In this episode of Are they 18 yet?™, I talk with my friend and former colleague, Joann Briggs.Joann was a special education teacher in the public school systems for over 30 years, and I had the opportunity to work with her for a good portion of my time as a school speech pathologist.While I always harp on the fact that SLPs can make a huge impact on literacy and language, it really is a team effort. That’s why I wanted to sit down with Joann and share how we were able to work together to serve our elementary caseload in the school systems.If you’re an SLP or a teacher who wants to know how to collaborate to build vocabulary skills, this is a must listen.It’ll also be helpful if you’re a parent and you want to get a better understanding of what happens as your child’s school.In this conversation, Joann shares:✅How to co-teach effectively with general education teachers to serve a special education caseload.✅Her experience going through a lengthy due process hearing with a student on her caseload.✅How SLPs can add value in the teaming process when it comes to language and literacy.✅How to get parents involved in the IEP process to so they feel like valued team members. In this episode, I mention my Ultimate Guide to Sentence Structure.In order to build strong language comprehension needed for reading, writing, and other important life skills, kids need to have a solid understanding of sentence structure.In this guide, I outline common challenging sentence types, how to write goals to target them, and some evidence-based strategies for working on them.You can get a free copy of the Ultimate Guide to Sentence Structure at drkarenspeech.com/sentencestructure. 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 contain some of our old branding. 
We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL and MyFlexLearning. IXL’s comprehensive teaching and learning platform for math, language arts, science, and social studies is accelerating achievement in 95 of the top 100 U.S. school districts. Loved by teachers and backed by independent research from Johns Hopkins University, IXL can help you simplify and streamline technology, reliably meet Tier 1 standards, improve assessment performance, and more. Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.MyFlexLearning is the scheduling platform that helps middle and high schools meet the individual needs of all students. Create and manage time for flex blocks, WIN time, activity periods, RTI, counselor and teacher appointments and much more. And with a built-in accountability tool and reporting features, solve your challenges around getting kids where they need to be and understanding how flex time is spent. Make your flex time work for you. Visit myflexlearning.com/BE to learn more and receive $500 off the first year.