In this episode, we’re joined by literacy expert Dr. Molly Ness, author of Making Words Stick, to unpack the science behind orthographic mapping and what truly effective spelling instruction looks like. If you've ever found yourself wondering whether “irregular” words really exist—or how to teach spelling in a way that actually transfers to reading and writing—this episode is for you.

Dr. Molly Ness is a former classroom teacher, a reading researcher, and a teacher educator. She earned a doctorate in reading education at the University of Virginia, and spent 16 years as an associate professor at Fordham University in New York City. The author of five books, Molly served on the Board of Directors for the International Literacy Association and is a New York state chapter founder of the Reading League. Dr. Ness has extensive experience in reading clinics, consulting with school districts, leading professional development, and advising school systems on research-based reading instruction. She is also the host of the End Book Deserts podcast. In 2024, she founded Dirigo Literacy, a literacy consulting firm supporting schools, districts, and states align with and implement the science of reading.

🔑 Key Topics We Cover:

✅ Why Overusing the Term “Irregular” Leads to Ineffective Practices
Labeling too many words as irregular encourages rote memorization and bypasses opportunities to build deep, transferable decoding skills.

✅ The Least to Most Reliable Ways to Decode Words
Dr. Ness explains the hierarchy of decoding approaches, from unreliable guessing strategies to the most effective use of grapheme–phoneme correspondences and morphemic analysis.

✅ Phonological Representations & Print: Why We Need Both
Orthographic mapping depends on students having clear, accurate phonological representations of words. Dr. Ness emphasizes why instruction should always integrate print with sound-based practice.

✅ Embedding Vocabulary Without Derailing Encoding Work
Learn how to layer vocabulary instruction into decoding and spelling lessons without losing focus—or getting lost in semantic tangents.

✅ Dr. Ness’s 4-Step Process for Teaching Spelling (from Making Words Stick).

Get Dr. Ness’s book “Making Words Stick” here.

Connect with Dr. Ness on Instagram @a_reading_mother

Learn more about Dr. Ness’ other books and advocacy work on her website here.

In this episode, I mention Language Therapy Advance Foundations, my program for SLPs that helps clinicians create a research-based framework for language therapy that supports phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, and orthographic knowledge. You can learn more about the program here.

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

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 do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Ever feel like your school is trying all the “right” strategies—social skills groups, planners, behavior charts—but students still struggle with time management, motivation, and peer relationships?

You’re not alone—and there’s a reason why.

This episode is a clip from my free training, “Create a Research-Based Implementation Plan for your School Team.”

It’s designed for school leaders who want to guide their teams in embedding executive functioning support across both general and special education settings—without burning out staff.

This episode is for you if you’re ready to:
✔️ Help students truly benefit from academic instruction
✔️ Support social-emotional growth alongside learning
✔️ Avoid overwhelming your team with another “initiative”

In the training, I'll reveal:

✅Why social skills groups fall flat—and how to really boost students’ emotional regulation and peer connections.

✅The truth about planners, lists, and behavior charts—and why they’re not improving student’s time management or motivation.

✅The 3 key elements school teams need to support executive functioning across gen ed and special ed—without burning out your staff (in this episode, I share element #1).

This episode is the first half of the training in audio format, but to view the whole training with the video, you can go to drkarendudekbrannan.com/efteams.

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

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 do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In this episode, I interview Connie, a student from the Language Therapy Advance Foundations program. She shares her practical experiences and results achieved with her students.

Key highlights include:

✅ Engaging a Disengaged Student: Connie discusses her strategies for working with a high school student who was bored with therapy, emphasizing the use of engaging books to enhance vocabulary learning.

✅ Time Efficiency: Learn how Connie cut her preparation time in half by implementing the frameworks taught in our program, allowing for more focused and effective sessions.

✅ Achieving Generalization: Connie reports significant progress in several of her students who had previously plateaued, particularly in their ability to generalize syntax skills.

This episode offers actionable insights for language therapists looking to improve engagement and outcomes in their practice.

