The Preschool SLP: KellyVessSLP

Have you ever had a preschooler who’s producing /k/, /g/, and glottal stops… but can’t give you a /p/ or a /t/?

Who has an /l/ and an /r/ but no early stops? Who sounds like they have a never-ending cold?

Friends, that child is not following the typical developmental sequence. They’re holding the phone to the other ear, and that tells us something physiological is going on. In this episode, we’re diving into hypernasality and how velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD), both insufficiency and incompetence, impacts articulation. Odds are you didn’t learn this in grad school, and it’s rare to find a CEU on speech sound disorders with VPD.

So I’m giving you my 4-step must-do process so you can roll up your sleeves and feel confident you’re moving in the right direction. I’ll be honest with you: the research base here is small. We’re talking about studies with around 20 preschoolers, not 1,000. So we’re taking what we have and putting it into Monday morning practice. And yes, this is one time I’m going to tell you to DSD, do something differently than the complexity approach. In this episode, you’ll learn:

1-The atypical sound patterns that are red flags for VPD on your artic assessment (backing, missing oral stops, later sounds before earlier ones)

2-Why voiceless stops are harder than voiced stops for these kiddos

3-What to listen and look for in the connected speech sample: nasalized vowels and liquids, “Cookie Monster mouth” jaw movement, shorter and breathier utterances, neck strain, and the nose-pinch test

4-What to ask in the case history (adenoidectomy, ear infections, ear tubes) and what to share with the ENT

5-My two intervention goals: increase oral manner and move placement forward How to choose the next step sound target (hint: the “fire hose” /ʃ/ sound) and why going zero to 100 frustrates these children

6-How to adapt Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC) for VPD, staying at that 80% challenge point

7-Responsive strategies like recasting, expansion, and linguistic mapping, all with an emphasis on oral airflow and front-of-mouth placement

8-A simple keyword home program parents can embed in daily routines

Intro 00:44 Hypernasality Overview 03:09 Assessment Must Dos 03:24 Atypical Sound Patterns 07:21 Connected Speech Clues 10:35 Referral and Case History 13:24 Intervention Goals 14:31 Next Step Sound Targets 19:52 DTTC for VPD 25:42 Home Practice and Wrap Up Ready to go deeper?

*Join the SIS Membership today! 

If this episode lit a fire under you, imagine what we can create together inside the SIS Membership. Get the tools, the training, and the community you need to treat the whole child and walk into every session confident that what you’re doing is evidence-based. Stop guessing and start growing. Your clients deserve the shiniest version of you.

👉 Join now: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

#SpeechTherapy #SLP #Hypernasality #VPD #SpeechSoundDisorders #DTTC #CleftPalate #SLPeeps #PediatricSLP

When a child feels unsafe, their brain downshifts into survival mode, and you’ll see it as fight, flight, freeze, fawn, or flop. In this episode, I share five evidence-based strategies for responding in the moment and building skills that last, whether you’re in therapy, the classroom, or doing home visits. You’ll learn:

Teach these strategies when the child is calm, make them part of your routine, and they’ll be there when the child needs them most.

🌟 Ready to put this into practice? Join the SIS Membership!

You don’t have to build all of this from scratch. Inside the SIS Membership, you’ll get ready-to-use activities that treat the whole child, building communication and social-emotional skills together, the way kids actually learn.

Every week you’ll get:

Stop spending your evenings planning and start spending your sessions connecting. Give your kids the tools to stay regulated, communicate, and thrive.

👉 Join the SIS Membership today: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Your kids deserve to feel safe, related to, and ready to learn, and you deserve activities that make it easier.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro: The 5 downshift behaviors 01:00 Strategy 1: Regulate yourself first (co-regulation) 03:01 Strategy 2: Safety before teaching 05:39 Strategy 3: Emotion coaching after the child is calm 08:43 Strategy 4: Match your response to the child’s state 11:41 Strategy 5: Build a self-regulation toolbox (“I do, we do, you do”) 13:35 Connection first: Time in, not time out 14:41 Breathing with imagination (“If you have big feelings and you know it”) 16:37 Creating a calming corner 17:55 Problem, Plan, Action, Check: Teaching problem solving 22:52 How to respond to fawning 23:23 How to respond to flopping 24:29 How to respond to freezing 25:41 How to respond to flight 26:09 How to respond to fight 26:44 Why 99.99% of your energy belongs in prevention 28:35 Grounding with colors, letters, and numbers 28:40 Wrap-up and key takeaways

You know your targets. You know your cueing hierarchy. You know exactly how to get that sound out. So why does your client suddenly flop, freeze, or turn silly halfway through the session?

