Speechie Side Up

In this SLP Creative Con podcourse, Rhian Dodd-Tovey, UK-trained accountant and owner of RDT Support, teaches “Bookkeeping 101” for SLP business owners, covering compliance, tax considerations, tools, and payment options.

She explains common business structures—sole proprietorship, LLC/PLLC, and S-corp election (often beneficial around $60,000 in profit)—noting that sole proprietors and single-member LLCs generally file on Schedule C, while partnerships and corporations have March 15 business-return deadlines.

Rhian details 1099 rules (services over $600 paid via cash/check/Venmo/Zelle, deadlines, penalties, and W-9s), contrasts W-2 vs 1099 contractor tax responsibilities, and defines bookkeeping as tracking income, expenses, receipts, and owner draws/contributions to determine taxable net profit.

She recommends separate business bank accounts, saving 25–30% for taxes with quarterly estimates, using tools like Wave/QuickBooks/Xero, generating core reports (P&L, balance sheet, cash flow), tracking sales tax for physical products, and using systems like Gusto for payroll.

In this SLP Creative Con podcourse, we are joined by Daj Mitchell, a Speech-Language Pathologist and mobile pediatric private practice owner, to focus on using AI to streamline SLP businesses and support therapy.

Daj demos ChatGPT to generate and revise an AAC-friendly social story and discuss using AI for captions, emails, job postings, and social media strategies, emphasizing that AI output must be edited.

She highlights tools including Canva MagicWrite/Magic Switch (turning a presentation into a blog post/handout), Magic School AI, Diffit, Brisk Teaching, marketing-focused Copy.ai, and documentation assistants/EMRs such as ambiki (Kiki Create and Tentalog), EverAbility, and Freed AI, noting HIPAA compliance differences.

Ethical guidelines include avoiding identifying info, obtaining informed consent (e.g., for recording), maintaining professional oversight, ensuring accuracy, continuing education, and following the ASHA Code of Ethics.

We note AI can improve rapport, handout access (including translations), and analysis of large data sets to support patient outcomes.

In this SLP Creative Con podcourse, we invited Marcia Church, a licensed SLP since 2008 and owner of Pediatric Speech Stars and Speech Stars Branding, to discuss brand-building success for SLP private practices.

We outline how cohesive branding goes beyond a logo to include consistent client touch points, and Marcia argues branding should be prioritized early to attract ideal clients, build trust, strengthen online presence, and create opportunities, sharing examples from community events, referrals, and professional roles.

Marcia recommends investing in professional logo/brand kits (not Canva-made logos), a simple one-page website, branding photos, consistent Canva brand kits, and polished email signatures, plus optimizing a Google Business Profile using a virtual address, local SEO support, and systematic review requests at discharge.

We differentiate personal brands (targeting SLPs) from practice brands (targeting parents) and review social media ethics: avoid misrepresentation or cure claims, and obtain informed consent for testimonials and identifiable client media.

Marcia closes with do’s and don’ts for starting a practice, including trademark searches, mentorship, networking, and boundary-setting.

In this SLP Creative Con podcourse, we interview Anesha Frazer, an ASHA-certified SLP and founder of Entrepreneurial SLP,, about guiding private-practice SLPs through real estate decisions, including when it’s time to seek office space, leasing versus purchasing, and what to look for in a clinic.

Nish emphasizes deciding based on predictable revenue, market conditions, interest rates, and long-term goals such as expansion or renting to tenants. She compares leasing flexibility and lower upfront costs with buying benefits like equity growth, tax advantages, and greater control, while noting added responsibilities (maintenance, CAM fees, potential assessments).

Practical considerations include zoning, location, wall soundproofing, layout for services, accessibility/ADA, parking, and bathrooms. Legal and financial topics include multiple insurance layers, personal credit, DUNS numbers, SBA 7(a) loans, variable-rate refinancing, and asset protection via separate LLCs and trusts.

In this SLP Creative Con podcourse, we are joined by Elise Mitchell, owner of the Therapist Support Network, as we discuss direct school contracting for SLPs/OTs/PTs.

Elise shares her background, including leaving SNF work and staffing-company roles due to burnout and starting direct contracting after connecting with a rural SPED director, leading to her business supporting providers who want to “work with schools, not for them.”

We define school contracting as a direct agreement between a provider/private practice and a district (removing the middleman) and note it can be full-time, part-time, specialized, in-person, or virtual.

Elise outlines good candidate traits (school experience, independence, willingness to market, and optional multiple revenue streams), pros (flexibility, control, setting rates) and cons (lack of benefits, contract instability).

She describes three steps—sell, contract, execute—covering outreach to SPED directors, job-board targeting, vendor requirements, contract clauses (caseload caps, space, termination), billing/invoicing, and scaling via subcontractors.

In this Behavior Connect podcourse, we interview Iris Wong, a speech-language pathologist with 15 years’ experience who pivoted into executive functioning (EF) work after recognizing her and her children’s neurodivergence; she is also an author and owner of EFToolkit.

