De Facto Leaders

Many people think they’re working on executive functioning, but aren’t ACTUALLY working on executive functioning . If you have students who have access to planners, visuals, lists, and other organizing tools , but still seem unorganized , this may be the case for your students. Especially if you have students who flat out refuse to use organizers , or just forget to use them. Even though people with strong executive functioning skills present on the outside as people who are “organized”, this is just the external \ presentation that happens as a result of the internal cognitive skills that enable them to appear like they have their act together. That’s why when we jump right to the obvious tools for students, we’re often leaving a huge gap, which is why students often don’t know how to utilize tools they have at their disposal. In episode 267 of De Facto Leaders, I elaborate on the definition of executive functioning , because this is the first step in determining how to help our students get to the point of “being organized” (plus many other things, which you’ll realize when you listen). In this episode, I mention the Task Execution and Planning Protocol, which gives school clinicians an intervention strategy that takes students from “ demand avoidance” and prompt dependence to independence during daily academic and functional tasks. You can learn more about the Task Execution and Planning Protocol here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/taskexecution In this episode, I mentioned School of Clinical Leadership , my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

“Demand avoidance”, poor generalization, prompt-dependence, and social skills challenges seem like isolated issues. But often they’re not. Many times they’re tied to executive functioning challenges. That’s why when I describe “executive dysfunction”, I cluster it into five broad areas: Attention, Learning Challenges, Behavioral Issues, Organization, and Social Skills Usually, this is the point that the lightbulb goes on for a lot of clinicians and educators in the room as they realize executive functioning is the common sticking point behind many of their students’ challenges. When I support clinicians in designing executive functioning intervention frameworks, I start with explaining the external signs. Things like: ✅ Refusing to do even the simplest of tasks, and putting more effort into avoiding the work than it would take to actually do it ✅Behaviors that seem disproportionate to the situation, melt downs over things that barely phase their peers ✅ Always appearing to be several steps behind ✅ Not “reading the room” during functional tasks, and requiring tons of prompts ✅ Lack of awareness of how they’re coming across to others In episode 266 of De Facto Leaders, I do a deep dive into these five external signs that tie back to executive functioning challenges. In this episode, I mention the Task Execution and Planning Protocol, which gives school clinicians an intervention strategy that takes students from “demand avoidance” and prompt dependence to independence during daily academic and functional tasks. You can learn more about the Task Execution and Planning Protocol here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/taskexecution In this episode, I mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

Many school clinicians know executive functioning is important. They also know that their entire team should be supporting it across general and special education settings. But they don’t always know what exactly that looks like in practice… And if they do, they don’t know HOW they can change the practices of classroom teachers. There are a lot of unanswered questions. …How can I find time to think about changing teacher’s practices when I barely have time to manage my own workload? …What is my role if students don’t “qualify” for services on an IEP? …Doesn’t adding executive functioning to my plate open up a whole can of worms I’ll never be able to manage as a related service provider? …Even if I should be involved, how do I get teachers and administrators to “buy in?” In this episode, I share how I help school clinicians not just answer these questions, but actually get executive functioning support in place… Even if they’re not administrators… Without taking them away from their existing responsibilities or causing role confusion… And, even if they don’t have “buy in” from everyone on their team that they SHOULD be involved with executive functioning. As you listen, I invite you to consider that you MIGHT NOT need to get buy-in to start. The buy in comes with the process because it helps to “stack” the evidence you need to gain traction along the way. And…the reason that no one can give you a clear answer on how or what your role is because a clear framework doesn’t exist. People don’t give you an answer because most people don’t know HOW executive functioning support should look in schools. That’s an opportunity for YOU to define how that looks. Which you are one of the most qualified people in your building to do if you’re an SLP, social worker, psychologist, counselor, or other related service provider. And if you do it the right way, it can save you time and get better support for students in place at the same time. I share why that’s the case in episode 265 of De Facto Leaders. In this episode, I mentioned my free training where I share three mistakes professionals make when supporting executive functioning (that result in prompt-dependence and dysregulation). In this training, I cover the following: ✅ Already working on executive functioning, and not seeing results? It could be because you're NOT truly working on executive functioning, even though you think you are. Learn how to make the subtle shifts that make all the difference. ✅ Are severe behaviors preventing ANY true skill development? Learn the common mistakes school teams make (related to executive functioning) that create prompt-dependence and dysregulation, and what to do instead. ✅ Are students struggling with peers, even though you're working on social skills? I'll share why "social skills groups" rarely result in good skill-transfer, and how to shift your service-deliver model to help students self-advocate and form relationships. ✅ Not sure your team will buy-in to supporting executive functioning in classrooms? Learn the 3-part framework I teach SLPs, social workers, psychologists, counselors, and other interventionists that helps them implement building-wide executive functioning intervention, even with a huge caseload. You can sign up for this training here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/efleadership In this episode, I mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

