Lauren Schwabish, MS, CCC-SLP, a person-centered neuro SLP and private practice owner, joins host Sarah Baar at the 2025 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention to unpack one of the trickiest topics in cognitive rehab—executive functions. With real questions and reflections from fellow SLPs, Sarah and Lauren delve into what executive functions truly are and how to discuss them in terms our clients can understand. Together, we explore how analogies, self-awareness, and health literacy can transform therapy into a more empowering and effective experience. If you’ve ever struggled to explain or treat executive dysfunction, this episode is for you.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the evidence around how executive function challenges present in individuals with neurological conditions and their implications for therapy across care settings
• Determine the situations in which health literacy–informed communication strategies and person-centered executive function interventions provide the most benefit for improving self-awareness and therapy engagement
• Solve patient case scenarios involving executive dysfunction by applying functional assessment, strategic analogies, and structured feedback techniques to facilitate client insight and progress toward therapy goals

Timestamps

• (00:00:00) Welcome
• (00:00:05) Introduction and episode overview
• (00:01:44) Guest introduction
• (00:02:54) Setting the stage: what is executive function (EF)?
• (00:04:23) SLP voices: defining executive functions
• (00:07:48) The missing component: self-awareness
• (00:09:50) Core executive functions framework
• (00:12:16) Inhibition
• (00:14:28) Working memory
• (00:15:30) Cognitive flexibility
• (00:16:39) The building analogy for EF
• (00:17:30) Clinical examples across diagnoses
• (00:21:25) Analogies clinicians use
• (00:27:07) Health literacy and client education
• (00:32:16) Identifying EF in functional tasks
• (00:34:52) Strategy instruction and EF intervention
• (00:38:02) Student and clinician perspectives
• (00:41:27) Therapy planning and goal development
• (00:44:06) Implementing EF strategies
• (00:48:07) Actionable takeaways
• (00:50:27) Closing reflections

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