Ready to elevate your language therapy skills? Join Language Therapy Advance Foundations and start transforming your therapy approach today. Learn more about Language Therapy Advance Foundations here: https://drkarenspeech.com/languagetherapy/

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

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 do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

Many clinicians, educators, and school leaders know they should be working collaboratively, but don’t know how to find time to do it. If you have a friend or colleague who seems to have magical productivity powers, I promise there’s a method to the madness. Most likely, they’ve just gotten really good at a concept I call “asset stacking”. It starts with asking yourself the question, “What can I create now that can save me time or effort later?”

In this third episode in the 3-part clinical leadership, I share how the concept of “asset stacking” can be used by both current and aspiring clinical and educational leaders to make an impact on the systems they’re working in.

Key Points:
✅ Creating a long-term strategic vision for your professional growth
✅ The concept of asset stacking and how to use it to impact systems
✅ Multiple service delivery models that position you as a leader
✅ Developing a master plan that aligns your expertise with system needs

Takeaways:
✅ Asset stacking compounds your influence over time
✅ Your unique combination of skills creates distinctive value
✅ Service delivery innovation positions you as a thought leader

Action Step: Begin your leadership master plan by identifying your unique "stack" of professional assets and one system-level challenge they could address.

In this episode, I mentioned “The School Leader’s Guide to Executive Functioning Support”, a 7-day course to help school leaders launch their executive functioning implementation plan. You can learn more about the course here: https://drkarenspeech.lpages.co/school-leaders-guide-to-executive-functioning-support/

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

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 do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In this second episode in the 3-part clinical leadership series, I explore the 'lesson planning trap'—a common situation where clinicians focus so much on perfecting individual sessions and miss broader opportunities for impact.

I experienced this myself, spending years creating detailed therapy plans while seeing little change at the systems level. Then I realized the importance of distinguishing between planning for individual therapy and planning for effective service delivery. This insight transformed my practice and leadership approach.

Today, I’ll share how you can take your intervention skills and scale them for lasting change in your school or organization.

Key Points:
✅ Applying effective intervention principles to enhance service delivery.
✅ Understanding the difference between therapy planning and service delivery planning.
✅ Introducing scalable protocols that maximize your impact.
✅ Evaluating your current strategies for scalability.
✅ Utilizing intervention principles in team leadership situations.

In this episode, I mentioned “The School Leader’s Guide to Executive Functioning Support”, a 7-day course to help school leaders launch their executive functioning implementation plan. You can learn more about the course here: https://drkarenspeech.lpages.co/school-leaders-guide-to-executive-functioning-support/

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

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 do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.

In this episode, we address the common experience of being overlooked in crucial conversations about the students we serve. Whether you're a clinician or educator who feels unheard while trying to contribute, aspiring to be in a leadership role, or currently in leadership and experiencing impostor syndrome, this discussion challenges you to embrace your role as a leader—regardless of your job title.

We'll start this 3-part clinical leadership series by clarifying some misconceptions about leadership and explore how to change your approach.

Key Points:
✅ Why are important team members excluded from key team decisions about services and programs in schools and other organizations?
✅ How to stay relevant and visible to colleagues so they see you as an asset.
✅ Overcoming three core limiting beliefs:
👉"Leadership is someone else's responsibility."
👉"Decision-making is a privilege."
👉"Only those in power can lead."
✅ How these beliefs hinder successful collaboration.
✅ Steps to view yourself as a leader in your current position.

Takeaways:
✅ Leadership is a mindset, not just a formal role.
✅ Your expertise is invaluable and needed by your team.
✅ Simple actions can significantly boost your visibility and impact.
✅ Every member of an organization can drive change.

In this episode, I mentioned “The School Leader’s Guide to Executive Functioning Support”, a 7-day course to help school leaders launch their executive functioning implementation plan. You can learn more about the course here: https://drkarenspeech.lpages.co/school-leaders-guide-to-executive-functioning-support/

We’re thrilled to be sponsored by IXL.

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 do the following and more:

• Simplify and streamline technology
• Save teachers’ time
• Reliably meet Tier 1 standards
• Improve student performance on state assessments

🚀 Ready to see why leading districts trust IXL for their educational needs? Visit IXL.com/BE today to learn more about how IXL can elevate your school or district.