Iris describes EF as brain-based skills developing over decades and reviews skills such as inhibition, working memory, emotional control, flexibility, sustained attention, task initiation, planning, organization, time management, goal persistence, metacognition, and stress tolerance, noting EF grows naturally but may be asynchronous in neurodivergent people; she mentions assessments like the BRIEF and tools by George McCloskey and Tara Sumter.

She explains PDA (also called pervasive drive for autonomy) as a commonly autism-related profile not in DSM-5, characterized by sensitive nervous systems, anxiety-based demand avoidance, masking, and a drive for equality, with educational fit often requiring flexibility.

ADHD presentations (inattentive, hyperactive/impulsive, combined) are reviewed and she emphasize EBP’s triangle, including caregiver/client perspectives, and share neuro-affirming strategies like collaboration, menus/visual supports, relationship-first safety, and shifting away from deficit language.

In this Behavior Connect podcourse, we welcome back Jaqueline Jebian Garcia, a neurodivergent parent and Sensory Trained and Somatic Trauma-informed SLP, who is passionate about neurodiversity-affirming practice through polyvagal theory.

We discuss polyvagal theory, reframing behavior, co-regulation, safety, and connection strategies.

Jackie explains Stephen Porges’ polyvagal theory as emphasizing the autonomic nervous system and vagus nerve, describing a hierarchy of ventral vagal (social engagement), sympathetic (mobilization/fight-flight), and dorsal vagal (immobilization/shutdown), plus blended states.

Key principles include hierarchy, neuroception (subconscious threat/safety detection), and co-regulation.

Jackie discuss viewing children’s behaviors as adaptive survival responses shaped by environment, the role of implicit and explicit “polyvagal communication” (face, voice, prosody, posture), examples of co-regulation in real life and schools, and practical therapy-room strategies to foster felt safety so communication and learning are accessible.

In this Behavior Connect podcourse, we have Rachel Archambault, a Broward County Public Schools speech-language program specialist and owner of PTSD SLP LLC, to discuss applying trauma-informed care to therapy situations often labeled as “behaviors” or “noncompliance.”

Rachel shares her 2018 workplace traumatic experience that led her to trauma-informed education and outlines an agenda covering trauma definitions, impacts, connection over compliance, and practical strategies.

She defines trauma as overwhelming control, connection, and meaning, emphasizes survival brain vs learning brain, and describes fight/flight/freeze responses that can be misinterpreted as ADHD or defiance.

Using SAMHSA’s framework (realize, respond, resist retraumatization) and six pillars (safety, choice, collaboration, trust, empowerment, cultural issues), she highlights relationship-building before data collection, avoiding “trauma detective” behavior, reflecting on provider dysregulation and co-regulation, and considering systemic biases, school policies (e.g., phone bans), and cultural factors (e.g., fasting).

In this Behavior Connect podcourse, we are joined by Cari Ebert, a Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist to discuss challenges discussing autism, defining neurodiversity, and identifying affirming provider traits and parent takeaways.

Cari explains why autism conversations are hard: outdated ableist training and deficit language, uncertainty because autism traits fluctuate, anticipating caregiver denial, and fear of not having answers; she suggests focusing on the next six months and using “social learning differences” while building rapport.

She defines neurodiversity as natural brain differences and neurodiversity-affirming practice as strengths-based support that fixes environments, not children, and discusses ableism and neurotypical/neurodivergent terms.

Cari also addresses ABA, citing a 2024 meta-analysis finding no evidence intensive behavioral therapy improves outcomes, and emphasizes supports for regulation, connection, communication, autonomy, and accommodations.

Key provider traits include amplifying autistic voices, presuming competence, using neutral language, honoring all play and multimodal communication, and prioritizing environmental accommodations; she also discusses gestalt play/language processing and recommends Rachel Dorsey, highlights “Sincerely Your Autistic Child,” and shares that diagnosis is not an emergency and parents should love and accept the child in front of them.

In this Behavior Connect podcourse, we interview Dr. Diamond Rashad, a neurodivergent pediatric occupational therapist and disability advocate, about promoting safety and connection during dysregulation.

We discuss cultivating connection through child-centered care, caregiver collaboration, routines (e.g., consistent session flow, shoe removal for comfort), curiosity, and appropriately matching energy.

Dr. Diamond describes signs of dysregulation (e.g., sudden silliness, repetitive/self-soothing behaviors escalating, hyperactivity, inability to follow instructions, lethargy/shutdown, frequent snack-seeking) and warns that behavioral strategies can trigger fight/flight/fawn/freeze responses and power struggles.

Strategies include offering supports before escalation, reducing sensory input during meltdowns, using movement, deep pressure, bubbles/breathing, environmental modifications, and caregiver coaching.

We then connect relational approaches to goals using spoon theory, sensory profiles, and avoiding dismissing adult dysregulation.