In this episode, Ms. Kelly takes "back to basics" one level deeper. The real 3 R's are Regulate, Relate, and Reason, and your speech and language goals live only at the top level. If the child doesn't feel safe and loved, the needle won't move. As Kelly puts it, you can't work on the top floor when the basement is flooded.

She also shares her own biggest therapy mistake, one many driven SLPs make without realizing it. Once you hear it, you'll never ask for "just 10 more reps" the same way again.

In this episode, you'll learn:

Key takeaway: You aren't treating a mouth or a brain. You're treating a child with a heart. Front-load regulation and connection, and the reasoning work becomes much easier.

🎁 Join the SIS Membership
Ready to bring regulation and connection into every session? Join the SIS Membership for done-for-you movement activities, social-emotional literacy materials, and therapy resources that treat the whole child. Don't delay and join me today at the intervention drawing board: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

October Bonus: Members get the Emotion Check-In materials Kelly uses to open every session. Join for just one month, and this month's bonus and the treatment target are yours to keep (worth more than a $47 value)!

👉 Join now: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

If this episode changed how you'll walk into your next session, follow the show and leave a quick rating. It helps more SLPs find us. Now roll up your sleeves and make the world a better place, one child at a time. 

What if one small routine could quietly build the skills your speech and language kids need to read and write, without adding a single minute to your session?

Today I'm taking you behind the scenes on my back porch to share the 4-step process I use with nearly every child I work with to improve visual-motor integration, where the eyes guide what the hands do. Children with speech and language delays are at greater risk for visual motor difficulties, and the risk climbs for children with autism, ADHD, Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, Developmental Coordination Disorder, and those born preterm. Using a 'Pete the Cat Wheels on the Bus' activity, I'll walk you through each step:

Step 1: The treatment target. How hand gestures and entrainment (the mouth does what the body does) strengthen sounds, and how fading verbal prompts turns kids into the teacher.

Step 2: Find the sticker. Function, feature, and class clues that build comprehension while the eyes guide the hands.

Step 3: Match it on the wall. A task-oriented movement activity with a purpose: get all the parts on the bus so it can go to school.

Step 4: Check it off. Tracing an X, a check mark, or a number to build the pre-writing skills that support letter formation.

You'll also learn the two dials I'm always adjusting (task difficulty and prompt level) to keep kids at about 80% accuracy, and why visual motor integration matters so much from preschool through first grade: it affects letter knowledge and print knowledge, and those who have it get access to richer literacy experiences.

Join the SIS Membership this October and get the SEL Bonus: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Weekly task-oriented movement activities and materials are waiting for you inside the SIS Membership.

Stop spending your evenings prepping and start walking into sessions with a predictable, whole-child routine your kids love and that changes lives. Join during the month of October, and you'll also receive the exclusive SEL Bonus, so you can bake social-emotional learning into your sessions, small groups, and large groups.

This SEL bonus includes a daily feelings check-in and an emotion scavenger hunt kit. The SEL kit is only available as a Bonus in October, so don't wait.

👉 Join today: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Thank you for stepping onto my back porch with me. Now go do what you do best: make the world a better place, one child at a time on yours.💚Kelly

