you don’t have the time to build out the tools and resources necessary to make your job easier.

Just like you didn’t have the time to research and reinvent therapy to meet the sudden requirements to do teletherapy in 2020.

So I’m here to help!

I can dive into these technologies and make them work for us as long as you continue to support me!

These technologies are too costly (in time, energy, and money) for one SLP to build alone.

But when we combine the forces of the full Speech and Language Kids Hub (10,500 members and counting!), we can divide the efforts.

Through your support, I can focus my time on building out these new tools for you to use.

And with 10,000+ people to try them out and give feedback, I can get them to where they need to be in much less time.

I’m going to be using my Speech and Language Kids Hub as a launchpad for these new technologies and ideas.

I’ve already created 7 infinite material generators, a goal-wording generator, and an accommodations and modifications generator.

These tools are already running for our full, paid members!

But I have so many more ideas still to come!

My next idea is a session planner.

And I’d love to eventually create tools to help you manage your caseload and paperwork as well!

But to do that, I need a huge member base to support me and be ready to test these new technologies so we can test and iterate and perfect them.

Don’t worry, I’m not just jumping straight into technology and leaving the personal touch behind!

I’ll also be creating more and more no-prep therapy kits inside The Hub so that you have pre-made therapy materials ready to use in therapy.

And since I can also use technology to assist with MY grunt work, I’ll be able to create resources faster than ever!

AND….

…those kits that I’m creating will be fed back into my AI tools to make sure that the therapy resources you get from the tools are based on evidence-based methods.

It’s a win-win-win!

Now’s the time to hop into The Hub if you’re not already a member.

I’ll be asking my members what they want and letting each and every one of you decide the future of these tools we’re building.

I’ll be making sure you have therapy materials for every session and tools to make your job easier.

Because I know that you can’t do this alone.

And neither can I.

But together….

….I’m pretty sure we can change this profession and help more kids than ever before.

The post The Future of Speech and Language Kids (and our Profession) appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

How do you help a child who can’t speak to tell you what they need?

What about a little one who has meltdowns and tantrums but can’t tell you why?

How can we teach a child some basic, functional communication skills that will help them connect with the world around them and communicate their wants and needs?

I’m Carrie Clark and on today’s episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I’m going to give you some simple ideas to help a child learn functional communication so we can alleviate that frustration!

You can listen to the full podcast episode below:

We can’t talk about functional communication without mentioning that there are two very distinct ways that children learn language.

And then we can talk about how some children do a combination of both…so that’s not confusing at all.

But here are the two different ways:

When we know which way a child leans toward, we can provide models that follow that approach.

Here’s where it gets tricky: if a child isn’t speaking much (or at all), it can be hard to tell which way they are learning language.

Here are some signs you may be working with a GLP (and therefore want to model more language chunks instead of single words):

(If you’re not sure, do a little of both)

Here’s how to model language for each type:

Sometimes children aren’t speaking because they just aren’t capable of it yet.

And that’s OK!

We can offer children alternative ways of communicating to get them started, such as by using sign language, communication devices, talking buttons, picture boards, etc. (Called Alternative-Augmentative Communication or AAC)

You can model using these the same way you would model spoken language.

In fact, use them at the same time that you are speaking your language models!

See if the child picks up on any of them.

It looks like play!

Super fun, engaging play!

And that’s the good news, because this type of therapy is easy to do without any special tools or materials.

Simply let the child lead the play and do the following:

Sign language is a really great way to get started with offering alternative ways for little ones to communicate.

You can download our free sign language flashcards for the most common first words inside The Hub.

This resource is included in the “Freebies” membership plan!

The post Speech Therapy Ideas for Functional Communication: Communicating Wants and Needs appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

If you haven’t tried the Cycles Approach to phonology therapy yet, you’re missing out!

This is an amazing therapy method that is especially designed for children who are highly unintelligible and who have multiple phonological processes, or sound errors.

The idea is that you take all of the speech skills they need to work on, and you cycle through targeting each one for a week or two before moving onto the next.

The result is that these children make faster progress and their WHOLE speech system improves more quickly than if you’re only targeting one sound.

I’m Carrie Clark and on this episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I’m going to tell you exactly how to use The Cycles Approach in therapy and show you where you can download some pre-made materials to make it happen.

You can listen to the full podcast episode below:

The Cycles Phonological Remediation Approach was created by Barbara Hodson as a way to help children with many phonological processes make faster progress in speech therapy.

Her research showed that children can improve intelligibility faster by cycling through all of the different phonological processes that they need to target.

Each phonological process (or sound error pattern) that they struggle with is targeted for a short time before moving on to the next one.

Hodson laid out an amazing program that walks you through the steps.

Hodson was very specific on this!

You start with the primary set.

The key is to only include targets that the child is stimulable for, meaning that they can do it if you help them.

If they are completely incapable of saying a certain sound, you don’t include that on round one. You can check it again for round two.

Include any of the targets on the primary set list above that they are currently struggling with in conversation and that they are stimulable for.

For each process you choose, choose at least 2 phonemes to practice with (make sure they are stimulable).

For example, if you are targeting final consonant deletion, you could pick final /t/ and final /p/.

Each phoneme you choose is targeted for 60 minutes of therapy (about 1-2 weeks).

Here’s the planning page from our therapy kit. You can see that you simply check 1-3 phonemes/targets for each process they’re struggling with and that’s what you’ll use for your first cycle:

As I mentioned, each phoneme will be targeted for one week or 60 minutes of therapy.

