Helping Kids Thrive

058: Orofacial Myology - What is it and how can it help my child?

Guest: Jamie Tyson-McOmie, Speech Language Pathologist & Orofacial Myologist

088: Helping Your Child Stay Organized

Welcome to another episode of Helping Kids Thrive. Today’s strategy for ensuring our kids flourish centers around the idea of helping them stay organized. We’re joined today by a special guest, Emily Waples who is a pediatric occupational therapist. Join the conversation as we talk about why organization is important for our kids, how we can help our kids build the skills required to be successful in staying organized, the importance of including them in the process of establishing schedules...

087: Not All Children Learn Language The Same Way

Not all children learn language in the same way. Neurotypical children usually learn through analytic language processing (also known as bottom-up processing), while children with autism who are verbal, are more likely to use gestalt language processing (often referred to as top-down processing). With gestalt language processing, children learn language in chunks or phrases, with single words only appearing at later stages as they learn to break down and recombine these gestalts (or language...

086: How Do I Deal With My Child Being Excluded?

Being rejected is never easy, and it can be especially soul-crushing for children. How do you, as a parent, ensure that you are there for kids in their time of need, without adding fuel to the fire? To help us get to the bottom of this question, we are joined by an esteemed school psychologist, Dr. Bianca Vasquez. After sharing her deep love for being involved in the education sphere, our guest explains why being excluded hits kids the hardest, how parents can be more empathetic, how to ma...

085: Easing After School Transitions

For many kids, getting home after school can be a stressful period. There is so much to process from the school day and if the after-school transition isn’t properly managed, a child may feel too overwhelmed for anything other than a meltdown. So today, we’re taking a look at some helpful tips for easing after-school transitions.  We are joined by Occupational Therapist, Evangeline Abraham, who explains how she got involved in this work and why today’s topic sits particularly close to her he...

084: Rethinking Behavior Management

Guest: Kelly McGuinness, LCSW, CEIS Most of us parent using behavior management techniques that we learned during childhood or have read about in a parenting book (okay, instagram, let's be real ;)) but have you ever stopped to think about if those strategies are actually working or not? Returning to the podcast is licensed clinical social worker, Kelly McGuinness, to challenge our ways of managing childhood behavior.  During this episode, she discusses with Nicole about how "traditional...

083: Empowering Your Child's Sense of Self

Guest: Melanie Almada, LMFT

082: Auditory Processing & External Microphone Technology

Guest: Dr. Dawn Aerts, AuD Approximately 5% of children struggle with processing auditory input but are never given a formal diagnosis or intervention options that can help. This is because when hearing concerns are expressed, a child is sent to an audiologist for a hearing test. If that test indicates normal hearing, they are sent back to the pediatrician - even though that child still struggles to understand or process auditory input, despite their normal hearing.  In this episode, Nic...

081: Benefits of Nature for Mental Health

Guest: Stephanie Fisher, MHC, LPC Being in nature has many benefits for our mental health including stress reduction, boosted mood and focus, and connection with community. Sunlight triggers the release of serotonin and Vitamin D, producing positive outcomes for sleep, stress, and mood. In fact, children living in neighborhoods with more green space have a reduced risk of developing several mental health disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, and substance abuse.  In this episode, ...

080: Setting Up Your Environment for Mental Wellness

Guest: Morgan Johnson, MS, LCSW Ever notice a connection between your physical space and your mood? You're definitely on to something. In fact, research indicates that our physical enviroment can have an impact on our anxiety, stress, mood, and overall mental wellbeing. Even more, this connection affects our kids too!  In this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, host, Nicole Pounds, chats with licensed clinical social worker, Morgan Johnson, MS, LCSW about the connection between our mental h...

079: Supporting Children with Nonverbal Autism

Guest: Samantha Russell, OTR/L, Pediatric Occupational Therapist Autism affects 1 in 36 children, and about 25-30% of those children are nonspeaking. In this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, host and speech language pathologist, Nicole Pounds, M.S. CCC-SLP, is joined by pediatric occupational therapist, Samantha Russell, OTR/L, to discuss ways that parents and schools can support children who have nonverbal autism. Together they share insights from their professional therapy work with child...