"Happy, sad, mad" isn't enough. Research suggests that when children learn the gradations of emotion words, they can pinpoint their own feelings and other people's more precisely. That precision is linked to stronger social skills, better emotional regulation, and deeper emotional knowledge. Language is a container of thought, and the more feeling words kids have, the better. In this episode, Kelly walks you through the Big Feelings Scavenger Hunt she field-tested with her kiddos on her back porch. It's hands-on, multisensory, and built on Universal Design for Learning. It also doubles as a movement break and a dose of "vitamin N" (nature) before you dive back into challenging treatment targets. In this episode: -Why expanding emotional vocabulary beyond the basics matters, and what the research says -How to make color-coded magnifying glasses for the Zones of Regulation (4 colors) or an 8-color emotion system -Teaching emotion gradations, like "tired," "sick," and "bored" under the blue/sad family -The dollar store SLP hack: why crinkly, squeaky pet toys beat plain plushies -Setting up the hunt for a group of 12 with Velcro emotion cards, a teacher chart, and a completion checklist -Using simple call-outs to explain complex feelings words in plain language -Moving kids from receiving input to producing their own examples over the school year -Adapting a familiar chant each week to a letter-themed hunt (bear hunt, cat hike, dinosaur hike) so it stays fresh -Why this is a weekly routine, not a one-and-done "emotion week" Timestamps: 00:41 – Why social-emotional vocabulary matters 02:02 – Step one: color-coded magnifying glasses 02:24 – Teaching emotion gradations 02:52 – The dollar store pet toy hack 04:08 – Setting up for a group of 12 04:46 – Finding emotions and reviewing them with simple call-outs 05:40 – From input to output across the year 06:48 – The weekly hunt chant and letter themes 07:49 – Universal Design for Learning in action 08:35 – Why it's not one-and-done, plus the movement break benefit 09:13 – October SIS bonus October SIS bonus: The Social-Emotional Learning Scavenger Hunt plus the "Hey, How Do You Feel Today?" emotion check-in chart. Not a member yet? Join SIS for a month, get instant access to the full Treatment Target Library, and keep going or cancel anytime: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis Roll up your sleeves and make the world a better place, one child at a time.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into social-emotional literacy by comparing two of the most widely used interventions at the preschool and elementary level: the SPOT approach (Diane Alber) and Zones of Regulation (Leah Kuypers). Rather than jumping on the next "shiny object" in EBP fads, we explore how to blend the best of both, swallowing the milk and spitting out the dirt, to build a more comprehensive, whole-child approach to regulation and emotional literacy. What We Cover: 🧠 The neuroscience behind regulation. Why kids can't access logical, prefrontal-cortex thinking while stuck in a fight/flight/freeze brain state, and how both interventions aim to shift kids out of survival mode 🎨 How each program uses color differently. SPOT assigns a personality and character to each of 8 colors; Zones of Regulation uses a 4-color "thermometer" tied to physiological and emotional regulation states 📚 Materials vs. theory. SPOT is parent- and teacher-friendly, ready-to-use, and story-driven; Zones of Regulation is built on stronger research and a "why" that supports school-wide, cross-disciplinary implementation 🗣️ The power of emotional vocabulary. Why teaching only 4 basic emotions is a disservice, and how "gray" emotion words (nervous, worried, uncomfortable) give kids a richer emotional container 🧩 The "size of the problem" framework. Using logical, executive-function-based steps (name the problem, make a plan, take action, check for completion) once a child is calm 🎈 Combining both approaches in practice. Using SPOT's colors and characters paired with Zones-style emotional gradations, and sequencing calming strategies (like balloon breathing) before problem-solving conversations 👨‍👩‍👧 A caution on modeling calm. Why being matter-of-fact and steady, rather than dramatizing a child's distress, can help kids feel safe and secure Key Takeaway: Don't discard one intervention for another. Combine them. Use SPOT's engaging, ready-made materials and character-driven delivery alongside Zones of Regulation's research-backed theory and emotional-gradation vocabulary to create a richer, more effective regulation toolkit for your students or clients. 🎁 Want the Ready-to-Use Version of This Combined Approach? If you loved this blended framework but don't want to build it from scratch, you don't have to. Inside the SIS Membership, next month's bonus drop includes a done-for-you combination of SPOT and Zones of Regulation, complete with color-coded emotion cards featuring gradations of feeling, so kids can express far more than "happy, sad, mad, and scared." 👉 Join the SIS Membership today to get instant access to these ready-to-implement social-emotional literacy materials designed to help you treat the whole child. If not now, then when? Be the agent of change you're meant to be today: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Ever feel like your general speech and language groups just aren't cutting it for kids with pragmatic communication challenges?

In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain to show you exactly how to build a social communication group. It's a trauma-informed, multifaceted, once-weekly two-hour group for 3-4 year olds that targets executive function, self-regulation, empathy, and peer relationships all at once.

What You'll Learn...

Why predictable routine is the foundation of trauma-informed practice, and how it unlocks higher-level thinking

How to structure your opening routine, including our "How Are You Feeling Today?" song and emotion check-in

Why teaching "gray vocabulary" (nervous, disappointed, anxious) matters more than just happy/sad/mad

How to build a monthly emotion/color theme into your group for repeated, explicit practice

How to set up a 4-station rotation that hits relationship skills, emotional regulation, executive function, and perspective-taking, all in 8-10 minute blocks

My favorite breathing/calming techniques kids actually use

How to close a group so kids leave feeling successful, and why the mirror activity works

Key Takeaway

Treating the whole child means going beyond speech and language targets. When you explicitly and repeatedly teach self-regulation, executive function, and social-emotional skills alongside communication, you're setting kids up for lifelong success, not just group success.

📣 Call to Action...