Here’s what to do during each session:

After you get through round one, you see how they are doing in conversation.

For round two, you check for stimulability again and repeat any processes that aren’t yet mastered in their conversational speech.

There are specific requirements they must meet to move on to secondary set.

This was your crash course to give you a taste!

If you’re ready to learn more about the Cycles approach, check out our course and materials kit inside The Hub

The post The Cycles Therapy Approach for Children who are Very Hard to Understand appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Imagine being able to snap your fingers and instantly create a 3rd grade reading passage that’s all about Minecraft and is packed full of /r/ words.

Do you have anyone on your caseload that could use that?

What about a word list of 6th grade science vocab that all use prefixes?

Or a custom social story specific to the exact behavior that your client is struggling with?

Well…it may not come at the snap of a finger, but with some careful use of artificial intelligence, that reality is already here!

I’m Carrie Clark and on this episode of The Speech and Language Kids podcast, I’m going to show you how you can use artificial intelligence, or AI, to generate custom therapy materials in the blink of an eye!

You can listen to the full podcast episode below:

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is the field of study that focuses on creating machines and computers that can perform tasks that normally require human intelligence.

AI is all around us, built into many computer systems that we already use.

But within the last few years, it has become more accessible to the average person through use of platforms like ChatGPT.

Now, we can ask questions and the AI can scan the internet and give us a pretty darn good answer in seconds.

Or, it can create something totally new based on the information it gathers and the prompts we give it.

There are some really exciting ways to use AI in our profession, and one of them is creating therapy materials.

Our clients benefit from the repetition of being able to work on skills over and over and over again.

And they also benefit when we can use therapy materials that are specific to their interests.

Through AI, we can generate custom word lists, reading passages, and even images that include their target skill and incorporate their interests.

And since these AI systems are generative, we can create new ones all day long!

As exciting as this is, we need to be very careful about how we’re using these tools.

AI can’t “think” the way humans do.

AI doesn’t know the difference between good advice and bad advice.

It doesn’t understand how words sound.

And if it can’t find an answer, it will often make one up that sounds good but may not be actually based on research.

Take for example this AI-generated checklist for getting ready in the morning. It looks good at first glance, but when you take a closer look….

Not so great, huh?

Here are some tips for how you can safely use AI tools to generate materials:

There are a few different options for using AI to make materials.

Tools like ChatGPT have free or low cost options that will allow you to create your own materials.

Speak to the AI in a conversational tone and provide many details about what you want included in your material.

The more specific you are, the better!

Continue the conversation with the AI to get it to continue to tweak it until you have what you need.

Or, use a pre-built tool like ours inside The Hub (see the next section).

Here are some ideas for how you could use AI to generate therapy materials.

We’ve already created AI tools inside The Hub that will do this for you.

Click on the links below to be taken to that tool inside The Hub (must have a full, paid membership to access).

The post Using AI to Generate Custom Materials for Speech/Language Therapy appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Little Alex comes into your therapy space like a Tasmanian Devil!

He hasn’t stopped moving since he stepped foot in the door and he’s touched everything in reach.

In fact, half of your stuff is already on the floor.

What’s a therapist to do?

Never fear, my friends! I’m speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and in this episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I’m going to show you how to use incorporate sensory and movement into your speech/language therapy sessions for better participation and behavior.

You can listen to the full podcast episode below:

So many of our clients just seem…off.

Dysregulated.

And often that’s because their little bodies are just not getting the input that they need.

When we see children doing things with their bodies that are outside the “expected” behaviors, we have found our first cue that they need something different.

And if we observe and pay attention to their bodies, we can usually tell what it is.

Just as our students are sometime seeking sensory input….

….they may also be trying to avoid a sensory input.

Maybe they cover their ears or eyes.

Maybe they spit out a certain food or refuse to try it.

Maybe they pull away from our touch or have trouble wearing certain types of clothing.

When trying to identify what sensory input a child is craving, we can consider these different sensory systems:

If we can tell what type of input a child needs, we can provide that at the beginning of our session or during our sessions to help them stay engaged with our learning.

But even if we’re not sure what type they need, we can still try different activities to see which ones help!

Some children will become overstimulated by an activity.

Others will calm down by it.

Trial and error is key here!

Any activity that requires the child to use their muscles can be effective at helping them focus!

Consider jobs that require strength, such as carrying, pushing, stacking, lifting, etc.

If they feel like they are helping, they are more likely to do it than if they feel like it’s a meaningless task.

Ideas:

Therapy on the playground or gym is my favorite!

Allow the students to free play as long as they agree to work with you while they do it!

Follow them around and find ways to work their speech into the play.

Or have them freeze and do a certain number of reps to unfreeze.

Draw things in sidewalk chalk to help them practice their skill.

Slime.

Putty.

Playdough.

A bin full of dried rice and beans.

There are so many things that kids can stick their hands into that will light up a totally different part of their brains!

Find different ways for kids to sit (or stand) to make drill and practice more appealing:

If you can figure out what type of input a child needs, you can find ways to give them even more of that input in a way that they would need your help for.

If they like swinging, push them on the swing to go higher!

If they like bouncing, sit on an exercise ball with them on your lap and bounce HIGH!

If they like spinning, spin them in an office chair.

Once they know you can get them what they need, they’ll be more willing to communicate with you to get it or work to get more.

We have free sensory resources inside The Hub!

Here are a few of our favorites for sensory-seekers or avoiders:

The post Sensory and Movement Ideas for Better Participation and Behavior appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.