Many school teams AREN’T actually working on executive functioning when they think they are. As a result, they’re being more flexible and accommodating than ever, giving students a chance to process after behavioral escalations… Yet they’re seeing students continue to be dysregulated. In some cases, it’s getting worse. The same thing goes for helping kids stay organized and manage work. Kids refuse to use organizers and lists, forget to use them when it’s relevant, or require a ton of adult prompting when they actually ARE using them. In my free training, I share why these things happen. This free training, which I’ve recently updated, is called “How to Be Evidence-Based and Neurodiversity-Affirming With Executive Functioning Support”. In the training, I cover three common mistakes school teams make when implementing “executive functioning interventions”. In episode 264 of De Facto Leaders, I share two of those three mistakes. When you listen to this episode, you’ll discover: ✅ Why students sometimes seem MORE dysregulated when asked to talk about melt downs or why they made a poor choice. ✅ The relationship between executive dysfunction, anxiety, and time perception. ✅ Why students aren’t more organized, even though you’ve giving them organizing tools like lists and planners Plus, I share two case studies, including: ✅ The student who was melting down during passing period, and why giving him more time to process his feelings was the last thing he needed (and how we supported him) ✅ The student who could make himself throw up whenever we asked him to do a non-preferred task who became MORE distrustful of adults the more flexible we were. In this episode, I mentioned my free training where I share three mistakes professionals make when supporting executive functioning (that result in prompt-dependence and dysregulation). In this training, I cover the following: ✅ Already working on executive functioning, and not seeing results? It could be because you're NOT truly working on executive functioning, even though you think you are. Learn how to make the subtle shifts that make all the difference. ✅ Are severe behaviors preventing ANY true skill development? Learn the common mistakes school teams make (related to executive functioning) that create prompt-dependence and dysregulation, and what to do instead. ✅ Are students struggling with peers, even though you're working on social skills? I'll share why "social skills groups" rarely result in good skill-transfer, and how to shift your service-deliver model to help students self-advocate and form relationships. ✅ Not sure your team will buy-in to supporting executive functioning in classrooms? Learn the 3-part framework I teach SLPs, social workers, psychologists, counselors, and other interventionists that helps them implement building-wide executive functioning intervention, even with a huge caseload. You can sign up for this training here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/efleadership In this episode, I mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

You’ve been told that social skills interventions are ableist. But you’ve also been told that we need to prepare students for real-world expectations. You have teachers and administrators coming to you with concerns about behavior, participation, and social interaction, and you’re expected to address it. Then you’re told to make your intervention more “functional.” To collaborate more. To focus on generalization. And somehow, all of that responsibility gets funneled into a 20-minute social skills group. What are you supposed to do when you know that a short, isolated session isn’t going to result in meaningful carryover? The issue isn’t that social skills intervention is a bad idea. The problem is we're using the wrong model to support them. When we think of "social skills intervention" as beginning and ending within a siloed therapy session, we'll continue to see poor skill transfer. A therapy session with students is ONE layer. We can keep that layer, but we need to add more layers to it to bridge the gap. In this video, I walk through how to shift from relying on one intervention bucket (a.k.a. the isolated social skills group) to building a service delivery model that frames social skills as "executive functioning for human interactions". This episode was created based on a video I previously published on YouTube. You can view the original video here: https://youtu.be/vdpzfG5l6wo In this episode, I mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

