beSpoke Speech Therapy

12/16/2025

Still reflecting on an inspiring few days at ASHA in DC last month ✨

It was SO great to reconnect with former classmates Leila, Marc, and Erich from the who continue to highlight just how much innovation is happening in our field.

Allow me to introduce you to my friends 💁🏻‍♀️:

🌟 Leila Denna, MS, CCC-SLP has recently founded where she empowers SLPs to thoughtfully integrate technology into clinical practice. Her presentation on AI literacy challenged us to look beyond the “magic” of AI and focus on bias, transparency, and ethical implementation, offering practical frameworks for responsible use. Leila’s work and her ever-expanding network of SLP innovators make her a true catalyst for positive change in our profession! Be sure to give her a follow!

🎓Marc Maffei, PhD, CCC-SLP is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island! His research on the development of language and motor skills gives clinicians new tools to understand and support late talkers — a critical contribution to our understanding of early language development. 👶🏻

🤖 Erich Reiter, founder of , continues to push the boundaries of what speech technology can do. His team develops AI-driven tools and interactive games that support individuals who stutter, and they are now expanding these tools to address articulation and early literacy! Go check them out!

Since I roomed with Leila who knows, like…EVERYBODY 🤣, I also had the immense pleasure of meeting Konrad Zielinski of .bionics , a researcher and laryngectomee himself whose team is developing personalized electrolarynx technology to give fellow laryngectomees a more natural, individualized voice. Having worked extensively with head and neck cancer patients before transitioning into the pediatric realm, this is a population that is especially near and dear to my heart. 💙

Truly, “The more I know, the more I realize I know nothing.”

I’m so grateful for these opportunities—a reminder that growth begins with curiosity and humility. 🙏

12/10/2025

New Review!!! So thankful! 🥹

Send a message to learn more

10/31/2025

Wishing you a spooky, safe, and inclusive Halloween! 🎃👻

10/21/2025

Brand new availability!

🕑 This is a 30 or 45-minute slot on Thursdays between 2:15–3:00 PM, ideal for a preschooler in need of speech and language services or a homeschooling family seeking reading support.

For structured literacy services, each session involves explicit instruction and practice in the areas of phonological awareness, decoding, passage level reading of decodable texts aligned to your child’s skill level, spelling, and reading comprehension. All the while, we work to tap into background knowledge, build vocabulary, and tie in executive functioning skills. Sessions are sequential, cumulative, multisensory, and grounded in the Science of Reading.

To inquire, you can:
🧑‍💻 Visit www.bespoke-speech-therapy.com and complete the Contact form
📧 Email cassandra@bespoke-speech-therapy.com
📲 Text 508-257-1096

General questions are also welcome in the comments! 👇😊

09/24/2025

If you’ve been following conversations about education, you may have heard the term “Science of Reading” tossed around a lot lately. But what does it actually mean? 🤔

The Science of Reading isn’t just a buzz word or trend. It’s the term used to reflect a comprehensive body of interdisciplinary research evidence—from fields like education, linguistics, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience—that helps us understand how the brain learns to read.

Here are some key takeaways:

🧑‍🏫 Reading is not a “natural” process—our brains aren’t wired for it the way they are for speech. Kids need explicit, systematic instruction.

⛓️Strong reading instruction builds both word recognition (phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, automaticity + fluency) and language comprehension (vocabulary, background knowledge, syntax).

💡When these come together, we get skilled reading: understanding and making meaning from print!

Why does this matter for kids with speech sound disorders? 🤷🏻‍♀️

📖 Research shows that children with speech sound disorders are at a significantly higher risk for reading difficulties later on. That’s because difficulties with speech sounds often overlap with weaknesses in phonological awareness—the very skills kids need to decode words on a page.

As a speech-language pathologist specializing in speech sound disorders AND literacy, I see this connection among my clients every day. The Science of Reading gives us a research-based roadmap to support these kids early—so we’re not just improving speech, but also strengthening the underlying foundational skills integral for reading success!

07/17/2025

🐢🐇🏁This should be no secret by now, but I LOVE inventing play-based activities and games to target minimal pairs. Here’s one of my go-to activities—inspired by The Tortoise and the Hare—to target the phonological pattern of fricative simplification in which the voiceless ‘th’ sound is substituted with ‘f’. (Parents of kids under 6, this one should be very familiar to your ear!)

🎲 How it worked:
Each player rolled the die to move 1, 2, or 3 spaces around our racetrack (but only if they pronounced “three,” not “free!” 😉). Along the way, racers had to stop at checkpoints to contrast tricky minimal pairs like:
🔹 fin vs. thin
🔹 Fred vs. thread
🔹 frill vs. thrill
🔹 fought vs. thought

We used a mini turtle and rabbit figure to act out the race—and let’s just say, the hare (aka, yours truly!) may have taken a “strategic nap” under a tree to let our tortoise take the win. 💤🐇🌳

Of course, each racer wanted to come in “first” 🏁—but along the way, they also had to deal with a little “thirst” 💧! These words made perfect minimal pairs for practice in a meaningful, story-based context. We made sure to stop and hydrate our racers whenever they felt “thirsty,” reinforcing that important voiceless TH sound!

This activity combined movement, story play, and meaningful speech sound practice all in one, with over 70 productions of “th” achieved in just 15 minutes—a win for all! 🏁✅

Minimal pair cards by

07/10/2025

One of my all-star literacy clients has some BIG feelings about writing—it’s a tough area for him, so I’m always sure to bring play into our spelling practice to make it feel fun and motivating.

💡This week, he had his own idea for an activity, and I was all in! He used my Bluey swimming pool and the wooden chips we usually use as phonological awareness manipulatives to invent a brand new game — and he was so proud of it! He explicitly asked me to “share it with [my] people,” complete with instructions, just in case you’d like to make your own. 💙

Here’s how it works:
🏊‍♂️ Bluey and Bingo race across the pool to reach the magic surfboard under the cabana.
🎯 The spinner tells you how many spaces to move (1, 2, or 3), or you might:

0️⃣ Lose a turn
🍩 Land on a doughnut and float ahead 2 spaces (but only if you’re in the pool! ☝️)
💦 🔫Land on a water squirter and send your opponent back 2 spaces
🔤 The letters in B-L-U-E-Y each count as one space once in the pool, and so does the diving board.

We spent the first part of our session setting up the game, tweaking the rules, and practicing explaining it. This was a great way to ease into what became a very productive and successful session reviewing r-controlled vowels, final ‘y,’ and consonant+le syllables!

Just a little reminder of how powerful (and productive!) child-led therapy can be when kids feel ownership and joy! 💙

05/28/2025

📅Now scheduling for summer months ☀️(June 23-August 28) and into next school year! 🚌
To inquire, you can either:
👨🏻‍💻Visit www.bespoke-speech-therapy.com and complete the Contact form
📧Email cassandra@bespoke-speech-therapy.com

05/22/2025

“Ms. Cassie, you’re cooked.” Who needs Urban Dictionary when you work with Gen Alpha? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sink ‘N Sand is by far the most requested game among upper elementary-aged students in my office!

05/16/2025

New review!! I still have plenty of summer availability for speech, language, and reading services! Email cassandra@bespoke-speech-therapy.com to schedule a consult call!

04/30/2025

In structured literacy, we don’t just spell words—we defend our responses with the supporting spelling rule(s) into the tulip microphone!
🌷👩🏻‍⚖️

04/29/2025

🧠 How fun is this brain cap?! I came across this fantastic free printable from —a retired homeschooler who generously shares tons of absolutely FREE educational resources/downloads on her website (seriously, it almost doesn’t seem fair!).

According to her page, “This humble little hat has been distributed around the world (even in some major science museums!) and translated into many different languages.” So cool!

It’s especially helpful for our friends with executive functioning challenges who benefit from visual and tangible reminders to [physically!] “tap tap” their prefrontal cortex—the brain’s control center—to summon:

🛑 Inhibitory control– “Stop, think, then act!”
🎯 Goal-setting & planning – “What’s our plan? What steps do we need to get there?”
🔄 Cognitive flexibility – “Hmm… is there another way we could try this?”
💡 Working memory – “Let’s pop this on our mental sticky note and come back to it!”

It can serve as a lighthearted way to encourage our self-doubting kids (the “I can’t do it! 😩” types) to give their brains a loving squeeze to help persevere through challenging or non-preferred tasks! 💪

It’s also a super engaging way to introduce how the brain controls speech, language, auditory processing, and reading--with Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area, the pre-motor and motor cortices, and the auditory cortex all featured! Imagine explaining these speech areas to a child who stutters or exploring the neurological pathways to reading while supporting a child with dyslexia!

Plus, wearing it is just…fun?! 🧠🧢 🤷🏻‍♀️