Want the exact slides, songs, and activities I use in this group, done for you? Everything I described in this episode, including the "How Are You Feeling Today?" Google Slide deck, the monthly emotion/color themes, the task-oriented movement activities, and the story elements resources, is already built and waiting for you inside the SIS Membership. You don't have to build this from scratch. Join the SIS Membership today and get instant access to ready-to-use, trauma-informed materials so you can start running a pragmatic communication group like this one, for your kiddos, starting this week.

👉 Join the SIS Membership now and start treating the whole child, one session at a time: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

00:00 Behind the Scenes Setup

00:50 Predictable Routine Matters

01:38 Choosing Game Changer Skills

02:46 Emotion Check In Song

04:25 Movement and Emotion Lesson

05:42 Monthly Theme and Breathing

08:15 Station Rotations Overview

09:50 Cooperative Play Station

13:32 Executive Function and Storytelling

19:32 Closing Songs and Wrap Up

Ready for the episode that might just rewire how you think about therapy? We're heading straight to the cerebellum, the tiny, mighty brain region that holds 80% of your client's neurons despite taking up just 10% of total brain volume. If you work with kids with childhood apraxia of speech, developmental language disorder, autism, ADHD, stuttering, dyslexia, or speech sound disorders... this episode is for you. Your caseload's cerebellum is talking. It's time we start listening. In this episode, you'll learn: • Why the cerebellum matters so much more than we've been taught, and why “drill and kill” isn't reaching it • The surprising overlap between developmental coordination disorder and the communication disorders already on your caseload • The 2022 research study that used functional MRI to prove task-oriented movement activities can literally grow gray matter in the cerebellum in just 10 weeks • The 5-part “secret sauce” of the CO-OP approach (Task-Oriented Movement Therapy), and exactly how to bring it into your sessions Monday morning • A real, hands-on example using Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes to show you how goal-setting, environment (not hands-on) cueing, multi-step problem solving, varied movement, and cognitive flexibility come together in one activity • How to layer your actual speech and language targets into these movement-based sessions without losing focus on either The 5 Ingredients of the Secret Sauce 1. A clear goal: dopamine-driven motivation that makes learning stick 2. Touch the environment, not the child: let their body do the problem-solving 3. A multi-step process: problem, then plan, then action, then check (real executive function practice) 4. Multiple, varied movements: keeping the cerebellum working, not coasting 5. Cognitive flexibility: changing what “success” looks like from one step to the next This isn't about abandoning your speech and language goals. It's about treating the whole child, cerebellum included, so the change you create actually lasts. Want the Ready-Made Version of This Activity? You just heard how this works in theory, but you don't have to build it from scratch. The exact Pete the Kitty movement activity (and dozens more like it) is already sitting inside the SIS membership, done-for-you and ready to print for your next session. If you're tired of reinventing therapy at 9 pm on a Sunday, this is your sign. Inside SIS, you get the research-backed, whole-child activities that target the cerebellum and your speech-language goals, so you can walk into every session knowing exactly what to do and why it works. You don't have to do this alone. Come join your people. 👉 Join the SIS Membership today Gill, K. K., Lang, D., & Zwicker, J. G. (2022). Cerebellar differences after rehabilitation in children with developmental coordination disorder. Brain Sciences, 12(7), 856. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12070856

Ever feel like a fast-food clerk grabbing activities off the shelf behind you, session after session, all day long? That was me. Ten different activities for ten different goals, reaching behind me like an octopus, exhausted by 3pm, and never actually present with the kids in front of me. In this episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of my Friday prep ritual, the exact system I use to walk into every single week with just two highly engaging, multisensory, literacy-based activities ready to go for my entire diverse caseload, from early intervention through elementary. You'll learn: 1)Why "one size fits all" activities actually work better than 10 separate ones (when they're built right) 2)My exact Friday assembly line, which is print, laminate, Velcro, Ziploc, done 3)How I use three levels of treatment targets (sentence → complex sentence → paragraph) to hit speech, language, fluency, and AAC goals with the same activity 4)The dynamic cueing trick that lets me upshift or downshift a child's challenge point in real time, without ever leaving the room to grab something new 5)How I build the school-to-home bridge so parents can prep their kids before therapy and reinforce targets after 6)Why this approach protects your weekends, your energy, and your ability to be present If you've ever come home from work feeling like you did factory work all day, this episode is for you. 🎯 Want the Exact Activities I Used? Every single activity, treatment target, checklist, and Google Slides deck mentioned in this episode, including the Pete the Cat Pizza Party activity, the Crack Whisk Bake Cupcakes sequencing set, all three levels of treatment targets, and the home-school connection materials, is available every week inside my SIS Membership. You don't have to build any of this from scratch. Enjoy your evenings and weekends. I build it. You print it, laminate it, and walk into your week 100% present. 👉 Join SIS Membership now at kellyvess.com/sis and get two brand-new, top-shelf, multi-goal activities delivered to you every single week, plus the parent-friendly Google Slides deck, differentiated treatment targets, and everything you need to be one and done: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis Your weekends are calling. Let's get you back to them. 🔗 Materials Mentioned Scotch Thermal Laminator: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Scotch-Thermal-Laminator-Professional-Laminate 3/4" Velcro coins: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016YFUQGW?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback&th=1 Dry-erase marker sleeves: https://www.amazon.com/clp/B07K928BX5 Skinny/short dry-erase markers: https://www.amazon.com/Erase-Markers-Colored-White-board/dp/B0DZCN6RRP/ SIS Membership: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis Related episode: Ep. 227, which covers expanding restricted interests and bridging into new activities