“Accommodation” is a loaded word. On one hand, we want to provide reasonable accommodations in K-12 so kids can access their education. But determining what is “reasonable” accommodation or modification can be messy. Both parents and educators can unintentionally “overaccommodate” in the moment without realizing it, which over time can impede a child’s ability to work through daily challenges and solve problems on their own. This can be in the context of adding too many “cookie-cutter” accommodations on a 504 Plan or IEP, or it can be unofficial accommodations in the way we interact with kids. My colleagues who work on college campuses are seeing the impact of this “overhelping” in K-12. And it’s not just kids with neurodevelopmental disorders. It’s the neurotypical kids too. That’s why I invited my colleague, Jill Fahy, back to De Facto Leaders to talk about the state of college readiness, the upstream impacts of what’s happening in K-12 on success both during and after college. Jill Fahy, Professor in the Department of Communication Disorders & Sciences, serves as the Director of STEP, a transitional education program for EIU students with autism. STEP programming supports the development of executive functions, social communication, self-appraisal, and self-regulatory skills to facilitate students' management of their academic and university living demands. Ms. Fahy specializes in the assessment of executive dysfunction, particularly as it is associated with concomitant disorders of language, cognition, or social/pragmatics. She is a widely-known lecturer in the area of executive functions, speaking nationally and internationally on aspects of evaluation and treatment of executive dysfunction, and the role of language in executive functions. Ms. Fahy is co-author of The Source for Development of Executive Functions, 2nd edition, and various articles on self-talk and executive functions. Ms. Fahy teaches graduate courses in Aphasia/Right Hemisphere Dysfunction, Cognitive-Communication and Executive Function Disorders, and Medical Grand Rounds. She previously taught undergraduate courses in Neurology and Advanced Clinical Practicum and Diagnostics. Prior to teaching at EIU, Ms. Fahy worked for several years as a medical SLP providing services for patients with acquired neurological deficits resulting from stroke and TBI, including those in acute care, inpatient and day rehabilitation, and home health. In this conversation, we discuss: ✅ The difference between accommodations and modifications, what “overhelping” looks like, and why it impedes development of important metacognitive skills. ✅ The state of college student mental health, and how it relates to the opportunities students have to practice self-regulation and experiencing failure. ✅ Skills many college students are lacking, including managing due dates, extended writing assignments, study skills, working through conflict, and managing their daily life. ✅ How and when to start fading supports, and how to recognize if you’ve been “overaccommodating” for a student You can connect with Jill at jkfahy@eiu.edu or on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-fahy-250478b/ Learn more about the Students with Autism Transitional Education Program (STEP) Program at Eastern Illinois University here: https://www.eiu.edu/step/ Be sure to listen to my first interview with Jill on De Facto Leaders here: Executive Functioning for College Students: Beyond Checklists and Planners (with Jill Fahy) Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-122-executive-functioning-for-college-students-beyond-checklists-and-planners-with-jill-fahy/ You can also listen to my commentary on her first interview in this episode: Balancing Language, Academic Content Areas, and Executive Functioning (featuring Jill Fahy) Link here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-232-balancing-language-academic-content-areas-and-executive-functioning-featuring-jill-fahy/ In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a scalable framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy I also mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

Are we really “overteaching” phonics, or should there be a hard stopping point where it’s not taught past a certain grade? Are current stories trending on popular news outlets aligned with best practices for supporting dyslexic learners? Is the public becoming more educated on how we learn to read, write, and spell? I invited my colleague, Lori Josephson, an author, consultant, and former teacher to discuss these questions. In this episode, we discuss: ✅ Common literacy “urban legends”, including “Dyslexia is seeing words backwards” and “look at the picture and guess the word” ✅ Why phonics gets a bad wrap and where the Science of Reading is often misunderstood ✅ Handwriting, keyboarding, and how they relate to neural connections ✅Making instruction more effective by integrating language, print, spelling, and executive functioning instead of siloing. Lori Josephson is an Author, Dyslexia Specialist, and Educational Consultant who is a Fellow of the Orton-Gillingham Academy, a retired Wilson Language Trainer, and holds a Master’s Degree in Special Education-Learning Disabilities. She has had the privilege of teaching hundreds of struggling students how to make sense of print and text, as well as the honor of working with thousands of teachers training them how to teach and reach their students using methods based upon the complex brain processes involved in attaining literacy, the body of knowledge referred to as the Science of Reading. Her recently published book, “Calling All Neurons! How Reading and Spelling Happen”, explains how the human brain attains literacy in a fun, easy to understand manner where specialized neurons take the stage to provide this explanation. Lori serves as a Moderator of the wildly popular Facebook Group, Science of Reading-What I Should Have Learned in College, and is on the Advisory Council of The Northern Ohio Branch of The Dyslexia Association. You can connect with Lori in the following places: o Website: lorijosephson.com o LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-josephson/ o X: @lorijosephson2 o Facebook: Lori Josephson o Instagram: @calling_all_neurons o Medium: https://lorijosephson.medium.com/ o Substack: @lorijosephson686067 We mentioned the following resources in this episode: Lori’s book, “Calling All Neurons! How Reading and Spelling Happen”: https://lorijosephson.com/calling-all-neurons-how-reading-and-spelling-happen/ The Cost of Over-Teaching Phonics by “Liana Loewus”: http://bit.ly/4eIKJAQ Has Technology “Broken” an Education System That was “Just Fine”? by Natalie Wexler: https://nataliewexler.substack.com/p/has-technology-broken-an-education “Don’t Blame Technology” by Holly Korbeyhttps://hollykorbey.substack.com/p/dont-blame-technology The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms our Kids’ Learning-And How to Help Them Thrive Again: https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Delusion-Classroom-Technology-Learning/dp/B0G5622DQQ In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a scalable framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy I also mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

