Collaborative Minds Consulting

09/09/2026

School has started… and sometimes it doesn’t take long for that feeling to creep in:

Something is being missed.

Maybe your child is doing well academically, but struggling to connect with peers. Maybe they hold it together all day and fall apart when they get home. Or maybe you’ve been told they’re a “model student,” their grades are too good, or they’ve tested out of speech services—yet you’re still seeing challenges with communication, friendships, self-advocacy, or regulation.

Standardized test scores don’t always tell the whole story—and your child is more than a number.

At Collaborative Minds Consulting, Independent Educational Evaluations (IEEs) in pragmatic language and social communication take a deeper look at how your child communicates and navigates the real world.

We look beyond the test score to consider things like masking, communication breakdowns, behavior as communication, peer relationships, self-advocacy, and the differences between what may be seen at school and what families experience at home.

If your gut is telling you there’s more to the story, it may be time to take a closer look. 🫶🏻

Currently scheduling IEEs for ages 5–18 in Suffolk + Nassau Counties, NY.

👉 Schedule your FREE consultation here:
https://www.collaborativemindsconsulting.com/iees
or email
[email protected]

09/09/2026

“Oh, you’re a speech teacher?”

If you’re an SLP, you’ve probably heard that one before. 😏

But speech is only one part of what Speech-Language Pathologists do.

SLPs are trained to assess and support communication and swallowing across the lifespan.

Yes, we may help someone produce a difficult speech sound.

But we may also support a child who has difficulty understanding language, expressing their ideas, navigating conversations, communicating with AAC, advocating for themselves, interpreting language in different situations, or organizing their thoughts into words.

Our work can include speech sounds, motor speech, expressive and receptive language, social communication, pragmatic language, AAC, fluency, voice, cognitive communication, feeding, and swallowing.

And especially in schools, our work frequently overlaps with executive functioning, literacy, regulation, sensory needs, relationships, and access to learning.

For me, one of the most important parts of being an SLP is remembering that our goal isn’t simply to make someone sound a particular way.

It’s to help people have access to communication that works for them.

That may mean spoken language. AAC. Gestures. Writing. Signs. Scripts. A combination of communication methods.

Because speech and communication are not the same thing.

And sometimes the most important thing an SLP can do isn’t teach someone how to communicate differently.

It’s helping the people around them learn how to listen differently.

💬 What’s something you didn’t realize fell within an SLP’s scope of practice?

09/08/2026

In just a few minutes, you can help federal decision-makers understand what speech-language therapy has meant to you or someone you love.
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No need to write a letter. No need to understand reimbursement or federal policy. Just answer a few questions and tell us your story and we’ll take it from there.
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The SPEAK Project will turn your responses into a personalized advocacy letter and, with your authorization, submit it on your behalf directly to the federal officials making decisions about speech-language pathology reimbursement.
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Our goal is BIG: thousands of patient and family stories in front of federal decision-makers.
It only takes a few minutes. Tell your story. Add your voice. Help protect access to speech-language therapy.

You don't have to be an SLP to help. Learn how patients, families, colleagues, and supporters can help strengthen the SPEAK Project and SLP advocacy.

09/04/2026

Think about how many directions and questions a child hears during a typical school day.

Sit down. Get your folder. Put that away. Look at your schedule. What comes next?

That’s a lot of language asking a child to do, answer, remember, or respond.

Declarative Language gives us another way to communicate.

Rather than always telling someone what to do or asking for an answer, we can share information about what we notice.

Instead of:
“Get your things. It’s time for speech.”

Try:
“It looks like speech is next on your schedule.”

We’ve given the student useful information without immediately telling them what to do with it.

And this is where executive functioning comes in.

Declarative language can create opportunities to practice noticing important information, shifting attention, planning, problem solving, organizing, and figuring out what comes next.

Instead of doing all of the thinking for the child, our language can help support their own thinking.

But declarative language isn’t about disguising a command.

If I’m thinking, “I’ll say it differently so they’ll still do what I want,” I’m still focused on getting a particular response.

Linda K. Murphy, SLP, developed the Declarative Language approach and describes shifting from trying to get a response toward giving useful information.

And sometimes direct language is exactly what someone needs. The person, their regulation, processing needs, and the situation all matter.

Sometimes supporting independence means saying a little less and giving someone more space to notice, think, problem solve, and respond.

💬 Try it today. What direction could you turn into a statement that gives information instead?

09/02/2026

The beginning of the school year brings new classrooms, new people, new expectations, new routines and a whole lot of change.

And sometimes, what adults notice first is behavior.

A student refuses to enter the classroom.

A child puts their head down when work is presented.

A student suddenly becomes silly or disruptive.

A child covers their ears, leaves the group, pushes materials away or stops responding.

It’s easy to focus on what we can see.

But behavior is often only the outside layer of what’s happening.

Behavior can give us information about what a child may be experiencing, needing or struggling to communicate.

And sometimes, behavior emerges when communication breaks down.

A child may not have the words, language, communication system or access to communication they need in that moment to tell us:

“I don’t understand.”

“This is too much.”

“I need help.”

“I need a break.”

“Something doesn’t feel right.”

Maybe the classroom is overwhelming.

Maybe they don’t understand what is expected.

Maybe the work feels too difficult.

Maybe their sensory system needs something different.

Maybe they’re anxious about an unfamiliar routine.

Maybe they need movement, connection, predictability, processing time or a break.

And sometimes, they may not know themselves.