Get ready for the new school year with your behavior crystal ball: the research! In this episode, we dig into five behavioral challenges that show up more often in preschoolers with speech and/or language delays, and the five simple rules (with free flip cards!) you can start using today to get ahead of them. You'll learn:

- Why children with developmental language disorder and speech sound disorders struggle with sustained attention and how to teach it

- Why kids with communication delays are more likely to avoid answering questions (even ones they know!) and the social-pragmatic reason behind it

- Why task persistence is harder for these children, and how to build in "working super hard" as a proactive rule

- What recent research out of a 300-child clinic in Baghdad found about behavior + speech sound disorders and what it means for your therapy sessions -

The connection between communication delays and self-regulation/physical aggression, and how to address it before it becomes a pattern

- How to combine Positive Behavior Supports (PBS) + Universal Design for Learning (UDL), print, picture, gesture, and artifact, to reinforce these five rules without turning them into redirection cards Plus: how to use a "treasure box" the *right* way (hint: it's not a reward system) and why 80% positive reinforcement is the magic number.

🎁 Free Resources & Ways to Get Involved

🎯 Join the SIS Membership: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis Get two ready-to-use movement activities delivered straight to your inbox every week.

🃏 Free Behavior Flip Cards + Certificate: https://www.kellyvess.com/behavior Download the five rule flip cards (with gestures and a completion certificate) mentioned in this episode — totally free.

📋 Take the AAC Survey: https://ufl.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1FHfcoyCK3z5vJs Your voice matters: whether you're an SLP, teacher, paraprofessional, parent, OT, PT, ABA tutor, or BCBA. Complete the survey and receive the AAC Toolkit (Spanish, Arabic, and English) immediately and anonymously. Thanks for listening! If this episode helped you, share it with another SLP, teacher, or parent who could use it before the school year kicks off. See you next week!💚Kelly

Research referenced in this episode:

Clark, R., et al. (2021). Language, aggression, and self-regulation in young children. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 29(3), 135–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1063426620937691

Dahash, A. H., & Mohammed, S. H. (2024). Assessment of behavioral problems among children with speech difficulties. South Eastern European Journal of Public Health. [Volume/issue unverified] https://www.seejph.com/index.php/seejph/article/view/1377

Formanek, M., & Spaulding, T. J. (2024). Investigating task persistence in preschool children with developmental language disorder. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_LSHSS-23-00196

Foster, M. E. et al. (2023). Speech-language disorder severity, academic success, and socioemotional functioning among multilingual and English children in the United States: The National Survey of Children's Health. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, Article 1096145. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1096145

Kolbaşı, S. (2026). Pragmatic language use and parent–child interaction among children at risk for developmental language disorder and typically developing peers. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.70253

McCormack, J. et al. (2012). Knowing, having, doing: The battles of childhood speech impairment. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 28(2), 141–157. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265659011417313

Murphy, C. F. B. et al. (2014). Auditory and visual sustained attention in children with speech sound disorder. PLOS ONE, 9(3), Article e93091. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093091

Sanhueza, S. et al. (2024). Finding the mole and choosing the apple: Executive function challenges in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Children, 11(12), Article 1519. https://doi.org/10.3390/children11121519

Shim, Y. et al. (2025). Developmental language disorder: Current understanding, clinical implications, and future directions. Annals of Child Neurology. https://doi.org/10.26815/acn.2025.01144

van Doornik, A. et al. (2025). Speech and language therapists' insights into severity of speech sound disorders in children for developing the speech sound disorder severity construct. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 60(3), Article e70022. https://doi.org/10.1111/1460-6984.70022

Wren, Y. et al. (2023). Social, emotional and behavioural difficulties associated with persistent speech disorder in children: A prospective population study. JCPP Advances, 3(1), Article e12126. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.12126