If you’re an SLP who’s wondering how you can effectively address complex skills relating to both language and executive functioning in the school systems… The primary challenge is that BOTH language and executive functioning are incredibly complicated. Even just focusing on one or the other can be overwhelming. Layer on the challenges with the way related service providers are expected to provide interventions in the schools, and it seems impossible. Unfortunately, that challenge has resulted in debates on whether executive functioning is more important than language and vice versa, which isn’t useful. You don’t have to decide which is more important. They both are. We need to find a way to address them both. I help clinicians do that with a concept I call “cycling”. What I do is teach clinicians a set of core treatment techniques that fit within a set of foundational areas that support language and executive functioning. That’s why in this episode, I share how to target both language and executive functioning in direct intervention with enough depth that you get results. In this episode, I reveal: ✅ When it’s appropriate to think of language intervention in terms of working up a hierarchy of skills, and when it doesn’t. ✅ Why using treatment cycles is more effective than trying to pin down a “scope and sequence” for language and cognitive intervention. ✅ How to use intervention cycles to build a language therapy system, and eventually move on to layering in more robust executive functioning support. ✅ Why layering other service delivery models outside of direct intervention is essential for generalization, and how to make sure support is happening outside your sessions. Additional resources mentioned in this episode: Free Training: Three Shifts to Turning Your Clinical Expertise Into a Scalable Language Therapy System Link here: https://drkarenspeech.com/language Why language therapy works better in cycles than in a linear sequence Link here: https://drkarenspeech.com/why-language-therapy-works-better-in-cycles-than-in-a-linear-sequence/ You think you need a language therapy hierarchy. That’s why your system never feels stable. Link here: https://drkarenspeech.com/you-think-you-need-a-language-therapy-hierarchy-thats-why-your-system-never-feels-stable/ How to target both language and executive functioning in therapy with enough depth to get results Link here: https://drkarenspeech.com/how-to-target-both-language-and-executive-functioning-in-therapy-with-enough-depth-to-get-results/ In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a scalable framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy I also mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

In this conversation, I sat down with Kim Jenkins from Empowering Speech Services (https://www.empoweringspeechservices.com/meet-kim) to talk about how she’s used the frameworks from Language Therapy Advance Foundations (https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/) along with the gestalt language processing stages, for reluctant readers, and AAC users. We also talk about how important it is for clinicians to think flexibly with how they apply frameworks in therapy so they can pull from multiple sources to come up with their own personal protocols that work for their caseload. We also chat about other topics such as what “alter ego” we want to emulate when we’re going through a challenge, social media strategies and mindset, our dogs, and how to draw parallels between language therapy, clinical practice, fitness, tips for learning how to do pull-ups, and other areas of life. Kim Jenkins is a neurodiversity-affirming speech therapist who is passionate about helping neurodivergent children and their families flourish. Empowering Speech Services was built on the idea that authentic and meaningful communication can be achieved by focusing on a child's strengths, meeting their sensory needs, following their lead, and empowering family members in the process. Serving the Milton and Alpharetta areas of Georgia, she takes the time to truly get to know her clients, their joys, interests, unique strengths, and individual challenges. In this conversation, we discuss: ✅ How Kim uses semantic features and syntactic study with AAC users ✅ Using the “Essential 5” framework from Language Therapy Advance Foundations with students who use a lot of scripting and gestalts ✅ Engaging a reluctant reader literacy and vocabulary work ✅ Parallels between life, language therapy, fitness, and social media marketing Learn more about Kim’s private practice on her website here: https://www.empoweringspeechservices.com/ Visit her on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@empoweringspeechservices@UCSeGnUyaf6NBHJFBuoUFUTA Visit her on Instagram @empoweringspeechservices Connect with her on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-jenkins-a0288796/ Check out her TeachersPayTeachers store here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/empowering-speech-services I mentioned the following previous De Facto Leaders Podcast interviews: EP 205: Using the Essential 5 to Build Vocabulary and Syntax in Secondary School (with Amy Baugh) here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-205-using-the-essential-5-to-build-vocabulary-and-syntax-in-secondary-school-with-amy-baugh/ EP 140: Creating an Intentional Career and Life with Alter Egos (with Meg Niman) here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-140-creating-an-intentional-career-and-life-with-alter-egos-with-meg-niman/ EP 154: Therapy Session Structure, Narrative Language, and Commentary on Gestalt Language Processing here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-154-therapy-session-structure-narrative-language-and-commentary-on-gestalt-language-processing/ Also mentioned in this episode: ”Stories that Stick” by Kindra Hall here: https://www.storiesthatstick.com/ Sarah Brashears from Social Mogules: @socialmoguls In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a scalable framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy

Clinicians who are confidently delivering language and literacy interventions haven't found the perfect "therapy curriculum". They've learned how to build their own using three practices. In this episode, I share what those practices are, plus additional information on a free training I released that explains these concepts further. I cover: ✅ The concept of "clinical containers", and how you can use them to design your language therapy system, informed by my doctoral research and experience working in the schools for 10+ years. ✅ How to fill those linguistic containers over time using "asset stacking", so you're strategically adding layers of complexity one at a time. ✅ How to structure your planning so it fits into a realistic schedule, so each block of "plan" time you get moves you towards building your complete language therapy system. In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a scalable framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy I also mentioned my free training called “Three Practices to Turn Your Clinical Expertise Into a Scalable Language Therapy System”. You can register for the training here: https://drkarenspeech.com/language

Recess is often thought of as an “extra” activity in the school day. Sometimes it’s even taken away from students as a punishment. But some schools think about recess as an integral part of the school day, where students get the opportunity to connect, practice important social and problem-solving skills they’ll need for life. Others are taking it a step further and using it as a tool to help students feel more connected to their school experience, and to decrease chronic absenteeism and establish a school culture where kids feel like they belong at school. That’s why I was so excited to connect with Elizabeth Cushing from Playworks. Elizabeth Cushing is CEO of Playworks, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to using the power of play to bring out the best in every child. Elizabeth joined Playworks in 2004 and was named President and COO in 2011 and CEO in 2020. She leads Playworks' Executive Team and is responsible for the organization's strategy, operations and fiscal health. During her tenure Elizabeth has played a lead role in designing Playworks’ national scaling strategy including engaging national investors. Alongside founder, Jill Vialet, Elizabeth led the organization through a sustained period of growth from a San Francisco Bay Area-focus to a national organization with 14 teams across the country. As a result of strategic expansion, Playworks shares its unique brand of play and physical activity with 1,000 elementary schools reaching more than 1M children annually. For more than 30 years Elizabeth has served in leadership roles in nonprofit organizations focused on youth development, children's advocacy and women's issues. Elizabeth is a product of Oregon public schools, Stanford University and the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs. In this conversation, we discuss: ✅ Simple ways educators can set expectations and rules to create structure and a sense of safety around recess ✅ How to use play as a reset and a preventative measure, instead of something that’s taken away from kids as a punishment ✅ How training kids as peer coaches can help decrease disruptive behaviors and help kids discover their own leadership potential You can learn more about Playworks on their website at: https://www.playworks.org/ Resources mentioned in this interview include: Comprehensive Game Guide that Outlines Games Across Grade Levels: https://www.playworks.org/indiana/game-guide/ The sister website for Playworks with tools for assessing the health of your school’s recess: https://www.recesslab.org/ In this conversation, I mentioned School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design scalable executive functioning interventions to ensure students get the scaffolding they need across the school day. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

