#032: Best of 2019

Marisha: Welcome to episode 32 of the SLP Now podcast. This week is a little different than usual because we're doing our first ever SLP Now podcast end of the year round up. So we'll be looking back at the five most downloaded episodes of the year. Before we dive in, I just have to say it has been such an incredible experience diving into the world of podcasting. Thank goodness I was prepared for all of the learning because of grad school. But in all seriousness, I'm so grateful for all of the wonderful SLPs that have been along for the ride, the incredible guests I've had the opportunity to speak with, and just that the episodes are eligible for ASHA credits. So thank you very much SpeechTherapyPD, and although this episode won't count for ASHA credits, hopefully it'll give you some inspiration if you're trying to quickly pull in those ASHAs CEs before the end of the year. Hopefully this will give you some inspiration for some episodes to check out.

Marisha: So let's start with the fifth most downloaded episode of the year. It was episode 17, How to Tackle Oral Facial Exams with Amy Graham, and I absolutely love getting to chat with Amy Graham. She's so incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to speech sound disorders and just life in general. She's one smart lady, and she definitely did not disappoint with this episode. So here's a quick clip.

Amy: In order to choose an appropriate intervention, you have to understand the nature of the disorder to begin with, and I think part of doing that is either identifying or ruling out those structural and/or functional contributors.

Marisha: Right? Amazing. So she also deserves a special award because she's the first repeat guest on the podcast. Her episode on childhood apraxia of speech just went live last week, so check out episode 31 if you want to hear more from Amy.

Marisha: Now, for the fourth most downloaded episode of the year, episode 14, Where to Start With Fluency Therapy. So this interview was with Lauren from Busy Bee Speech and it was so incredibly helpful. I absolutely loved hearing a little bit of Lauren's story, which I'll drop a quick clip right now.

Lauren: You can't just do a one size fits all therapy approach with fluency. You just never know the reasons why they're stuttering, it's not going to always be the same for every kid.

Marisha: And her philosophy, which she just shared, makes so much sense and she backs that up with so many practical strategies and therapy ideas. So if you are looking for some inspiration, some support, and some amazing fun, easy to implement therapy ideas, head to episode 14.

Marisha: And now for the third most downloaded episode, this was a solo episode that I did all about getting organized, and I love that this episode made it to the top of the list, and organization is definitely my love language. It makes my heart so happy that y'all humor me when I talk about all things organization. So be sure to head to episode two if you want to hear all of the different tips that I shared or if you listen to it and you're hoping to start the new year with some new inspiration to get organized, this would be a great one for you.

Marisha: And now for the second most downloaded episode of the year. The last two have a little bit of a... They're related here so it's super interesting to me, but it was episode six with Jennifer Taps Richards from SLpath.com. This episode was jam-packed with information. I got a lot of messages from you, and maybe this is why, but a lot of you relistened to this episode because it just had so much information. The episode was titled A Crash Course on the Complexity Approach for Rapid Intelligibility Gains, and it was definitely a crash course. And here's a quick snippet of it.

Jennifer: Most SLPs are familiar with the normative approach, the idea that we teach sounds in developmental sequence. That's been a historical practice in our field since really the beginning. Complexity takes this idea and completely turns it on its head. Instead, it advocates teaching phonetically complex, non-stimulable, and later mastered sounds. So this is a very different way of approaching helping kids to learn more probably about the sound system as opposed to one sound at a time. And it's really based on about more than 30 years of research studies and it applies linguistic principles to help SLPs with target selection.

Marisha: So be sure to check out episode six if you want to learn more about what the complexity approach is and then also if you want to learn how to implement this approach with your caseload. It's pretty magical and Jennifer definitely did not disappoint.

Marisha: And now for the most popular episode of the year, we have episode five with Shannon Werbeckes from Speechy Musings and I absolutely love getting to collaborate with Shannon and she never disappoints. Her resources and just the knowledge that she shares is so incredibly practical and relatable and just really helpful. So in episode five Shannon broke down the cycles approach for us, and this is one that can get a little bit confusing because there's all sorts of things going on, but she made it so approachable, digestible, easy to understand. She shares so many practical tips and some really helpful analogies that help make this process make so much sense. So let's take a quick listen at one of the many analogies that Shannon shared.

Shannon: I have kind of an analogy that I give to parents, because sometimes I think the hard thing for me, and I think parents, when trying to understand the cycles was like when do I move on to a different sound? When do I switch processes? Am I cycling through sounds or am I cycling through processes? And it gets kind of confusing what you're actually cycling through. So I give the analogy of if you were doing a physical body workout cycles style, you would have your arms, your legs, your abs, those would be your processes.

Marisha: Pretty amazing, right? Oh, so good. I am definitely going to be revisiting some, if not all, of these episodes myself, and that's a wrap. So head to SLPnow.com/32 to view a quick recap of the episodes if you're trying to decide which ones you want to use or if you want a little bit of a checklist. I cannot wait to share even more amazing conversations next year.

Marisha: If you want to help us find even more amazing speakers like the ones I just listed, please consider leaving a five star rating for the podcast. It makes a huge difference when we're reaching out to potential speakers and interviewees, and it just means a lot. I so appreciate it and it really helps us make this podcast even better. I so appreciate you. I hope you have an amazing holiday season and I cannot wait to see you again in the new year, and we'll definitely be back with more episodes just like these. Yeah, thank you guys.