That’s important too.

Behavior doesn’t always have a neat explanation or an intentional message attached to it. But it can still give us valuable information.

So this school year, before asking:

“How do we get them to stop?”

Try getting curious first.

“What might be happening underneath what I’m seeing?”

“Has communication broken down somewhere?”

“What support might make it easier for this child to communicate what they need?”

Because when we only respond to the behavior we see, we may miss the communication, regulation or support need underneath it.

Behavior is something to understand, not simply something to manage.

💬 What would change in our classrooms if curiosity came before correction?

08/31/2026

What if a child learns “Time to go!” before they understand time, to, and go as three separate words?

That’s one way to begin understanding Gestalt Language Processing, or GLP.

Some people process and develop language in larger chunks, often called gestalts, rather than beginning with individual words and building them into phrases.

A child might hear “Time to go!” repeatedly during the experience of leaving. Instead of initially processing each individual word, the entire phrase may become connected with the experience or meaning of leaving.

Later, pieces of familiar language can begin to be broken apart, mixed, and recombined in new ways as language becomes increasingly flexible and self-generated.

This is also why our recent conversations about echolalia and scripting matter.

For some gestalt language processors, repeated or scripted language may be part of how they process, learn, and use language. A familiar phrase may carry meaning even when the words don’t seem to fit the situation from our perspective.

Rather than immediately correcting the words or asking for a different response, we can get curious about the message.

What might this phrase mean to this person?

Where did they hear it?

What was happening when they originally learned it?

What are they communicating right now?

When we understand how someone processes language, we can stop focusing only on how their communication sounds and start listening more closely to what it may mean.

Sometimes we have to understand the whole before we can understand the parts.

💬 Have you heard the term Gestalt Language Processing before?

08/28/2026

“Wait...isn’t scripting just echolalia?”

Not exactly, although the two can overlap.

In our last Words Matter post, we talked about echolalia, the repetition of words, phrases, or sounds someone has heard before.

Scripting is when someone uses familiar or rehearsed language they’ve learned from previous experiences, conversations, movies, shows, videos, books, or other sources.

For example, a child might repeatedly hear:

“Hi! How are you? I’m fine, thanks!”

They may later use that entire familiar exchange when greeting someone, even before the other person has had a chance to answer.

That script may provide a predictable way to navigate a social interaction when creating new language in the moment is harder.

But scripts aren’t always about conversation.

Someone might quote a line from a favorite movie when they’re excited, repeat a familiar phrase when they’re anxious, rehearse what they’re going to say before entering a situation, or use familiar language because it feels regulating and predictable.

And just like echolalia, a script may carry meaning that isn’t immediately obvious to the listener.

So rather than getting stuck on:

“Is this scripting or echolalia?”

A more useful question may be:

“What is this language doing for this person?”

Is it helping them communicate? Connect? Prepare? Express an emotion? Navigate uncertainty? Regulate?

When we become curious about the purpose behind the words, we learn much more than we would by simply labeling the repetition.

Familiar words can carry very personal meaning.

💬 Have you noticed someone use a familiar script in a way that had a completely different meaning than the original words?

08/26/2026

You’ve probably heard echolalia before, even if you didn’t know what it was called.

A child repeats the question you just asked.

They use a familiar line from a favorite show.

They say a phrase they heard hours, days, or even weeks ago.

That’s echolalia.

Echolalia is the repetition of words, phrases, or sounds someone has heard before. It may happen immediately after hearing something or it may show up much later.

But here’s the important part:

Repetition doesn’t mean there’s no meaning behind it.

Imagine a child frequently hears “Time to go!” when it’s time to leave the house.

Later, they’re at the playground and want to leave. They say:

“Time to go!”

It may sound like they’re simply repeating a familiar phrase, but those words may now carry a message: “I want to leave.”

Echolalia can serve many purposes. It may help someone communicate a want or need, express an emotion, process what they’ve heard, connect a current experience to a memory, regulate, or participate in an interaction.

The words may not always make sense to us at first.

That’s where curiosity comes in.

Instead of immediately trying to stop, correct, or replace echolalia, we can pause and wonder:

Where have I heard this phrase before?

What’s happening right now?

What might this phrase mean to this person?

Sometimes understanding communication requires us to listen beyond the repeat.

Repetition may be the clue. Meaning is what we’re looking for.

💬 Have you ever discovered that a repeated phrase meant something completely different than you initially thought?

08/24/2026

Have you ever heard someone say one thing but known they meant something completely different?

That’s pragmatic language at work.

Pragmatic language is our ability to use and understand language in different situations and with different people. It helps us make sense of not only the words someone uses, but the meaning behind them.

Think about the phrase, *“That’s great.”*

Said with a smile after hearing good news, it probably means exactly that.

Said with a sigh after something goes wrong, it may mean something entirely different.

Pragmatic language can involve understanding humor, sarcasm, implied meaning, another person’s intentions or perspective, knowing what information a listener might need, navigating conversations, and recognizing and repairing misunderstandings.

For neurodivergent individuals, some of these unspoken or indirect parts of communication may be interpreted differently. That doesn’t mean we should teach someone to memorize a set of neurotypical “social rules.”

Instead, we can help people understand what may be meant beyond the words themselves, explore different communication styles, navigate misunderstandings, and feel comfortable asking for clarification when something isn’t clear.

Because communication isn’t just about the words we use.

It’s also about understanding what those words mean in the moment.

💬 What should I break down next? Let me know in the comments!