Most schools say they “collaborate.” They hold team meetings. They talk about students. They review data. But without clear infrastructure, those meetings become updates instead of decision-making engines, and multi-tiered systems of support become an extra burden for educators. In this episode, I interview Kurtis Hewson from Jigsaw Learning to break down their Collaborative Response Team meeting format and explain why effective collaboration requires structure and not just good intentions. From who is in the room to how documents are used before, during, and after the meeting, they share the operational backbone that makes collaboration actually move student outcomes. Kurtis Hewson is an award-winning former administrator and teacher, as well as post-secondary teaching faculty. He is the co-founder of Jigsaw Learning and co-author of Collaborative Response: Three Foundational Components That Transform How We Respond to the Needs of Learners (Corwin, 2022). Kurtis works with districts and schools nationally and internationally to establish Collaborative Response frameworks and interacts with thousands of educators each year. If you care about MTSS, intervention systems, or building-level leadership, this episode will shift how you think about team meetings and collaboration. In this interview, we discuss: ✅ Why the Collaborative Team Meeting framework helps educators move from between “talking about students” to making strategic, forward progress that changes school-wide practice ✅ How structured documents before, during, and after meetings create clarity and accountability and psychological safety ✅ How to capture action items in real time and encourage innovative thinking ✅ Why the Collaborative Team Meeting requires specific roles, and how these roles determine whether a meeting moves forward or feels like busywork If you’re leading multi-tiered supports in K–12 education or trying to strengthen how your teams collaborate, this episode offers practical insight into building the infrastructure that makes collaboration sustainable, focused, and impactful. You can learn more about the Collaborative Response Framework free resources here: https://www.jigsawlearning.ca/free Read about the Overview of Collaborative Response here: https://bit.ly/CR-overview Read the Introductory Chapter of the text Collaborative Response – https://bit.ly/CR-intro Get the Collaborative Team Meeting Starter Kit here: https://www.jigsawlearningonline.com/ctm-starter-kit-podcast Learn about the Layers of Collaborative Teams Here: https://www.jigsawlearning.ca/publications/blog-posts/scaffolding-our-collaborative-response-purposeful-layering-t Learn the Five Considerations to Transform Your Team Meetings here: https://www.jigsawlearningonline.com/five-planning-considerations-to-transform-your-team-meetings In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a scalable framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy I also mentioned the School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design an executive functioning implementation plan for their school teams. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

When schools talk about improving engagement, student wellness, or school climate, it often turns into assemblies, themed weeks, or standalone initiatives. When schools talk about community engagement, student wellness, or school climate, they often turn into assemblies, themed weeks, or standalone initiatives. In this episode, I invited Lauren Porosoff from The Teacher Nerd to unpack why a focus on engagement and wellness must be woven into the daily fabric of the school experience to have lasting impact. Lauren is an educational consultant who helps schools design learning environments where community values like equity, empathy, and creativity emerge from the instruction itself. She was a teacher for 18 years, most recently at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York. She’s taught the 2nd, 5th, 6th, and 7th grades, mostly in English and history, and has also served as a diversity coordinator, a grade dean, and a leader of curricular initiatives. Lauren develops tools and protocols that transform the psychological experience of school for teachers and students. She’s developed applications in instructional design, social-emotional learning, professional development, and anti-bias action. In this conversation, we discuss: ✅ What “compensatory programs” mean in the context of wellness, belonging, and community engagement. ✅ Why one-off events and initiatives aren’t sufficient for supporting student mental health and well-being. ✅ How to embed protective factors like connection into instruction and routines. ✅ The impact of technology on engagement and agency (plus a writing example) If you’re a school leader, instructional coach, or support professional who wants to strengthen student engagement and well-being in a sustainable way, this episode will help you shift from programming for students to designing systems with them across the entire day. You can learn more about Lauren’s products and services on her website at: https://www.theteachernerd.com/ You can read her article on the trouble with compensatory programming here: https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/the-trouble-with-compensatory-programs Get her book, Teaching for Authentic Engagement here: https://www.ascd.org/books/teach-for-authentic-engagement Connect with her on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-porosoff-2b728b75/ In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a scalable framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy I also mentioned the School of Clinical Leadership, my program that helps related service providers design an executive functioning implementation plan for their school teams. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/clinicalleadership

In episode 255 of De Facto Leaders, I elaborate on the concept of using vocabulary as a large “container”, so you can design sessions efficiently without sacrificing quality. I talk about why more experienced clinicians often struggle to make their interventions scalable, and why this gets in the way of carryover. I also share the five “containers” I use in my Language Therapy Advance Foundations program that can support skills like reading, writing, spelling, and language processing in ways that can be reinforced outside sessions. If you have a ton of knowledge relating to language and executive functioning, but don’t know how to organize it into a cohesive system… If you’re getting results in sessions, but it takes a ton of effort on your part and consumes all your capacity… If you’re able to scaffold and model “on-the-fly”, but struggle to explain your techniques to others so they can replicate them… Then you’ll find this concept of “containers” really useful. In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy You can view this episode on the blog to see the screenshare here: https://drkarenspeech.com/five-clinical-containers-to-design-your-language-therapy-system/ The handout referenced in this episode is the session handout for my “Three Shifts to Creating a Scalable Language Therapy System” session. You can sign up for this free online session here: https://drkarenspeech.com/language

Many experienced SLPs think they just need to plan better. Tweak the activity. Adjust the visuals. Try a new printable or protocol. But what if none of that is the real problem? What if your sessions are already so skillful that no one else can reinforce what you're doing? 🧠 What if the very clinical decision-making that gets you results is the thing preventing generalization? In episode 254 of De Facto leaders, I share the top three pieces of unconventional advice I give SLPs when they’re designing their language therapy system. It’s not just about what you should do, but about what you SHOULDN’T do. In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy

“Education isn’t a business” is a thing people say when they’re upset about how the school systems are being run. But education actually IS a business. Saying otherwise isn't going to change reality. If you’re frustrated about how the school systems work, you can continue to wish this wasn’t the case… Or you can accept how things actually are and learn what to do about it. In this podcast episode, I share how that looks for school clinicians supporting language and cognition. In the episode, I share: Why people who have no classroom experience get hired into educational leadership positions. Why good teachers or clinicians struggle when they get into school leadership, even if they were amazing at working with students. The “business” skill you can learn that will boost generalization beyond your language therapy sessions If you’re getting good results with students inside sessions but seeing little carryover, being good at “business” and leadership isn’t a “nice to have”. It’s a must have. ~Dr. Karen In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy

While virtual learning has become more prevalent since 2020, the founders of Banyan Global Learning have been offering digital learning experiences for over 20 years. Some people are excited about the possibilities technology offers. Others are backpedaling or worrying that tech does more harm than good. Like most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The outcomes depend on how experiences (both virtual and in-person) are designed and how learners are asked to engage. Passive consumption rarely leads to meaningful learning, but well-structured virtual experiences can support problem solving, perspective-taking, and authentic connection across contexts. Not as a replacement to in-person experiences, but as an additional option to provide opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. That’s why I invited Seth Fleischauer to De Facto Leaders to talk about how to use virtual field trips to connect with peers and learn about cultures and experiences worldwide. Seth Fleischauer is the President of Banyan Global Learning, which he founded in 2008 after teaching elementary school with NYC Teaching Fellows. Banyan pioneered daily international EFL distance learning and has since expanded to train teachers and educate K-12 students across three continents. His programs focus on teaching digital and cultural competencies through a global lens and have delivered over 40,000 live teaching sessions. Seth has also hosted over 100 podcast episodes, including Make It Mindful and Why Distance Learning? In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy You can learn more about Seth’s company, Banyan Global Learning at: https://banyangloballearning.com/ Listen to my previous interview with Seth on De Facto Leaders here: Ep 193: Using Distance Learning to Increase Access and Opportunity (with Seth Fleischauer) here: https://drkarendudekbrannan.com/ep-193-using-distance-learning-to-increase-access-and-opportunity-with-seth-fleischauer/ Banyan Global Learning’s Global Learning Live kicks off in spring 2026. Global Learning Live is led by Banyan teachers and blends live virtual field trips, collaboration, and reflection into an experiential journey for global competence. Students connect with real people and explore real places while building confidence through authentic global connection. Learn more about the Global Learning Live Spring ‘26 Pilot here: https://banyangloballearning.com/global-learning-live/ Learn more about Banyan Global’s live virtual field trips here: https://banyangloballearning.com/live-virtual-field-trips-2/ Listen to the Make it Mindful Podcast at: https://feeds.transistor.fm/make-it-mindful-an-education-podcast Listen to Make it Mindful Podcast Interview about Executive Functioning here: https://makeitmindful.transistor.fm/episodes/rewind-50-executive-functioning-with-dr-karen-dudek-brannan Listen to the Why Distance Learning Podcast at: https://whydistancelearning.transistor.fm/ Learn more about the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration here: https://www.cilc.org/

Have you met “Jessica” the virtual speech helper? I certainly remember hearing about it the first time. This concept raised a lot of questions in the clinical community. Are we trying to replace clinicians, and was that the intention behind this application? If you’ve had these questions too, you won’t want to miss this conversation. This episode is the second half of my interview with Maura Connor from BetterSpeech, the company that created an AI “virtual speech helper” to enhance and extend work being done in therapy sessions. In this conversation we talk about: ✅ How the “speech helper” was intended (and NOT intended) to be used ✅ Discussion on why technology initiatives fail in schools ✅ How can technology decrease work for educators (instead of adding more)? Maura Connor is an accomplished executive leader with deep expertise at the intersection of education and healthcare technology. She currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of Better Speech, where she is leading the launch of Streamline, an AI-powered special education management platform that helps districts reduce administrative complexity for providers and teachers, ensure compliance visibility, and strengthen support for students and families. With a career spanning executive roles in ed tech, health tech, and clinical operations, Maura has built a reputation for scaling organizations, driving innovation, and leading high-performing teams through periods of transformation. Her work focuses on uniting vision, strategy, and execution to deliver measurable outcomes for schools, clinicians, and the communities they serve. Maura is passionate about advancing solutions that enable educators and clinicians to spend more time on direct impact—helping children grow, thrive, and reach their potential—while ensuring that systems of care are more efficient, compliant, and sustainable. You can connect with Maura on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maura-connor-2508929/ Learn more about BetterSpeech’s telehealth platform and services here: https://www.betterspeech.com/ Learn more about Streamline by BetterSpeech here: https://www.streamline-sped.com/why-streamline Streamline is an AI solution that automates evaluation, service tracking, and compliance workflows, freeing up time for clinical judgement and engagement. In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy

