Cedar Valley Speech and Language

03/14/2026

Cedar Valley Speech and Language will be closed 3/14-3/23, with regular sessions resuming 3/23.

03/12/2026

When appropriate, I like to send videos for home practice. We know kids make progress faster if they’re practicing more often, so additional work outside of their sessions is key! 

PROS:
✅The videos are more engaging compared to reading words off a page
✅I’m able to provide the same cues they’re used to receiving in sessions
✅The videos are tailored for the targeted sounds that child is working on and is at the level the child is currently at (e.g., sounds in isolation, words, sentences)
✅Keeps their speech goals top-of-mind and encourages improved speech across all settings
✅ Helps families engage more in speech practice as they familiarize themselves with cues I’m providing so they can better help at home
✅Kids are (usually😅) more willing to practice along with Miss Kelsey than they are a parent

03/11/2026

Stopping can have a huge impact on how well a child's speech is understood.

03/05/2026

Live bunnies and a goo station?? Count me in!

🐰 Hop Into Spring: Bunny Brunch at the WCC! 🌷✨
Looking for a morning full of "ear-resistible" fun? Join our Waterloo Career Center FCCLA students for a Bunny Brunch you won’t want to miss! This is a student-led event, and proceeds help fund our talented students' trip to FCCLA Nationals this summer. 🏆
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Come support our future leaders and enjoy a morning packed with spring magic!
📅 When: Saturday, March 28
Session 1: 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Session 2: 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM
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📍 Where:
Waterloo Career Center

🎈 What’s Hopping:
🐰 Live Bunnies: Meet and greet some furry friends!
🎨 Face Painting & Egg Painting: Get creative with festive designs.
📸 Photo Ops: Snap the perfect spring family picture.
🧠 Sensory Stations: Interactive fun for all ages...and much more!
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This is a fantastic way to celebrate the season while supporting our local students as they aim for the national stage. Grab the family and come see what our FCCLA chapter has been working on!

03/04/2026

I recently had the honor of speaking to roughly 100 undergraduate students in the communicative sciences and disorders major about my journey in the field and private practice.

At the end of my presentation, I opened the floor for questions. They had several thoughtful questions, but one stopped me in my tracks.

“What are you most proud of?”

While I’m proud of many things, like going back to school to earn my masters and taking the leap into private practice, I realized what I’m most proud of.

I’m most proud of the relationships I build with my clients. Therapy with kids begins with building trust and mutual respect. As a result, they enjoy our time together and I get to help them grow into confident, communicative little human beings. ❤️

That’s what a I’m most proud of.

02/27/2026

We use a lot of different types of cues in speech therapy.

Metaphorical cues are helpful because they connect a new speech skill to something your child already knows—like understanding that a snake says “ssss”—so they can use that familiar sound as a bridge to producing it correctly in their own speech.

02/24/2026

I like to think of our brains as filing cabinets for language. Being able to quickly sort through your filing cabinet to find the words you want to use can be challenging. Being able to group words by different attributes can be helpful in organizing our filing cabinets. 

This morning, we worked on organizing by category and had fun coming up with broad and more specific categories.

02/24/2026

Documentation is a key part of therapy — tracking progress, guiding treatment, and supporting insurance reimbursement. Who else gets excited to get to work and be productive? 😊 Ready to dive into evaluation reports and therapy notes!

02/23/2026

When we talk about "language", it's helpful to break it down.

Receptive language is how language is perceived and understood, while expressive language is how children use language. Some children struggle with one or both.

02/18/2026

WHY is the “R” sound so difficult for so many kids???

02/11/2026

This is a question I get a lot and, unfortunately, there's no set timeline. Speech therapy can range from weeks, to months, and often, years.

Progress and duration of speech therapy depends on a lot of factors, including:
▪️Are there co-existing diagnoses (e.g., speech AND language deficits that impact ability to follow directions and attend to tasks)?
▪️How many errors are present?
▪️How severe are the errors?
▪️Are they able to produce the sounds correctly at all, or do we need to shape the sound in isolation before we can practice in words, sentences, and conversation?
▪️How well can they follow directions (e.g., shaping cues, like "Put your tongue tip down", "Push the air off the tip of your tongue")?
▪️Can they reflect on their own productions and discern if they're accurate or not?
▪️Are they practicing at home?

So, while it would be lovely to provide a concrete answer to this question, we must remember every child and every treatment plan is different. The ultimate goal is to increase awareness and understanding of sounds ➡️ increase accuracy of productions ➡️ increase speech intelligibility (how well they're understood) ➡️ and finally to increase confidence and ability to communicate successfully across all settings.