Sun and Spoken Speech, Inc.

08/05/2025

THIS- normalize that there is no “look”! Our job as clinicians is to be aware of the needs of our students, meet them, and use their strengths to guide success! 🗣️⚓️🌞

07/15/2025

YES! Child led means we encourage and respect, while remaining clinicians and teaching. 🗣️⚓️🌞

I recently saw a post where a therapist stated she was “viscously attacked” by a student and went on to question if child-lead therapy is to blame.

It broke my heart because it highlights how so many people don’t truly understand what child lead therapy truly means- and also, what it DOESN’T mean.

Now. Aggression can be a serious problem. I’ve worked with many children that were extremely aggressive and it was super freaking hard- for everyone (including the child). Looking back, there are many things I could have changed (oh hindsight is so helpful, right?!) - and I think a huge thing would have been involving the child’s interests more, being less “demanding” than I was, and also putting more time into recognizing early signs of dysregulation. Doing those things wouldn’t have ended the aggression completely- but they could have reduced it quite a bit. I also think if I could have looked at the situation as “a dysregulated child in need of support” vs “being viscously attacked” (because I’m pretty sure there’s no viciousness actually intended) would have been a huge game changer for relationship building and empathy. But yes, autonomy is important for EVERYONE and nobody should be injured.

And with that said- child lead does not mean “free for all.” Nobody is saying to let kids injure other people or that there are no consequences for their actions. And I think more people need to understand this.

I’d love to do more posts to help people better understand this, so let me know in the comments, what questions do you have? ⤵️

07/04/2025

Happy Fourth! ❤️🤍💙
May you spend it by the water, and use each opportunity you have to soak up the sun and work on “beach” vocabulary with the kiddos! 🗣️⚓️🌞

07/01/2025

Great way to expand MLU/utterance length! 🗣️⚓️🌞

Ways to encourage your child to combine two words together!

06/28/2025

Regulation before communication! 🗣️⚓️🌞

05/28/2025

🗣️⚓️🌞

⭐️ Everyone has the right to communicate in the language that feels most comfortable to them.

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[Digital illustration of a woman sitting against a blue background. She has long dark hair, a red sweater and blue jeans. She's pointing at a speech bubble that reads, 'English is a language, not a way to measure someone's intelligence.']

05/18/2025

Happy national SLP day 🗣️⚓️🌞

Hey SLP Besties, I hope you all have a wonderful day!

05/07/2025

A note about educational needs, for all the SLPs and professionals who work in the schools... 🗣⚓️☀️

To qualify for special education, a child has to have 1️⃣ A disability and 2️⃣ A need for services because of that disability.

You might see the second part worded differently depending on your state: educational need, adverse educational impact, the ability to participate/benefit from gen ed, a need for special education, etc. ⭐️BUT NONE OF THESE ARE LIMITED TO ACADEMIC NEED⭐️

This happens way too often where schools dismiss social emotional concerns because kids are smart or do well in school. This shouldn’t be happening because “good grades” isn’t the most important thing.

Now- might you not have an educational need for special education services BUT still need accommodations? Sure- 504 can support a LOT of needs. But “because they have good grades” is *not* a reason to not evaluate or not qualify for support.

05/03/2025

May is National Speech, Language and Hearing Month! 🗣️⚓️🌞

04/25/2025

YES! 100% this… 🗣️⚓️🌞

Autism isn’t an epidemic. It’s not a disease. It’s a neurodevelopmental condition.

We have well documented reasons for the increase in diagnoses - which is NOT the same as an increase in Autistic people.

Could there be more Autistic people now than in the past? Sure. But there’s no way to definitively show this and it’s far more likely that allllll of these reasons account for the vast majority of the increase. (And honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more Autistic kids now that the internet has made it easier for Autistic people to meet and start families. But also along these lines - we are seeing a significant jump in adult autism diagnoses - supporting the narrative that we’ve always been here- we’ve just been undiagnosed and unsupported).

Just like there aren’t actually more planets in our solar system - we just have better telescopes.

04/17/2025

Worth the “read”… 🗣️⚓️🌞

Reading is not innate.
Unlike learning to walk and talk, reading is not a natural process and must be taught.
Some kids will get it without too much trouble, but the only way EVERY child will learn to read is if it is taught using evidence-based reading programs aligned to the science of reading.

Image comes from the awesome ✨

04/16/2025

Today is world voice day! Sing your heart out, and let sound meet the sea… 🗣️⚓️🌞