De Facto Leaders

Nov 20 2024 189 ep. 50 mins 40
De Facto Leaders Podcast artwork

On the De Facto Leaders podcast, host Dr. Karen Dudek-Brannan helps pediatric therapists and educators become better leaders, so they can make a bigger impact with their services. With over 15 years of experience supporting school-age kids with diverse learning needs, Dr. Karen shares up-to-date evidence-based practices, her own experiences and guest interviews designed to help clinicians, teachers, and aspiring school leaders feel more confident in the way they serve their students and clients. She’ll cover a range of topics designed to help you support students' emotional and academic growth and set kids up for success in adulthood, including how to support language, literacy, executive functioning, and how to help IEP teams working together to support kids across the day. Whether you want to learn more effective strategies for your therapy session or classroom, be a more influential leader on your team, or find creative ways to use your skills to advance in your career, Dr. Karen has you covered.

  Education
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


A behind-the-scenes look at EdTech startups and curriculum companies (with Ross Romano)

Nov 20 2024 69 mins  
Many of my colleagues working in the public sector are skeptical of companies selling products to school districts. I’ve felt some of this skepticism myself as I’ve seen certain approaches gain traction because they’re well-marketed (yet not evidence-based). So it’s understandable to me that people would question the motives of companies selling products; especially in the

Reframing the purpose of social narratives, video modeling, and social skills lesson plans

Nov 13 2024 48 mins  
Many people treat social skills groups as if they’re the complete package, when in fact they’re just one part of a bigger service plan. When we “lesson plan” we can’t think of our intervention as something that starts and ends with a 20-minute therapy session. Instead, we should think of it as a “planning” or a “priming” session. That’s why one of the very first

Scaffolding syntax and semantics for non-readers and redefining life skills

Nov 06 2024 38 mins  
Syntactic use is considered an “academic” skill that’s useful for reading comprehension and writing, but the impact of sentence comprehension goes way beyond school.Our ability to comprehend messages at the word and sentence level in oral and written language has a huge impact on our ability to function.So when clinicians ask me, “Should I focus on syntax, or should I focus

Dynamic Assessment: Evaluations are a process, not a test (with Destiny Johnson)

Oct 30 2024 51 mins  
I regularly hear from therapists who ask me questions about how to evaluate language in a way that gives detailed, meaningful, and accurate information.Most people know standardized tests only show a small fraction of what we need to know when it comes to language and cognition, yet many clinicians still don’t consistently utilize a complete portfolio evaluation. A lot barriers g

Supporting multilingual students and taking part in state and national advocacy work (with Puja Goel and Prabhu Eswaran)

Oct 23 2024 62 mins  
Language evaluations are challenging enough; but when we’re evaluating multilingual and bilingual students, they become even more complex. When clinicians ask me about language evaluations, the questions are typically:What tools/protocols can I use? Who can I go to for help? How can I advocate for change if current policies don’t support best practices?That’s why I invited Pr

Is it a behavior issue or a language and literacy issue?

Oct 16 2024 30 mins  
In this interview, I revisit conversations surrounding the school-to-confinement pipeline, giving students’ the language skills to understand their rights, the link between language, literacy and “behavior problems”, and how to get started with policy work. I share my commentary on the following:✅ Why students who’ve received repeated detentions or suspensions should be s

Defining educational technology and considering homework equity issues

Oct 09 2024 36 mins  
In this interview, I revisit conversations surrounding the use of the term “dyslexia” in the schools, the use of technology, and equitable access to books. I share my commentary on the following:✅Saying “dyslexia” in the schools: Both the positive and negative consequences✅Educational technology definitions: What “counts” as technology? What’s the difference betwe

Morphology hierarchies, etymology, and reframing the “joy” of reading.

Oct 02 2024 22 mins  
How much do we need to know about morphology and etymology to effectively help students? Is etymology an essential component to spelling and reading instruction?Will phonics instruction bore students? Is exposure to interesting books enough to foster a love of reading for people who don’t have solid word decoding skills?I revisit my conversations with Anna Gieger (Episode 177) an

Leveraging read-alouds to build language and getting started with advocacy work (with Dr. Molly Ness)

Sep 25 2024 56 mins  
Many skeptics of the science of reading are concerned that structured approaches will bore kids and make it less likely they’ll enjoy reading. These concerns are unfounded for a number of reasons. First, structured approaches help reach students who don’t learn through implicit learning (which is a lot of kids).It’s hard to develop a love of something when you’ve failed rep

Developmental language disorder: Impacts on literacy and life beyond school (with Dr. Karla McGregor)

Sep 20 2024 61 mins  
Students who meet the criteria for developmental language disorder (DLD) are often categorized as “speech only” in the school systems. In many cases, these students qualify for special education services under the eligibility category of “speech and language impaired”, which puts speech-language pathologists who serve as case managers in a difficult position ethically. Some