De Facto Leaders

When it comes to working on executive functioning and “social skills”, one of the biggest complaints I hear from therapists is that their clients don’t generalize.   That’s often because when it comes to working on these types of skills, direct therapy alone isn’t enough to help kids apply skills. I often encourage SLPs to think beyond just direct therapy when it comes to designing services.   That’s why I invited Lori Melnitsky to come on for episode 59.   Lori is a private practice speech-language pathologist who has been in the field for over 30 years. She specializes in stuttering therapy, and also does coaching for young adults with ADHD who need support with executive functioning.   In this interview, Lori and I discuss: ✅How to know if kids need support with executive functioning in elementary school, middle school, and high school. ✅How to know when you should coach the student vs coach the parents to support executive functioning (and when you need to focus on both). ✅The relationship between executive functioning and anxiety, and how they both impact each other ✅The importance of consistent positive praise and feedback for people with ADHD; no matter the age. Lori Melnitsky, MA CCC-SLP has specialized in stuttering for over 25 years for children and adults. She founded All Island Speech and Stuttering Therapy and is now online in NY, NJ, CT, and PA. Lori is a person who stutters and entered the field to help others communicate. She has run National Stuttering Association Chapter meetings and taught graduate courses on stuttering. She is a sought after speaker at local school districts and speech associations on the topics of stuttering and ADHD. Lori is Lidcombe trained, Prompt Certified, MPI 2 certified for stuttering, and an ADHD coach. Additionally, Lori founded the FB group and podcast Stuttering DeMystified. Lori was also a mentor on an episode of the Children’s show Arthur and is a published author in the Journal of Fluency Disorders. Her website is Home | All Island Speech and Stuttering Therapy | Plainview, NY To learn more about how you can connect with Lori and learn more about her courses and services for stuttering and ADHD/executive functioning, you can visit her website here or follow her on Facebook here. You can also check out her podcast “Stuttering Demystified” here. In this episode, I also mentioned Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program that teaches SLPs a systematic process for building the language skills kids need to support comprehension and academic skills. You can learn more about how to become a member here. I also shared that I’m currently reworking my program offerings relating to executive functioning and social-problem solving. However, you can get more information about executive functioning and how it impacts kids in my free parent guide. You can get a free copy of the parent guide here. The De Facto Leaders podcast was formerly the “Are they 18 yet?®” podcast. As of November 2022, the name of the show has changed, and we’ve shifted from a focus on parenting to a focus on supporting clinicians and educators to design effective services for kids (but parents are still welcome to listen). Episodes published before November 24, 2022 will still<