Hard to believe that in some places (like Arizona), summer vacation is coming to an end! Whether that brings up excitement, relief, and/or a little sadness, we always say that all feelings are allowed :) 

If your family is anything like ours, the summer has much less structure than the school year. That is totally ok! But it means that the first few weeks of school can be a tough transition. Waking up earlier, packing lunches, getting everyone dressed and out the door... it's a lot to keep track of! Today, we are sharing three tips to help you with this transition. 

1) Start working toward a functional sleep schedule.

Summers are all about late nights! Again, no judgement over here. If your child has been going to bed later than their "school bedtime," you will want to start slowly working their sleep time up. 

There are different ways to do this, depending on how much time you have. If you have a few weeks, you can slowly move their sleep time by small increments, like 10-15 minut...

Does your child struggle with writing? If so, you are not alone! When kids come to my (Katie's) office for testing, they are usually happy to play with toys and look at pictures... until I get out a pencil and tell them we are going to write! Writing can be challenging for so many reasons.

I constantly talk with parents who are stressed and overwhelmed every time their child brings home a writing assignment. Don’t worry, we are here to help you understand why this is happening and how you can support your child! 

Writing and language are connected

There is a strong link between writing and language. In many ways, writing is the academic form of speaking, so children who have a language disorder are much more likely to struggle with writing. One longitudinal research study revealed that “among children with speech and language impairment, the cumulative incidence of a writing disorder was 61.4% for boys and 55.1% for girls at age 19 years” (Katusic et al., 2009).

If you are worrie...

Let’s take a trip down memory lane…

I (Katie) have been a speech language pathologist for almost nine years, but I remember my first few months like they happened yesterday. Fresh out of graduate school, working in a large private practice, I was closer in age to some of my clients than I was to their parents… and it definitely showed! Being in my mid-20’s without any children of my own, it was incredibly intimidating to do parent training. Unfortunately for my 26-year-old self, working in private practice means that parents are generally highly involved in the therapy process, so hiding in my office wasn’t an option!

It honestly took me a long time to truly feel comfortable giving parents feedback. Thankfully, I had joined a practice that had several experienced clinicians, and they shared their best strategies for getting parents on board with the therapy process. Over the years, I began to actually enjoy having parents in my office (no hiding needed!), and I learned how much fast...

Your child is having difficulty focusing and seems constantly distracted by the smallest things. Homework and morning routines take hours to complete. Your child is rarely able to stay seated at dinner or at a desk, interrupts constantly, blurts out funny comments at the most inconvenient times, and climbs literally everything in sight. After years of concerns from yourself and teachers, you finally make the decision to seek out an evaluation and treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, after a quick google search in your area for specialists who diagnose and treat ADHD, it becomes clear that there are too many options. Hello, overwhelm and confusion! In this blog post, I am going to provide you with a little information on ADHD, why a comprehensive evaluation is important, and advantages/drawbacks of various specialists who diagnose and treat ADHD.

What is ADHD?

Before I get into answering the question of which specialist to choose, let’s first disc...