What happens when you choose spray instead of splash as your treatment target? In this episode, I share brand-new research with preschoolers showing how targeting later-developing, more complex clusters can lead to greater overall speech gains.

Find out why spray produced a 52% improvement in consonant accuracy compared to only 28% with splash, and how R and L gains follow the complexity effect. These results have direct clinical implications you can try in your own therapy sessions.

👉 Want to put this research into action and boost speech clarity with ready-to-use, literacy-based movement activities? Join the SIS Membership.

Standardized single word speech tests—are they a yay or a nay? In this episode, we dig into the reliability and validity of tools like the GFTA-3 and the CAAP-2, and why the same child can “pass” one and “fail” the other.

You’ll hear the latest research from JSLHR and Harvard on when single word tests help (and when they mislead), plus how to balance quantity of errors with the quality of errors for more accurate decision-making.

👉 Want to move past just test scores and improve speech clarity with evidence-based activities? Join the SIS Membership for ready-to-use weekly materials: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

What’s the single most important literacy skill for kindergartners? Blending. Research shows blending is the most reliable predictor of later reading success. But here’s the catch—kids with communication impairments often struggle with executive function, making blending much harder.

In this episode, I break down three areas of executive function— inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility— and how each impacts blending, reading, and long-term literacy outcomes.

👉 Want to improve speech clarity and strengthen blending with ready-to-use literacy-based movement activities? Join the SIS Membership: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Not all speech sound errors are created equal. In this episode, I break down the five errors on speech sound disorder tests that predict greater risk for language and literacy difficulties. From deletions and inconsistency to atypical errors and polysyllabic breakdowns, you’ll learn which red flags demand closer attention.

👉 Want to improve speech clarity while building stronger language and literacy skills? Get weekly literacy-based movement activities inside the SIS Membership: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Being a speech-language pathologist is like being an Olympic athlete. Every session demands your full focus, emotional presence, and energy. In this episode, I share the five supplements that help me stay sharp, sustain energy, and prevent burnout—because recovery is as essential as the work itself.

👉 Want tools that support your focus and improve speech clarity in therapy? Join the SIS Membership for weekly literacy-based movement activities designed to bring language to life: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

L-Blends are recommended by experts as being powerful treatment targets. But are they? This episode suggests that we can and should do better. For the step-by-step on how to select powerful treatment targets in treating speech sound disorders, check out Kelly's book "Speech Sound Disorders: Comprehensive Evaluation and Treatment."

What’s the single biggest mistake SLPs make in treating Childhood Apraxia of Speech? Choosing treatment targets that are way too simple.

Speech is not an isolated sound. It’s a continuous, complex motor act—and if we spend precious therapy time chipping away one sound at a time, we waste the critical window of neuroplasticity.

In this episode, I break down why aiming high with complex clusters leads to faster, stronger, and more meaningful gains—and how using every tool in your SLP toolbox (tactile, auditory, visual, rhythm, and movement cues) supports children in reaching those higher targets.

👉 Want materials that align with this approach? The SIS Membership provides weekly literacy-based movement activities that let you target speech, language, and motor skills together. They’re built to help you aim higher and bring therapy to life in a way that creates lasting change: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Books are not tests—they’re toys. When we stop quizzing kids with “what color” and “who’s that” questions, and instead invite them into higher-level, inferential thinking, we transform storytime into a powerful tool for language, literacy, and executive function.

In this episode, I walk you through the 4 P’s of storybook talk—Predict, Pretend, Project, and Problem-Solve—and show you how these strategies make children stronger thinkers, not just stronger readers. Using The Little Red Hen, I’ll model exactly how to bring these strategies to life in therapy.

👉 Ready to bring literacy to life in your own sessions? The SIS Membership gives you weekly literacy-based movement activities that connect storybooks to action, making therapy engaging, effective, and unforgettable: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Stop quizzing. Start thinking. Today we break down extra-textual talk—the rich, beyond-the-page conversations that supercharge comprehension and language. You’ll learn why literal, closed-ended prompts (“Who? What? Where?”) cap growth—and how to replace them with inferential, open-ended dialogue using my 4 E’s:

• Explain – “Why is this happening?”
• Experience – “When have you had something like this happen?”
• Emotion – “How would you feel if…?”
• Evaluate – “Was that a good idea? What else could work?”

We put the 4 E’s into action with If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and map the moves to executive function, narrative, and literacy.

Bring literacy to life through movement. The SIS Membership gives you weekly literacy-based movement activities that transform storybook reading into action-packed therapy. These materials are designed to strengthen speech, language, and literacy while keeping sessions fun, dynamic, and effective: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

What if one simple change could make you more productive, less stressed, and better able to focus on what matters most? In this episode, recorded right after my keynote in Fort Worth, I’m sharing my secret productivity hack: time boxing.

Time boxing means treating your most important tasks like real meetings on your calendar. No more multitasking, no more scattered energy—just clear focus and consistent progress.

You’ll learn how I assign one “MIT” (Most Important Task) to each day of the week—like Medicaid Monday or Web Wednesday—to keep paperwork, testing, parent emails, and IEPs under control while saving energy for what matters most: therapy.

👉 Want done-for-you therapy materials so you can spend less time planning and more time connecting with kids? Join the SIS Membership for weekly evidence-based activities designed to save you hours of prep time: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis