Mistakes I made and points of clarity (working memory, attention, positive reinforcement)

I’m continually learning and developing my understanding of language and executive functioning, as well as how to help teams work together to better support these skills. That’s why I recently decided to audit some of the content I have floating around the internet. In truth, I have a lot out there because I like to get content into the hands of clinicians who need it as quickly as possible, which is why I do a lot of impromptu videos and run a lean operation. And since I’m human I had (and likely still do) have a lot of content out there that quite frankly isn’t my best work. Plus, I’ve learned a lot these past few years about the research, as well as how to communicate it to a large audience. That’s why for episode 93 of “De Facto Leaders” podcast, I wanted to highlight a couple topics I’ve discussed in the past that needed some additional clarification. I pulled a couple of topics that need continued explanation because they’re complex and nuanced, and I wanted to make sure I clearly communicated my stance and understanding of them. I also pulled a couple topics where I felt previous information I released was incorrect, unclear, or misleading. Specifically, I address the following that I’ve discussed on previous episodes: ✅Does it matter if your therapist is neurotypical vs. neurodivergent?  ✅Can you improve your attention span? ✅How should clinicians handle the medication discussion with ADHD? ✅Does positive reinforcement help, or is it “forced compliance”? ✅Is there evidence that we can “improve” working memory? In this episode, I mentioned my Ultimate Guide to Sentence Structure. In this free guide I share the challenging sentence types that result in comprehension and processing difficulties; plus how we can improve these skills to support reading and writing. You can download it here.  I also mentioned the School of Clinical Leadership, a program for SLPs, psychologists, social workers, and other related service providers who want to support K-12 students. The program is for you if you want to support students in the areas of language, literacy, executive functioning, mental health, behavior, and independent skills needed for academic, vocational, and social situations. If you’ve been working on any of these areas, but are struggling to provide the support your students need to generalize skills across the day, then come join us in the School of Clinical Leadership and learn a game plan to lead your IEP team in the right direction. You can learn more about how to become a member here.

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