When Skills Don’t Line Up: Making Sense of DLD and Grade Expectations

Leave a Comment / Academic Success, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Grade Level, Learning Disabilities, Parents, Speech Pathology / /

Determining a student’s “grade level” can be especially challenging when that student has Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) (Ziegenfusz et al, 2022). DLD is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that affects how children understand and use language, including vocabulary, grammar, following directions, processing questions, and expressing ideas clearly. Because language underpins all areas of academic learning, these challenges […]

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Gifted but Overlooked: Rethinking Evaluation for 2e Students

Leave a Comment / Academic Success, Clinical Assessment, Life Outcomes, Parents, Social Pragmatic Deficits, Speech Pathology, Twice Exceptional/High IQ / /

In the world of educational assessments, there’s a long-standing reverence for the IQ score (Ritchie, 2015). Intelligence has often been seen as the gold standard for predicting academic success (Ren et al., 2015). However, in the case of twice-exceptional (2e) children—those with high IQs but significant learning disabilities—this traditional view can be misleading, especially when

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Acknowledging the Diagnosis: Why Denial Hurts More Than the Label Ever Could

Leave a Comment / Academic Success, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Dyslexia and Reading Disorders, Learning Disabilities, Parents, Speech Pathology / /

It’s a situation that sadly happens far too often. A parent or caregiver refuses to acknowledge a particular diagnosis, such as Autism, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Dyslexia, or another neurodevelopmental condition. Sometimes it’s about fear. Other times, stigma (Turnock et al, 2022; Huang et al., 2023). In many cases, it’s rooted in the belief that

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Why Summer Matters Most: What Parents Need to Know About Language, Literacy & Learning Loss

Leave a Comment / Academic Success, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Dyslexia and Reading Disorders, Evidence-Based Intervention, Learning Disabilities, Parents, Reading Comprehension, Social Pragmatic Deficits, Speech Pathology, Summer Learning Loss, Twice Exceptional/High IQ, Writing / /

As summer approaches, many families begin to wind down from the academic year, looking forward to a break from routines, early mornings, and school responsibilities. While rest and unstructured time are important for children, pausing language and literacy therapy over the summer can have serious consequences, especially for students with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Autism,

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Why Social Pragmatic Progress Is Real—But Hard to See

Leave a Comment / Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Evidence-Based Intervention, Life Outcomes, Social Pragmatic Deficits, Speech Pathology / /

In my years of clinical practice, I’ve witnessed firsthand the powerful transformations that can take place in students receiving high-quality, evidence-based therapy for social pragmatic deficits. I’ve also seen something else: the frustration, sometimes shared by parents, educators, and even therapists, when those gains aren’t as obvious or easy to measure as progress in other

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The Truth About Speech-to-Text: It’s Not a Shortcut for Struggling Writers

Leave a Comment / Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Dyslexia and Reading Disorders, Evidence-Based Intervention, Speech Pathology, Writing / /

When children struggle with handwriting or typing, many well-meaning educators turn to speech-to-text (STT) tools in hopes of providing quick support. However, for students with Autism, ADHD, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, etc., STT is not a solution—it’s a band-aid that often highlights, rather than addresses, underlying problems. These students typically have difficulty organizing

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One Step at a Time: Therapy for Young Adults that Works

Leave a Comment / Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Contextualized Language Intervention, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Evidence-Based Intervention, Executive Functions, Learning Disabilities, Life Outcomes, Self-Advocacy, Social Pragmatic Deficits, Speech Pathology, Young Adults / /

After my last post, a number of parents and SLPs have contacted me to find out what typical therapy sessions with young adults look like on a weekly basis. They were especially curious about how therapy can support young adults who struggle with managing emotions, staying organized, and navigating social situations. Many of these young

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From Overlooked to Empowered: Supporting Young Adults with Hidden Challenges

Leave a Comment / Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Evidence-Based Intervention, Executive Functions, Life Outcomes, Parents, Speech Pathology, Young Adults / /

When we think about speech-language therapy, we often picture young children learning to pronounce their sounds correctly, build vocabulary, or put sentences together for the first time. But what about the young adults who made it through school undiagnosed, unassisted, and now in their 20s who are quietly struggling to hold jobs, navigate relationships, or

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Contextualized Therapy Isn’t Chaos—It’s Data Gold

Leave a Comment / Academic Success, Contextualized Language Intervention, Data Collection, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Evidence-Based Intervention, Speech Pathology / /

One of the most common pushbacks I hear from SLPs related to data collection—is that contextualized language therapy makes it too hard to collect data. When I suggest working on narrative or discourse to simultaneously address goals like syntax, vocabulary, and inferencing, the response is often, ‘But how do you collect data on that? We

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Stop Saying “You’re Fine”: Why Struggling Students Deserve the Truth and Real Help

Leave a Comment / Academic Success, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), Discriminant Accuracy, Dyslexia and Reading Disorders, Independent Educational Evaluations (IEEs), Learning Disabilities, Life Outcomes, Parents, Self-Advocacy, Special Education Disputes, Speech Pathology, Standardized Tests / /

In the field of speech language pathology and allied services, we carry the immense responsibility of identifying and supporting children who struggle with language and literacy. Yet all too often, our good intentions are undercut by poor testing practices, superficial conclusions, and a harmful tendency to reassure students by telling them “there’s nothing wrong with

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