About four years ago, Gracie and Ashlee joined us to share their experiences growing up with dyslexia. At the time, they were both in high school. Now, they’re college students navigating new academic expectations, greater independence, and the responsibility of deciding when and how to ask for support. In this episode, we bring their separate…
Fall screening reports are starting to come home, but terms like below benchmark, at risk, DIBELS, and i-Ready can leave parents with more questions than answers. What are these assessments actually measuring, and what should happen when the results show that a child may need additional support? In this special episode of More Than Words,…
What if school didn’t have to look the way we’ve always imagined it? In this episode of More Than Words: Treating the Whole Child, Tristen sits down with Joe Casamassima of Fusion Academy to explore the one-to-one school model and how it redefines what learning can look like for students. From personalized pacing to built-in…
Parents today are doing more than ever to support their children, but what happens when all that support starts to feel like too much? In this episode of More Than Words: Treating the Whole Child, Tristen sits down with Casey Pina from Fusion Academy Alexandria to explore a powerful and often overlooked concept: capacity. While…
Starting a conversation with your child’s school can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re unsure how your concerns will be received. In this episode, we talk with Meg Shah about how parents can approach school communication in a way that builds trust, clarity, and true collaboration from the very beginning. Meg shares practical strategies and real-life…
When parents are overwhelmed, stressed, or running on empty, it does not just affect them. It impacts the entire family dynamic. In this episode of More Than Words: Treating the Whole Child, we sit down with therapist Stephanie Kaiser to talk about a topic that often gets overlooked: parent mental health. Instead of focusing only…
In this episode of More Than Words, we take a closer look at what actually happens during an AAC evaluation and why it is much more than choosing a device. Speech-language pathologist Carleton Levert walks us through the full process, from initial referrals and case review to device trials, observations, and recommendations. We also explore…
Psychoeducational evaluations can sound intimidating for families, but they are designed to do something very important: help us understand how a child learns. In this episode of More Than Words: Treating the Whole Child, host Tristen speaks with licensed school psychologist Megan Davis about what psychoeducational evaluations really are and how they help uncover the…
What if supporting speech and language started with the body? In this episode, Tristen is joined by speech-language pathologist and yoga teacher Jennifer Schmid to explore how movement, breath, and regulation can directly support communication. Together, they unpack why a calm, organized body creates better conditions for speech and language learning, how yoga-informed strategies can…
Episode Summary Why does it feel like kids forget instructions the moment they hear them? In this episode of More Than Words, host Tristen is joined by licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Erika Madison to unpack how executive function plays a critical role in memory. Rather than being a true “memory problem,” many everyday struggles with…