078: Supporting Siblings of Children with Special Needs

Guest: Gena Mann, special needs parent of 4 During this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, Nicole is joined by Gena Mann, one of the original co-founders of Wolf+Friends and special needs parent of 4.  Together they discuss the nuances of parenting multiple children including children with autism or medical and sensory needs. They discuss practical solutions to balancing all of the varying needs in their home and ways that they work intentionally to support the sibling experience of their neu...

077: Speech Delay in Toddlers - When Should I Be Concerned?

Guest: Kristina Parro, M.S. CCC-SLP  During this episode, Nicole chats with Kristina Parro, M.S. CCC-SLP, a mom and pediatric speech language pathologist, about speech delay in young children.  Kristina gives an overview of typical communication development and talks through important milestones parents should watch for in order to make sure that theri child’s communication is developing as it should.  As she points out in this episode, 50% of late talkers do not catch up on their own, so ...

076: How to Support Children Who Stutter

Guest: Matt Maxion, M.S. CCC-SLP During this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, Nicole is joined by speech language pathologist, Matt Maxion, M.S. CCC-SLP to discuss how to support children who stutter. As a person who stutters, Matt offers personal insight into the internal experience of stuttering and gives practical suggestions for the best ways to offer support at home and in the classroom.  Episode Highlights: What is stuttering and what causes it? What does it feel like to stutter?...

075: Why I Believe Parents Are The Best Advocates for Their Kids

Guest: Nicole Pounds, M.S. CCC-SLP Join Nicole for the very first solo episode of Helping Kids Thrive as she shares her experience advocating for her child to receive a medical procedure that he needed despite the team not initially being on board.  She first learned about the connection between sleep and ADHD as a result of a previous episode of Helping Kids Thrive, which prompted her to do more research and begin to advocate for a sleep study for her child, resulting in a diagnosis of sl...

074: Promoting your Child's Development Through Cooking

Guest: Amanda Unrau, MA, CCC-SLP, Speech Language Pathologist ‘Tis the season to be messy!  With the holiday season right around the corner, the kitchen once again becomes the busiest area of our homes. How about considering training little chefs to help you out with all the food preparations? Although cooking might actually be the messiest way of bonding with the kids, it can also be quite fun. It just requires extra patience on the side of the parents.  In this episode, Nicole is joi...

073: Toy Recommendations from an SLP + OT

Guest: Samantha Russell, OTR/L, Occupational Therapist & Olivia Holubeck, MA CCC-SLP, Speech Language Pathologist Looking for some last minute gifts this holiday season?  This week on the podcast, Nicole is joined by occupational therapist, Samantha Russell, OTR/L, and speech language pathologist, Olivia Holubeck, MA CCC-SLP to talk about some of their favorite toys for promoting your child's development. Samantha and Olivia share their top 3 favorites to use during sessions and give ins...

072: Growing Your Support System

Guest: Stephanie Fisher, MHC, LPC, Licensed Professional Counselor Raising children with special needs can be overwhelming and isolating. Parents often feel guilty about the extra support that their family requires so sometimes they try to carry the burden all on their own, believing no one will understand them or no one else is capable. When everything comes crumbling down, doesn’t everyone deserve a helping hand? Wolf+Friends’ mission is to give chances for communities to grow - where ...

071: My Friends Wanted Me to Cure My Son's Autism with Bleach

Guest: Katie Emde, Autism Parent + Disability Advocate Entering a new and unfamiliar world can be challenging. When you’re just beginning, it can get lonely and confusing. As a parent of a child with special needs, you need to find the right support group and team to navigate through this uncharted waters.  Join me and Autism Parent, Disability Advocate, and IEP Coach, Katie Emde, as she shares her journey of searching and establishing the right community for her children and their needs...

070: How is ADHD Related to Sleep?

Guest: Steven Nava, NCSP, Nationally Certified School Psychologist October is ADHD awareness month. ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood. According to the CDC, in 2016, 6.1 million children in the US had been diagnosed with ADHD which averages out to be about 9.4% and boys are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls.  In this episode, we are joined by Steven Nava, a school psychologist, as we talk about living with ADHD. We will ...

069: How a NICU Stay Affects Development Later in Life

Guest: Denise Minyard, MS, CCC-SLP, Speech Language Pathologist There are approximately 15,000,000 premature births globally every year. With this statistic, an infant’s stay at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is not uncommon.  Having experience working in NICUs, Denise Minyard, a speech language pathologist at DotCom Therapy, reveals the unseen world of preemies. From therapies, developmental delays, transitions from hospital to home, and the aftercare support parents must have ...

068: Ten Ways to Help Your Child's Speech and Language Skills Right Now

Guest: Kristina Fuentes, MS, CCC-SLP, Speech Language Pathologist Having a breakdown in communication with your child can certainly get frustrating, for both the parent and the child. Communication should never be underestimated as just an exchange of words, because it is so much more. In today’s episode, Kristina reveals ten effective yet engaging ways to influence your child’s language development and help give more opportunities to build communication skills. Her tips focus on ways to...

067: Remote Schooling for Children with Disabilities

Guest: Stacey Lotshaw Special Education Teacher at Stride Many parents are unaware of how to access educational services that are appropriate for their disabled children's needs. Even more challenging is to find remote learning options for disabled children. In this episode with Stacey Lotshaw, we are going to discuss exactly just that. As a special education teacher at Stride Inc, formerly known as K12, Inc., Stacey Lotshaw has had years of experience working with children requiring spe...

066: Realistic Screen Time Tips

Guest: Jesse Ferrell, MHS, CCC-SLP, Speech Language Pathologist It’s undeniable in this day and age that gadgets and screen technology have become a staple in many family households, often used by parents to help entertain their kids. But with the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of virtual learning over the past two years, many parents understandably feel anxious about their kid’s use of screen time and may struggle with finding that perfect balance. Jesse Ferrell, Speech Language Patholo...

065: Cyberbullying + How to Help Your Child

Guest: Kelly McGuinness, LCSW, CEIS, Licensed Clinical Social Worker Bullying is a stressful and traumatic event for our children to go through in places like school. But when you throw in the internet and its anonymity, this turns our children into relentless targets of bullying. No child ever deserves to be bullied, especially in the safety of their own homes, and yet about 40% of children have experienced cyberbullying at some point, with 30% experiencing it on multiple occasions. Kel...

064: One Mom's Story with Out-Of-The Box Advocacy

Guest: Rachel Heinz, Special Needs Parent + Disability Advocate While it can be challenging to navigate parenthood as a special needs parent, it doesn’t mean you have to do it alone. When we get involved together as a community and begin to support one another, we can create more opportunities for awareness and inclusion not just in our homes and schools, but in society as a whole.   In this episode, Nicole is joined by Rachel Heinz, a special needs parent and passionate disability advoc...

063: Traveling Tips for Special Needs Families

Guest: Lauren Lowery, Special Needs Parent + Life Coach Traveling with the family can be equal parts exciting and stressful thanks to all the planning and preparation involved. But when you add in a child with special needs, it can become all the more challenging.  In this episode, Nicole is joined by returning guest, Lauren Lowery. As a mother with tons of experience traveling with her kids who both have special needs, she shares her insights and practical solutions to help make plannin...

062: Neurodivergence + Play Therapy

Guest: Dr. Robert Jason Grant, Ed.D, Creator of AutPlay Therapy You may have heard about play therapy before and all of the ways it can benefit a child's mental health, but is play therapy still a good choice if your child is neurodivergent or disabled?  In this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, Nicole talks with Dr. Robert Jason Grant, Ed.D, a licensed mental health professional, registered play therapy supervisor, and the creator of AutPlay Therapy, an integrative family play therapy app...

061: Financial + Independence Planning for Special Needs Families

Guest: Liz Yoder, CFP, Director of Financial Planning  As our children with disabilities grow into adulthood, there are a lot of questions that come up about how to help them achieve their highest levels of independence. Considerations such as health insurance, income, employment, social networks, etc. come into families' minds as they think about how to best plan for the future of their child. During this episode, Nicole is joined by Liz Yoder, CFP, a certified financial planner + the D...

060: The Importance of Community ft. Wolf+Friends

Guests: Gena Mann & Carissa Tozzi, Co-Founders of Wolf+Friends Connecting with a community is important as a parent. Finding a community that gets it as a parent of a child who has a disability or delay can be challenging. During this episode, Nicole chats with Gena Mann & Carissa Tozzi, co-founders of Wolf+Friends, an online community for caregivers of children with special needs designed to connect parents + experts who "get it." They talk all about the importance of connecting with ot...

