Dr. Karen Speech and Language

08/08/2025

If you’ve ever done a search for developmental milestones for language, you’ll likely find lots of great infographics and handouts that explain early language development.

The problem is that most of them stop around age 6.

For those of us trying to make sense of what to do with school-age kids, that presents a problem; mainly that it’s hard to diagnose and treat something if you don’t know what is “normal” or “typical” (I use both of those terms loosely).

Either way, SLPs need some kind of a benchmark or guidelines in order to be able to determine if a disorder is present. Sure, we have lots of norm-referenced assessments, but you likely already know that a lot of them have biases or limitations to the information they provide.

That means we need to do additional, non-standardized procedures and observations to help with diagnosis and treatment planning.

So…why aren’t there any resources with school-age language milestones floating around out there?

Mostly because those neatly-defined milestones for school-age don’t exist. At least not the way you’d expect.

I explain why in this article:

Why isn’t there a language therapy curriculum? When I ask SLPs what would help them feel more confident, a lot of times they say that they wish there was a standard “curriculum” they could use for language therapy. When I was first practicing as an SLP, I wished for something like this. I was ...

07/08/2025

In episode 63, I share a Q & A from the Language Therapy Advance Foundations members’ group about dyslexia diagnosis and treatment, as well as working memory goals.

I get a lot of questions about who is qualified to diagnose and treat dyslexia; especially when it comes to the SLP’s role in the process. Understanding the process of dyslexia diagnosis in the schools vs. medical settings can be especially confusing.

That’s why I wanted to share this Q & A session with my LTA members where I talked about the SLP’s role in the process; including the differences between school vs. medical settings.

Another topic that comes up with diagnoses like dyslexia is working memory; and I get asked all the time if addressing “working memory goals” in therapy is a good use of time (this is also relevant when considering things like ADHD or auditory processing disorder).

In the second part of this Q & A, I share how to make the best use of therapy time considering the available research; including how to keep therapy functional and focused on tasks that are likely to improve “real-world” skills (as opposed to rote drill exercises with weak carryover).

Some of the questions I address in this Q & A include:
✅Where can you go to get an “official” dyslexia diagnosis?

✅Are school therapists “qualified” to treat dyslexia, even though they might not be able to officially diagnose it?

✅Is it a good use of therapy time to focus on auditory memory and working memory exercises?

✅If you suspect that a child has language processing issues AND weak working memory, what should we be working on with them?

In this episode I mention this position statement from the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association about the speech-language pathologist’s role in reading and writing.

This episode was taken from a Q & A session with Language Therapy Advance Foundations members. Language Therapy Advance Foundations is my course that teaches pediatric SLPs a framework for language therapy designed to give them the vocabulary and language processing skills needed to thrive in school and life.

You can listen to the entire episode here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-63-navigating-dyslexia-and-working-memory-goals/

06/08/2025

I’m often asked if I can create an “executive functioning lesson plan” that a clinician could do within a 20-minute therapy session with a student or group of students.

I understand why people ask me for things like this. This traditional “pull-out” model of therapy is what many clinicians have been taught in our preservice training, and it’s often what’s focused on in professional development for clinicians.

This model works well for many skills. It also plays a part in executive functioning intervention. But it’s not enough.

Doing “executive functioning” lesson plans without some type of support plan in place for other settings would be like a soccer player doing drills and conditioning without ever playing soccer.

Does the right isolated work provide support and a foundation? Yes.

Is it necessary? Also yes.

But is it enough on its own, without direct application in the situation when those skills will be needed? Absolutely not.

I know school teams are overwhelmed, and embedding support across a students’ day requires systems and collaboration that aren’t often in place in many schools (yet).

That’s why in this second episode in my series on “Five Skills to Create Your Executive Functioning Implementation Framework”, I cover the second skill: Self Talk

What I cover in this episode:

✅ The two distinct types of self-talk: Strategy self-talk and Self-belief self-talk

✅ How self-talk integrates with other executive functions like time perception, future pacing, and episodic memory

✅ The connection between self-talk and principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)—and how to embed those principles into daily routines, not just therapy rooms

✅ Why explicit instruction and modeling of self-talk helps students shift from reactive to proactive problem-solving

✅ How deficits in self-talk can derail time management, task initiation, and flexible thinking—despite external supports

✅ How to start working on self-talk with your students right away-even if you haven’t built strong team collaboration systems yet.

