If you treat speech sound disorders (SSD) and you’re not seeing the gains you expect, this episode is your playbook. We cut through the noise and name the 10 research-informed predictors of slower progress—attention/self-monitoring limits, sensitive temperament, co-occurring language/working-memory load, hearing impairment (fricatives/affricates), motor speech factors, structural constraints (e.g., open bite), low stimulability, later start to intervention, low therapy intensity/irregular attendance, and environmental barriers. Then we pivot hard into the three levers that consistently move outcomes: choosing complex, maximally distinct targets (e.g., SW-blends), delivering dynamic temporal tactile cueing (DTTC-style), and holding the ~80% challenge point to avoid reinforcing error patterns. Concrete therapy examples, parent carryover, and generalization strategies included.

What you’ll learn:

📈How attention and self-monitoring mask progress until generalization “pops”

📈Why a sensitive temperament demands predictability and a responsive start

📈How co-occurring language and limited verbal working memory can look like CAS—but aren’t

📈What hearing loss really means for fricatives/affricates and consonant deletion patterns

📈Practical expectations for motor speech and structural constraints (e.g., open bite)

📈How stimulability with maximal cueing informs prognosis

📈Why start age and habit strength matter for entrenched /r/ and /s/ errors

📈Why frequency > duration for home practice, and how to embed one daily rep

📈The “no-data-during-DTTC” mindset: probe quickly, cue deeply, fade fast

The 3 levers (non-negotiables):

📈Target selection: Complex, maximally distinct clusters (SW > ST/SP/SK) to drive system-wide change.

📈Delivery: DTTC-style, moment-to-moment cueing (choral → fade), with brief probes to verify learning.

📈Challenge point: Keep accuracy near ~80%—high enough to learn, low enough to adapt. If you’re reinforcing errors, pivot.

00:00 Why progress “flatlines” then explodes

03:10 Predictor #1: Attention/self-monitoring

06:20 #2: Sensitive temperament & predictable routines

10:00 #3: Language/working memory vs. “looks like CAS”

14:15 #4: Hearing impairment (HF cues, fricatives/affricates)

17:10 #5: Motor speech considerations

20:05 #6: Structural constraints (open bite, dental)

22:40 #7: Stimulability with maximal cueing

25:00 #8: Older start age, entrenched habits

27:10 #9: Intensity/attendance

28:45 #10: Environmental barriers

30:45 The 3 levers: complex targets, DTTC, 80% challenge point

38:00 One-rep-a-day home carryover that actually sticks

Call to action: Stop reinventing materials. Make your work easy with effective, educationally-rich SSD tools at your fingertips—complex target sentence strips, paragraphs, and movement-literacy activities ready so you can focus on cueing, not prep. 👉 Join the SIS Membership: https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

If you work with children with autism who are minimally speaking, this episode is a must-listen. We’re breaking down why the “Look at” sentence strip has been a total game-changer in my therapy room—and why it consistently helps children begin to speak, connect, and comment on the world around them.

After 25 years of practice, I can tell you this tool does more than encourage speech—it builds neurological pathways for speech to flow. You’ll learn:
✅ The neuroscience behind why repetition and motor consistency matter
✅ How DTTC and “look at” work hand-in-hand to build automaticity
✅ Why “look at” is far more powerful than “I want” for developing joint attention
✅ How to pair high-tech AAC with low-tech sentence strips for best outcomes
✅ The 10 reasons this strip transforms therapy for children with autism

This episode is full of practical insight, real-world examples from my SIS members’ “back porches,” and evidence-based strategies that rewire how we think about early speech intervention.

🎧 Tune in, and then grab your own Look at sentence strip and watch your minimally speaking students light up the room.

💫 Join the SIS Membership today for access to the weekly movement- and literacy-based therapy materials that pair perfectly with this episode—complete with parent emails and ready-to-go Google Slides for your whole group sessions.
👉 https://www.kellyvess.com/sis

Thanks for joining me at today’s drawing board for a better tomorrow, 💚Kelly

Discover how a 2025 Nature autism study transforms early intervention in speech language pathology. Learn how family history, genetics, and executive function shape assessment, therapy planning, and lifelong communication outcomes.

If you work with children with autism, this episode will change how you think about early intervention forever. A major 2025 study published in Nature titled Polygenic and developmental profiles of autism differ by age of diagnosis has revealed that early onset autism and later developing autism are not the same.

This is one of the largest autism studies ever conducted, examining more than 47,000 individuals around the world. The results reshape how we understand autism heritability, family psychiatric history, and executive function development.

In this episode, you will learn:
✅ Why early autism diagnosed before age three is genetically distinct from later developing autism that emerges in middle childhood or adolescence
✅ How family psychiatric history including ADHD, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and substance use predicts later developing autism
✅ Why the DSM 5 removal of the age three cutoff was not only progressive but empirically supported
✅ How this research should change your parent input forms and follow up recommendations
✅ Why executive function including attention, cognitive flexibility, and self regulation is the bridge between prevention and intervention

This study confirms that autism can emerge at any point in development when social and academic demands exceed a child’s executive function capacity. That finding changes everything about how we evaluate, how we plan early intervention, and how we empower families.

If you are ready to move beyond reactive labels toward proactive, capacity building intervention, this episode will show you how to do exactly that.

💡 Join the SIS Membership at https://www.kellyvess.com/sis
to access weekly movement based literacy and language activities that build executive function, the foundation for lifelong communication, learning, and independence.