059: Childhood Anxiety

Guest: Morgan Johnson, MS, LCSW  Anxiety is likely something that you can relate to. We all have feelings of stress and anxiety from time to time. But when does anxiety become something that we need to get help for? And how do we identify anxiety in our children who may or may not have the words to let us know that anxiety, stress, or worry is what they're feeling? In this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, Nicole sits down with Morgan Johnson, a licensed clinical social worker, to discuss al...

057: Behavior + Communication

056: A Global Perspective on Special Needs Parenting

Guest: Sandy Dorsey, M.S. CCC-SLP, Founder of Smiles for Speech Have you ever wondered what it's like to parent a child with a disability in another part of the world? In this special episode of Helping Kids Thrive, Nicole sits down with Sandy Dorsey, an international speech language pathologist, global advocate, and the founder of Smiles for Speech, a nonprofit organization on a mission to increase access to information and resources for children with disabilities worldwide. Together th...

055: Setting Expectations for Your Child

Guest: Mikey Carroll, MS, LPC Do you ever find yourself wondering as a parent how to set expecations for your child? How do we help them reach their full potential, even if that looks different from other children around them? Add in disabilties or delays of any type and it can get even more tricky. Here to chat with Nicole today on the podcast is Mikey Carroll, a Licensed Professional Counselor. Together they explore ways to both accept yourself and your child as you both are and set ex...

054: Tummy Time - It's Not Just For Babies

Guest: Samantha Kauffman, MOT, OTR/L Tummy time is an important building block for neurological and physical development. It supports skills such as fine and gross motor, vision, sensory processing, and more. But if your baby hates tummy time or you're parenting an older child with disabilities, it can be challenging to get in activities that support this development.  During this episode, Nicole chats with occupational therapist and DotCom Therapy Clinical Manager, Samantha Kauffman, MOT, O...

053: Ten Myths About Feeding Children

Guest: Amy Schnacker, OTR/L If your child has difficulty with feeding, it is likely that you have heard some common parenting advice associated with feeding children - things like “don’t let your kids play with their food, that’s disrespectful” or “they’ll eat when they’re hungry.” While many of these things are true for most children, they are not true for all.  During today's episode, Nicole chats with occupational therapist, Amy Schnacker, OTR/L, to discuss 10 common feeding myths. Am...

052: The Power of Gratitude

Guest: Morgan Johnson, MSW, LCSW Practicing gratitude seems like a really simple concept, but for some reason most of us go through life without making it a regular habit during our days. We often choose to focus on what's going wrong - what needs to be fixed or done - instead of what is going right. During this episode, Nicole sits down with Morgan Johnson, a licensed clinical social worker, to discuss the benefits of practicing gratitude and some practical ways that we can begin to inc...

051: Growth Mindset

Guest: Melanie Almada, M.S. LMFT Establishing a growth mindset builds resiliency, perseverance, and an intrinsic sense of worth. These are things that every parent desires for their children, but how can we ensure that our child develops a strong growth mindset instead of becoming fixed in an "I can't" mentality? In this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Melanie Almada, chats with Nicole about the importance of helping our children develop a growth m...

050: Using a Visual Schedule at Home

Guest: Elizabeth Soriano, M.A. CCC-SLP Have you considered using a visual schedule at home but turned away feeling overwhelmed with how to get started and the amount of options out there? It may seem impossible with the unpredictability of a home schedule, but in this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, speech language pathologist, Elizabeth Soriano, M.A. CCC-SLP gives practical, realistic tips for using a visual schedule with your child at home. Episode Highlights: Why using a visual sch...

049: Holiday Stress & Sensory Overload

Guest: Amy Schnacker, OTR/L The holiday season is full of fun and excitement - lots of time with family and friends, cookie decorating, present wrapping, songs, events, the list goes on and on. And while the holidays are a special time of year, they can also be overwhelming.  In this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, Nicole speaks with pediatric occupational therapist, Amy Schnacker, OTR/L, about holiday stress and sensory overload in order to help parents better understand how their child...

