BONUS: A Sneak Peek at Our Free Training with Everyday Speech

Show Notes:

In this bonus episode of SLP Coffee Talk, Hallie chats with Brittany Brunell, SLP and founder of Everyday Speech, all about a topic we don’t talk about enough – bullying – and how we, as SLPs, can help our students find their voice. Brittany shares how Everyday Speech grew from her own need for fun, engaging materials into a go-to platform for social skills and SEL lessons. They dig into how bullying really shows up in our sessions, why teaching self-advocacy matters, and simple ways to build confidence and teamwork with other educators. 

Grab your favorite mug and tune in. This one’s full of real talk, quick wins, and ideas you can use with your students tomorrow. And don’t forget to join Hallie and Brittany for their free live training on bullying and self-advocacy on October 21 at 1 p.m. ET. You can sign up at everydayspeech.com or DM Hallie with the word “bully” to grab the link.

Sign up to attend live or have the recording sent to you. Everyone who registers will get some great freebies from Brittany and Hallie.

Here's what we learned:

  • Bullying can show up in ways we don’t always spot—but SLPs can help. 
  • Visuals and video modeling make social skills click faster. 
  • Teaching self-advocacy builds real confidence and connection. 
  • Teamwork with teachers and counselors makes all the difference. 
  • Small shifts in your sessions can create big wins for students.

RESOURCES

Learn more about Brittany Brunell: 

Learn more about Hallie Sherman  and SLP Elevate: 

JOKE OF THE WEEK:

Q: What kind of key doesn't open locks?

A: A monkey.

Where We Can Connect: 

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TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00 Hallie: Hey there SLP friends, it is me Hallie popping in here with a super exciting announcement. My brand new book, Secondary SLP Roadmap is officially launching and we are celebrating in style. Join me for a virtual book launch party on Wednesday, November 5th at 8 p.m. Eastern time. We will have prizes, games, giveaways, and of course, tons of laughs and inspiration for all my fellow secondary SLPs.

00:00:28 Hallie: It is totally free to attend, but you need to save your spot. Head to speechtimefun.com/launchparty to register right now. If you work with grades 4 through 12, you do not want to miss this. It is again, speechtimefun.com/launchparty. Grab your favorite mug, bring your uh speechy besties and come celebrate with me. I cannot wait to see you there.

00:01:02 Hallie: Welcome to SLP Coffee Talk, the podcast designed exclusively for speech language pathologists who work with older students, grades 4 through 12. I am your host, Hallie Sherman, your SLP behind Speech Time Fun, the Speech Retreat Conference, and the SLP Elevate Membership. And I'm thrilled to bring you conversations, strategies, and insights that will give you the jolt of inspiration that you need. Whether you're tuning in during your morning commute, on a break in between sessions, or even during a well-deserved relaxation time. I am here for you each and every week. Let's do this SLPs.

00:01:42 Hallie: Hey, hey, and welcome to another episode of SLP Coffee Talk. Today is a bonus episode because I have a free training coming up next week with the guest I have here on the show. So Brittany Brunell, welcome to the show.

00:01:58 Brittany: Hi, thanks so much for having me.

00:02:00 Hallie: Tell everyone listening, they might have heard of Everyday Speech, but they might not have heard of you. So tell everyone listening a little bit about you and Everyday Speech and what you guys are doing these days.

00:02:11 Brittany: Yeah, sure. I'm a speech language pathologist by my background and I founded Everyday Speech, I can't believe it, 13 years ago at this point. So I was working in the school. I was doing more and more social skills groups. I was working with high schoolers. I just… I think classic story of I couldn't find the materials that I needed and that my students were going to find fun and engaging. So I thought, what if I just created them? So that's where we started.

00:02:36 Brittany: We have a social skills curricula. And primarily it's video based. So we use video modeling and evidence-based practice as kind of the foundation of the curricula. And then, because it's been so many years now we've built up the platform, it's videos, it's games, it's worksheets. We want it to be truly no prep and just have everything that you could ever want and need for your social skills groups. And then we even expanded to create support for all tiers. So we have a tier one whole class lessons for counselors, social workers, anyone going in and doing more of the social emotional foundation work. So… yeah, we're busy, busy. We're always adding more materials every month of the school year. So yeah, just making sure everyone has all the resources they need.

00:03:15 Hallie: I love that. It's so awesome. I can totally relate to not having the materials you needed. So making it happen. I love that finding a need, finding a gap in the resources for SLPs and making it happen and bringing something to life. So if you guys haven't seen our posts or emails about our training, it's all about working on bullying in speech. Because we know bullying happens in schools, but I want to know from you, Brittany, and your thoughts, what is something that most SLPs don't realize about how it might show up in our sessions or how it might apply to us?

00:03:54 Brittany: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think just what we could all kind of understand and thinking back is just kind of the self-esteem piece. And I felt like when I was working in the schools, I was a little bit surprised just by like so closely my working relationship had to be with the counselors, the adjustment counselors, the school psych. I feel like I was lucky that we really could be hand in hand. And I actually split all of my social skills groups with the school psych. And so we really were just… I feel like we were working hand in hand and I learned a ton too, I think just about how to provide that emotional support. So I think that's something that again, like that hit to the self esteem can show up in different ways and just making sure that you're always, yeah, you're like in lockstep with the entire team. I think that's something that's super, super helpful too to be thinking about.

00:04:41 Hallie: I love that because I know when I decided to work in the schools, that was one of the reasons why I loved it because it wasn't us on a island by ourselves. It really is a team approach. Like it's not just when we're sitting at the IEP table, it is really all the people working with that student. And people think to go to the counselor first when it comes to bullying and things like that. But what maybe might SLPs be surprised to hear like, what is our role?

00:05:07 Brittany: Absolutely. Yeah. And something that we've built out in our lesson units, I would say we put a lot of effort in the last three years is building out our self-advocacy units and just making sure that because we are really… we can help students find that voice and give them those strong foundational skills of communicating, thinking about the different types of communication and the times that you're going to want to be more assertive, how to stand up for yourself, how to have the words to for all of… asking for help. Who do you go to for help? I mean, that is just pure basic communication skills.

00:05:38 Hallie: I love that. We've seen many students in our careers thrive once they build that social communication and confidence. What is one shift that SLPs can use to change the way they approach bullying or self-advocacy in their speech room today before they even get to our training session next week so they can see that quick win and realize that it is their role and they can make such a difference with their students.

00:06:05 Brittany: Yeah, absolutely. Well, again, I think having the models and so whether it's a peer model, whether it's a video model, that is just something that – again, when I think about a quick win, like when I saw that truly was the shift for me and my students and why I was like, there's so much power in video here because that's when I saw it. I mean, it was so quick. It was night and day. I felt like there were things that we had been working on for weeks at a time and it just wasn't clicking. But when I found a video or even just made a little video with my iPad, that's what I ended up doing a lot of the time. And just having that, it just clicked.

00:06:38 Brittany: And I think it makes sense. We know visual tools have been, they have such an impact on our students. So I think the visuals paired with video, that's just something that it's… the gains come so quickly. And I think that's something that could really help, again, in modeling those skills that you wanna build around advocacy and building confidence.

00:06:57 Hallie: And something that I resonate with you so much is I love using YouTube videos and videos in my speech room for working on any skill. And it's funny that this week alone, I was watching a TV show with my seven-year-old and the concept of bullying actually happened to come across and she goes… and she asked me about a scenario that happened at recess. And she goes, it was just like that. And I'm like, yeah. Like she didn't put the word bullying to that situation until she saw the episode of it happening to someone else and it was labeled that. Like they don't have that vocabulary and that pairing and it really helps to see it among someone else to then recognize it when it's happening to them.

00:07:38 Brittany: Yes, absolutely. So yeah, those models of the scenarios too, I think especially for kids and bullying, I think it can get a little tricky. I know even with my five year old, I'm having a really tough time right now having him just trying to understand well, what is different about maybe I have just like a tough interaction with a kid and we're not getting along or we're having a playground dispute. And what is the difference between that and bullying?

00:08:04 Brittany: So I think the more you can show the different scenarios. I love just behavior mapping and modeling out or even just writing it out on a whiteboard of like, okay, this is the scenario. Is it bullying? Like let's do the checklist. Like, is it happening repeatedly? Is it over time? Is there the intention to take away power from a kid? So just like you really making that distinction super clear, I think is just really helpful. Because again, I think it can be very tricky between what's teasing, what's bullying.

00:08:34 Hallie: I had that same conversation. I was like, what was happening to you was actually not bullying. But yes, it might have happened a lot. But also, it's your interpretation of what was going on, not really what was going on. But did you have any aha moments or success stories with your own students in your career? Like when you had some dialogues and interactions with students in these scenarios?

00:08:56 Brittany: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, any time that I found students were taking the language that I was using and then they were using it in their own life, that for me is the biggest aha because I feel like they've really internalized it. And some of the best stories I can think back of is at the meetings with parents of just the parents saying, they're now teaching me. I remember I had a student who was kind of going around the table at dinner time and telling the parents and their own siblings, I'm like, oh, well, you didn't use your conversation stoppers right now, or you're not using Think It or Say It. And so maybe that's something you really should have just kept in your head and not said.

00:09:36 Brittany: And so that's why I feel like when they can take those concepts and either teach someone else or just use them in their own way, if kids are saying, I used my self-controller today, that just to me, it's so powerful and I think really just shows how helpful that shared language can be.

00:09:50 Hallie: Love that. And I think, you know, not only should students know that they can always come to us and that we can help them, it was really important for us to advocate ourselves to the other educators in the building and administrators that we need to be included when our students are in situations. I'll never forget, I was going to the bathroom and thank God my bladder had to go at that exact moment. Because I happened to see one of my students in the assistant principal's office. And he happened to have a situation on the playground.

00:10:24 Hallie: He happened to be a stutterer and he was asking to go to the bathroom and a colleague that wasn't aware of his difficulties might've said some things that was not appropriate. And granted they were bringing the counselors to help him, but I was like, no one thought to bring me into this situation. And making sure that people know that like, we need to be brought into that conversation when things happen to our students and we can assist in those situations.

00:10:54 Brittany: Yeah, absolutely. That's so important too. Yeah. That's another thing. I think again, just like being in lockstep with your teammates, the entire team and just making sure – yeah. I feel like I went out of my way to just make the rounds and just make sure that I could be part of… bring me in. Please don't hesitate. I would just go I feel like at lunchtime and do checks and just do, with my students that I knew needed that extra support. I'm just gonna take it upon myself to do these checks and check in and make sure that I'm getting the updates for everything. Because yeah, I do think there's so many little moments like that that we can be helpful in supporting.

00:11:29 Hallie: If an SLP is listening right now and is thinking, I wanna help my students with this, but I don't even know where to start, what is something they're gonna walk away from from our free training next week?

00:11:40 Brittany: Yeah, absolutely. Well, you're going to get samples and freebies. So that I always want to make sure when we have our monthly webinars that people have that. That was my biggest takeaway when I went to PD. I was very sad if I was walking away with nothing or if I was walking away with ideas that I was like, right now I have to go make those all myself. So we always want people to walk away with you have some sample materials, you're going to have a video, you're going to have a handout. So again, just having those tools readily available. And then you're just going to learn more ways to apply these frameworks to everything that we're going to be talking about. so again, hopefully it's just very, very tangible and practical strategies.

00:12:18 Hallie: I love it. Awesome. So where can everyone learn more about this training? I mean, of course we're going to have links in the show notes, but where can they go to sign up and yeah.

00:12:28 Brittany: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So just www.everydayspeech.com is our site. So we have a link there to webinars you can sign up. It is October 21st. And then you could follow us on Instagram. Again, we're trying to just have the really practical fun tips and resources there. So yeah, that's where you can find us.

00:12:46 Hallie: And also if you guys send me a DM that says bully, I will send you the link to register as well. So it's automatically set up. So you send me a message with the word bully, I'll send you a link. And if they can't show up live, what is available for them?

00:13:01 Brittany: Absolutely. Yeah, you can get the recording sent to you absolutely, even if you sign up. Or if you want to just find it on our site afterwards, we have the link to the recordings there as well.

00:13:10 Hallie: Okay so if you guys love this episode and want to learn more of how you can help your students and ways to incorporate bullying and advocacy in how to tackle those things in your speech room, definitely make sure you attend this free training next week. it is on Tuesday the 21st at 1 p.m. Eastern time. I cannot wait to see you guys there. So again, either head to Everyday Speech site, check us on social media, Instagram, or again, you can send me a DM that says Bully and I will send you guys a link. Brittany, where can everyone just learn more about you and everything you have to offer?

00:13:44 Brittany: Yeah, same. Just in our Instagram. It's just Everyday Speech and same, just our everydayspeech.com. I mean, we have a blog, we share freebies there as well. We have a free 30 day trial for Everyday Speech because I just wanted to make sure that if you are getting our platform that the materials are helpful and relevant to your students. So anybody can try us out for free for 30 days. And again, just making sure you're getting a lot of use out of it and that your students are really loving the materials.

00:14:08 Hallie: Awesome. Thank you so, so much. I always end my episodes with a joke because jokes build rapport and they're just a lot of fun. So what kind of key doesn't open locks?

00:14:21 Brittany: I don't know.

00:14:23 Hallie: A monkey.

00;14:26 Hallie: They're corny dad jokes guys. If you like them, take credit for them. If your students don't like them, you can blame me. It is okay. All right. Thank you so, so much, Brittany. I can't wait to be live with you on October 21st and until next episode, which is – not next week, but just on Monday guys, cause this is a bonus episode. Stay out of trouble.

00:14:52 Hallie: Thanks so much for tuning in to another episode of SLP Coffee Talk. It means the world to me that you're tuning in each and every week and getting the jolt of inspiration you need. You can find all of the links and information mentioned in this episode at my website, speechtimefun.com. Don't forget to follow the show so you don't miss any future episodes. And while you're there, it would mean the world to me if you would take a few seconds and leave me an honest review. See you next week with another episode full of fun and inspiration from one SLP to another. Have fun, guys.

00:15:35 Hallie: Hey there SLP, I have a quick question for you. What if you could have just one book on your shelf that actually gets the challenges of working with middle school and high school students? Well, it's here. Well, actually the pre-order is here, but hey, I'm so excited to let you know that my brand new book, The Secondary SLP Guide is available for pre-order. And when you pre-order, you get an exclusive bonus that you won't wanna miss.

00:16:05 Hallie: It is packed with real talk strategies, quick tips and inspiration that you can use with your middle school and high school students all year long. This is the perfect book for a book club, a grad student group, or just flipping through when you're stuck and in a IEP writing spiral. So head to speechtimefun.com/preorder or head to my Instagram and send me a DM with the word pre-order and I will send you the link so you can pre-order now. And I cannot wait for you to get your hands on this book in November but the sooner you grab it the better the bonus.

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