Comment below and say Episode 227 for the link

04/08/2025

In this episode De Facto Leaders (formerly “Are they 18 yet?®”), I’m sharing a special conversation with my mentor, friend, and business consultant, Stephanie Hayes.

Stephanie specializes in building businesses from the ground up by focusing on creating assets that allow small business owners to earn income and serve in a way that feels aligned and fulfilling to them.

Even though she is technically like a “business coach/consultant”, many of her clients say that working with her is more like having a business partner.

What she’s really amazing at doing is truly seeing the talent and vision in her clients before THEY even see it…and then finding a way to pull it out of them so they can create something that “feeds their brain” and keeps them excited about the work that they do.

You can listen to the entire episode here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-80-career-test-runs-and-calming-your-inner-critic-with-stephanie-hayes/

04/08/2025

01/08/2025

I've had the honor of interviewing many amazing guests on the De Facto Leaders podcast, as well as connecting with professionals all over the world...but today I'm asking for listener input.

What topics do you want to hear me cover this next year?

30/07/2025

Executive function is often defined as “having good time management skills”. While this isn’t completely off-base, it’s a vast oversimplification.

The REASON people are good at time management is because they have the ability to estimate and sense the passage of time.

Most “textbook” definitions of executive functioning don’t fully call this out, and as a result many educators and clinicians have a difficult time figuring out how to design instruction and intervention that supports executive functioning.

Instead of embedding support across the day, interventions get siloed in special education, or lumped into long lists of cookie cutter classroom accommodations that overwhelm general education teachers.

Kids don’t generalize skills from one setting to another, even though people think they’re working on “time management”, and well-meaning adults find themselves giving constant “five minute warnings” as they try to help their students keep up with the pace of classroom activities or even basic functional tasks (e.g., getting things together, making transitions).

What if there was a way to help kids develop these skills, so we could fade all the prompting?

The good news is, there is.

The first step is recognizing that the core skill we’re teaching is TIME PERCEPTION.

In this first episode of a 5-part podcast series, I discuss the first one: Time perception.

In this episode, I’ll reveal:

✅ What “time perception” means in the context of executive functioning (beyond simply knowing how to tell time).

✅ How time perception deficits interfere with task initiation, sustained attention, and task completion.

✅ Why students may appear “defiant” or “unmotivated” when the real issue is inaccurate time estimation/perception.

✅ How poor time perception creates barriers for following schedules, meeting deadlines, or pacing tasks appropriately.

✅ Intervention principles to help build a student’s internal sense of time as part of a larger EF support plan.

Comment below and say Episode 226 for the link

28/07/2025

In this conversation, Ben Hockema and I discuss how to create a solid financial plan in your career so you can focus your time and energy on the impact you can make.

We discuss all kinds of possibilities; whether you want to stay in your current position as a therapist and/or teacher, whether you want to add an additional income stream, or whether you know for certain you want to start a business full time.

We even talk about ways to explore opportunities if you have lots of ideas in your head and aren’t sure which direction is best for you.

Ben is a Certified Financial Planner and the founder and advisor of Illuminate Wealth Management. He works with individuals, families and small business owners on their full financial picture; everything from cash flow and paying for education to saving and investing for big goals such as retirement, to individual and small business tax planning so that his clients can gain clarity and develop a path that is unique to their own goals, hopes and dreams.

In this conversation, we discuss:

✅How much should be in your emergency fund?

✅How much should you save before quitting your job and focusing on your business full-time?

✅Understanding the difference between debt, investments, and ongoing expenses in business and life.

✅Resources for creatives who love helping people, but are uncomfortable navigating financial planning.

✅Stability, freedom, and impact: How we can find the balance between all three.

Comment below and say Episode 146 for the link