048: Impact of Social Media on Mental Health

Guest: Jackie Wight, MA, LPC, Director of Mental Health Services Helping children navigate through social media is definitely uncharted territory for a lot of parents that grew up before the era of smartphones and tablets. With the rise of popular sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, it comes to no surprise that it has greatly impacted how children grow up, and how they handle their face-to-face social interactions. From increasing rates of depression and anxiety, it’s definitely b...

047: Common Special Ed Terminology

Guest: Debbie Anzelone, Special Education Consultant Have you ever wondered what FAPE is? Or LRE? What is the difference between an accommodation and a modification? IEP meetings can be filled with a lot of education heavy language and terminology which can create a barrier to parents being as involved with the IEP process. During this episode, Nicole is joined by Special Education Consultant, Debbie Anzelone, to answer a listener question about special education terminology. Nicole and ...

046: The Importance of Acknowledging Dialectal Differences in Schools

Guest: Kay Simon, M.S. CCC-SLP In the US Public School system, the language of instruction is Mainstream American English (MAE), a specific dialect of English. If a child enters the school system that has not previously had exposure to MAE, this transition can be difficult as they add the need to learn another dialect of English to the list of academic concepts that they are expected to master. As a child works to learn and use this new dialect, if a teacher or school district isn't famili...

045: Getting Started with AAC | Augmentative & Alternative Communication

Guest: Adriana Capuano, M.A. CCC-SLP Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC) is a communication system that is helpful for children who do not have functional communication. Often we think of this as being for only nonverbal children, but there are actually many different situations that AAC can be used in order to boost effective communication for children. Listen in on this episode of Helping Kids Thrive as Nicole talks with speech language pathologist, Adriana Capuano, about th...

044: Using Positive Affirmations With Your Child

Guest: Brya Hanan, M.A., LMFT Positive affirmations is a little bit of a buzz word topic with people posting images of letter boards on their bathrooom or videos of dads and daughters reciting them back and forth. But are there actually benefits to using positive affirmations with our children and if so, how do we do it realistically?  In this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, Nicole is joined by Brya Hanan, a licensed marriage and family therapist and certified family trauma professional ...

043: Setting Up For Homework Success

Guest: Aimee Buckley, Founder of Study Help, Inc. Does your child struggle with motivation to complete homework tasks after school? Do you find that every evening is a fight in order to get homework accomplished? During this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, Nicole is joined by Aimee Buckley, a high school teacher and the founder of Study Help, Inc., an online tutoring platform that connects top quality teachers with students who are looking for a better understanding and academic skills. ...

042: Increasing Independence Through Executive Functioning Skills

Guest: Kayla Plutschack, OTD, OTR/L Does your child have trouble remembering directions, staying on task, keeping track of their things, or completing projects/routines independently? It could be a difficulty with executive functioning skills. In this episode, Nicole is joined by Kayla Plutschack, the lead occupational therapist at DotCom Therapy for a discussion around executive functioning skills. They discuss the 7 components of executive functioning and how these skills affect a chil...

041: How To Talk With Your Teen About Their Mental Health

Guest: Rebecca Lofthouse, LCSW According to the CDC, suicide is the second leading cause of death for teens and according to the World Health Organization, “half of all mental health conditions start by 14 years of age but most cases are undetected and untreated.” As Rebecca mentions during this episode, treatment for mental health conditions is vitally important so, it really is an incredibly important topic for us to be discussing with our teens. Through this conversation today, you wi...

Ep. 041: How To Talk With Your Teen About Their Mental Health

Guest: Rebecca Lofthouse, LCSW According to the CDC, suicide is the second leading cause of death for teens and according to the World Health Organization, “half of all mental health conditions start by 14 years of age but most cases are undetected and untreated.” As Rebecca mentions during this episode, treatment for mental health conditions is vitally important so, it really is an incredibly important topic for us to be discussing with our teens. Through this conversation today, you wi...

040: Why Does My Child's Speech Sound Like That?

Guest: Hannah Scotten, M.S. CCC-SLP If you have a child that produces sounds incorrectly, it can be challenging to understand why this is happening. While, we know that parents are not speech therapists (nor should they feel like they need to be), it can be helpful at times to know more about what could be affecting your child's speech. During this episode of Helping Kids Thrive, Nicole chats with Hannah Scotten, a speech language pathologist at DotCom Therapy, to provide information abo...