When I first started working in the schools in the early 2000s, there was a push for integrating technology into classrooms and therapy sessions It was even a box that got checked on my employee evaluation. Now there’s a defined space referred to as “EdTech”. It took me a while to realize that this was a thing, and I didn’t even realize I was a part of it until someone referred to me as the “EdTech person” during a job interview (they were “FinTech” people, short for “Financial Technology”). In the work I do now creating a caseload management system, I often think about how important it is to define who the intended user of technology is. In product development, we refer to this as the “end user”. Sometimes the end user is an administrator pulling analytics or managing the budget. Sometimes it’s a teacher or clinician collecting data, managing a schedule, tracking referrals, or trying to reduce the administrative burden of their jobs so they can focus on human connection instead of paperwork. Sometimes it’s a professional providing virtual therapy to students to increase access to services. And sometimes, the end user is the student. When we think about how technology is helping or hurting education, we have to look at each of these verticals separately. A common answer I get when I talked to district leaders about technology is this: “We know technology has caused problems and is often poorly utilized. But what we were doing before wasn’t working either.” We had service deserts where therapy wasn’t accessible. There were clinicians spending hours on paperwork or data collection. We had administrators without the data they needed to evaluate what’s working or manage fiscal resources. That’s why I wanted to have a conversation about how technology is being used, and what is and isn’t working. I invited Maura Connor from BetterSpeech on to this episode to start the conversation. This episode is the first half of our interview. Maura Connor is an accomplished executive leader with deep expertise at the intersection of education and healthcare technology. She currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of Better Speech, where she is leading the launch of Streamline, an AI-powered special education management platform that helps districts reduce administrative complexity for providers and teachers, ensure compliance visibility, and strengthen support for students and families. With a career spanning executive roles in ed tech, health tech, and clinical operations, Maura has built a reputation for scaling organizations, driving innovation, and leading high-performing teams through periods of transformation. Her work focuses on uniting vision, strategy, and execution to deliver measurable outcomes for schools, clinicians, and the communities they serve. Maura is passionate about advancing solutions that enable educators and clinicians to spend more time on direct impact—helping children grow, thrive, and reach their potential—while ensuring that systems of care are more efficient, compliant, and sustainable. You can connect with Maura on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maura-connor-2508929/ Learn more about BetterSpeech’s telehealth platform and services here: https://www.betterspeech.com/ Learn more about Streamline by BetterSpeech here: https://www.streamline-sped.com/why-streamline Streamline is an AI solution that automates evaluation, service tracking, and compliance workflows, freeing up time for clinical judgement and engagement. In this episode, I mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that gives speech pathologists a framework for building language skills needed to thrive in school, social situations, and daily life. You can learn more about the program here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy

When everything depends on your real-time decisions, you can’t replicate the progress, scale the outcomes, or lead others through your process. Even when it’s working. In this episode, I share what that looked like in my own career. As a speech-language pathologist in the schools, I had the training and instincts to support students with complex language and learning needs. But when referrals surged and our team looked to me for leadership, I realized I didn’t have a framework. My sessions were effective, but my tools weren’t replicable. There was no way to take what was working and make it repeatable at the team, building, or district level. What started as a need in my own practice and doctoral work led to a research-informed framework that has now supported thousands of professionals across the country through my Language Therapy Advance Foundations program. Here’s what we explore in this episode: • What it really costs to rely on instinct alone • Why generalization stalls without scalable systems in place • How “therapy homework” often lives inside what you're already doing • Why leadership begins long before you speak up in a meeting • How vocabulary can serve as a container for essential, transferable language skills If you’re doing great work in direct language therapy sessions but struggling with generalization, this episode is for you. If your therapy is working, but hard to explain, scale, or share with your team, Language Therapy Advance Foundations will help you change that. You’ll build a 5-component system that strengthens vocabulary, supports critical thinking, and works across goals and grade levels. Start building your framework today: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy