Sunflower Speech Kansas, LLC

01/09/2026

WELCOME Barbie and Ken to the speech therapy room!💖🦻🏼📣

What better way to teach kiddos about disabilities and inclusion than through toys and PLAY! Great conversations happen this way!

I’ve seen it with my own daughter and saw how it gave her the understanding and confidence to talk to peers who may be different than her.

I teach MY speech kiddos how to better communicate with others. It’s YOUR job to teach your kids how to kindly communicate, interact, and include others that may be different than them.

It’s also important to remind our kids that sometimes we are unable to see disorders and disabilities through physical aspects.

Let’s teach our children about differences and to be kind to all. ❤️☺️

Huge thank you to the National down syndrome society and Dr. Jen Richardson (educational audiologist and hearing loss advocate) for partnering with Mattel to create these awesome Barbies. 💖

12/09/2025

2️⃣ Happy TWO-sday!!! 2️⃣

This girl is working on a new CV word because she has crushed the other words that she was targeting. 👏🏼

Her brain is working so hard to learn and communicate to her articulators the positions and movements needed to blend sounds to speak words. 📞

Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech(CAS) know what they want to say, but their brains have difficulty coordinating the muscle movements of the articulators necessary to say those words. 🧠

It is improtant that these kids have a therapist that is educated and trained in CAS and the intervention needed to make the most progress. 😋

12/05/2025

Create Awareness Responding Effectively.

I’m very excited about this. Way to go Hays first responders. 👏🏼

🚨 Important Community Safety News: Hays Participates in Ellis County CARE Alert Program

The Hays Police Department is proud to participate in the Ellis County CARE Alert Program (Creating Awareness, Responding Effectively). This crucial, voluntary program provides our local first responders across Ellis County (Hays PD, Ellis County Sheriff, etc.) with critical, pre-shared information about residents who have special needs, ensuring a more informed, effective, and compassionate response during emergencies.

Who should enroll? Individuals across Ellis County with:
• Developmental, intellectual, or physical disabilities.
• Conditions like Alzheimer's or dementia.
• Autism spectrum disorders or mental health challenges.
• Unique communication needs.

Your information is confidential and securely shared only with authorized emergency personnel during a relevant incident. Enrollment includes the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office, Hays PD, Ellis PD, Victoria PD, and FHSU PD.
Ready to join? Secure your safety and peace of mind by enrolling today!

Select the Hays Police Department on the registration form.
➡️ Enroll Online: www.ellisco.net/757/CARE

Questions? Contact Ellis County Communications at 785-625-1011 or CARE@ellisco.net.

12/03/2025

VISUALS ARE MY JAM!

✅Sentence strip visuals
✅Choice board visuals
✅Visual schedules
✅Expectation visuals
✅Vocabulary word visuals

The list that visuals can be used for is ENDLESS.

📝But I wanted to focus on visual schedules! Having my own neurodivergent daughter, I know how beneficial visual schedules are. They can really help decrease anxiety, decrease meltdowns, and increase confidence!

Honestly, visual schedules can be beneficial to all children, but very beneficial to neurodivergent children.

They help children:

💚Know what’s expected.
💚Know what is coming up.
💚Provide a visual reminder as to what. they need to do.
💚Give them a sense of accomplishment when completing each task.

If you are a client of mine, I always offer to make visuals to help meet your child’s communication needs. If you’re not a client of mine and would like me to make visuals for you at a low cost, please reach out and I will make your child a visual that meets them where they are and helps assist in their communication needs. 🤗

12/02/2025

How are YOU feeling today?!
Happy, tired, mad, silly………..like a MODEL??? *see last pic* For some reason sad faces can be tricky for kids to make when I ask them to. Soooo model faces will have to do. 😂 These kids bring me so much joy!

We’re working on understanding feelings and emotions and learning phrases to use when experiencing those. This is more challenging for gestalt language learners as they typically learn language through phrases/ gestalts and it can be harder to put their thoughts into words. We do this all through social stories, free play, structured play, reading books, visuals, and real life experiences.

Let’s be realistic! When we all are feeling big emotions it can be tricky to put those feelings into words or even communicate during those feelings.

11/04/2025

The sweetest trooper around using the communication cards while trick-or-treating. 🎃🚔
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Reminder that the ability for your child to be able to communicate their wants and needs is important to their overall mental and emotional health. Communication is NOT just verbal words.

10/31/2025

🎃HAPPY HALLOWEEN🎃 Just a simple reminder while handing out candy today/tonight ☺️👻🍭

10/20/2025

🐍Working on Final Consonant Deletion with this kiddo. He is working on the final S sound in this video at the word level. I’m a huge advocate for tactile cuing while learning speech sounds, language, overall communication skills, and just learning in general! 🐍

10/16/2025

🎃Follow up from my last post, but with short, consice messages and visuals. 🎃

Halloween is coming up and I’m just here to remind you… Do NOT make kids say “trick-or-treat” for candy.

A lot of us are used to saying “what do you say?” And then withholding the candy bucket until we hear “trick-or-treat” from the trick-or-treaters.

Do NOT do it.

Some kids canNOT or doNOT want to say the phrase and that IS OKAY! These kiddos are working hard on their communication skills and we need to do everything in our power to encourage them and help them remain confident.

Give them the candy. Whether they say trick-or-treat or not.

10/15/2025

Enjoy my daughter, dog, and I’s Halloween Costumes from last year 🎅🏼🎃

🔥ANYWAY!!!!! Please read and spread the word. 🔥

Halloween is coming up and I’m just here to remind you… Do NOT make kids say “trick-or-treat” for candy.

A lot of us are used to saying “what do you say?” And then withholding the candy bucket until we hear “trick-or-treat” from the trick-or-treaters.

Do NOT do it.

Some kids canNOT or doNOT want to say the phrase and that IS OKAY! These kiddos are working hard on their communication skills and we need to do everything in our power to encourage them and help them remain confident.

Give them the candy. Whether they say trick-or-treat or not.

‼️I am making these visuals for FREE, which come with the lanyard. I can also customize them (to an extent). Please ask if you want one! ☺️ you do NOT have to be one of my clients. ☺️👻

The options are lanyards or popsicle sticks. Lanyards may be easier due to already carrying the candy bag. BUT lanyards might also add an undesirable feeling or safety hazard. Parents, you can help with whichever one. 😉

You can email therapy@sunflowerspeechkansas.com or message me on Facebook to let me know if you want a lanyard or a popsicle stick and what you would like your trick-or-treat visual to say.

❤️🌻

10/07/2025

✨Childhood Apraxia of Speech ✨

See past post for a better understanding as to what it is. ☺️

I use the Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC) intervention approach. DTTC is a motor-learning approach that focuses on building accurate speech movements through gradual therapy involving visual, touch, auditory, and tactile cueing.

This girl came SO far with the word “Eat” in just two sessions. 

Yes, progress with CAS may seem slow at first (I even have to tell myself to be patient), but the focus is really on retraining the neural networks that coordinate the precise movements for speech.

I LOVE working with all my clients, but I definitely have a passion for CAS. ☺️

10/07/2025

✨CHILDHOOD APRAXIA OF SPEECH (CAS)✨
After completing the training from Apraxia Kids awhile back, I was looking forward to implementing the intervention approach when kids with CAS came my way. It wasn’t long after, that the sweetest girl came into my office. I do have other clients with Suspected Childhood Apraxia of Speech (SCAS) as well. Here is an overview of CAS. I will be posting a video of a few sessions following this. ☺️