Latest / Complex Kids, Simple Solutions / Episode 57- Speech Therapy tips with Kira Howard
Transcript
- Michelle Choairy: Hi everyone. Welcome back to Complex Kids Simple Solutions. I'm so excited to Kyra here today. I have to tell you the story about her. Well, first of all, welcome. ⁓ you for coming on the podcast. I found her on Facebook ⁓ Instagram and all these cool places that were all in social media. And I was watching her, her videos, and is good with kids. And I was looking and I was like, Kira Howard: Thank you. ⁓ Michelle Choairy: I love speech therapists. So I connected with her that way. actually found her and she was super nice to actually come on the podcast. So welcome. Kira Howard: ⁓ thanks. I'm so excited to be here. Michelle Choairy: Yeah. So, well, first of all, I said, she's a speech therapist. so speech therapists, have like a little piece of my heart because started so early. I think the majority of my listeners, know my son has a rare genetic disorder called TBR1. His very first diagnosis was actually childhood apraxia of speech. And so we have been, we've grown up with speech therapists. and he's 12 and he still goes to speech therapy. We're trying to increase it to twice a week outside of school and he still gets twice a week in the school. But anyway, so tell us about you, where you are, what you're doing, how did you get into speech tell us all the good stuff. Kira Howard: Okay, so I live in Utah and I have a small private practice that I run from my home. Just have an own home office here and I see kids two to three times a week. Try to fit in just like around my kids schedules. Basically I have four of my own kids and I've been practicing, let's see, for 15 years. I can't believe it's been that long. Wow. Yeah. 15 years and I've had my home practice for 10 now. I started when my oldest son was 11. Yeah. Michelle Choairy: Yeah. Hahaha! Wow. Kira Howard: So it started as kind of like, just need to use my brain and get out of mom mode and have something to do. Cause I'm like, I've worked so hard for that degree. I just need to use it. And it's kind of morphed into a bigger thing where it's just, I've just seen as my practice has grown, I've just seen a lot of kids with severe phonological disorders and apraxia, which was just so interesting. Cause in grad school, they were like, oh, you're probably never going to see this. And I've like, I just saw my kids where I was like, something is going on. Michelle Choairy: Yeah. Yeah? Yeah? Mm-hmm. Exactly. Kira Howard: And so I started doing, going to more trainings and just to educate myself more on apraxia and, and autism. Those are kind of my two things I work with kids. do, I like using like a floor time approach to autism and kids with apraxia. ⁓ ⁓ it just kind of led to me doing that advanced training that, the, it's, think it's the, what foundation it? ⁓ it's not, I really want to go to their boot long. ⁓ it's the that Edith Fran puts out, the advanced training. You can do like the first four hours online. Michelle Choairy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Apraxia Kids. Apraxia Kids. ⁓ it wasn't? Their boot camp? ⁓ okay. DTTC. Is that the one? Okay. Well. Kira Howard: Yeah, it's the DTC one. Yeah, went, I think it's been two years. Yeah, so I went to that two years ago and that was like, that was so amazing. I loved that. That was so helpful. And I've done a little bit of prompt training. So I'm just constantly trying to like learn more about supporting these kids because I just, they come through my door and I'm like, need to get more educated. I need to figure out more about how to like reach these kids. So it was really born out of like a need. Yeah. Michelle Choairy: Yeah. So. this is the thing, ⁓ Back then, so my son is 12. So back then when we figured this out, we, ⁓ it took a long time to actually get that childhood apraxia speech diagnosis because it's like, he ⁓ doesn't have any sounds, but I'll tell you a quick story because I think that you'll appreciate this. And I don't know if the listeners have heard this or not, but I'm going to tell it anyway. Cause anyway, so my son, Kira Howard: It's hard to get diagnosed. Yeah. Michelle Choairy: When he was about three, he didn't speak. So we were going from early intervention to the school district, through that transition. And at that time, I remembered that I had had this roommate was a speech therapist and worked for the school district. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to ask her to go to lunch. We sat down, we talked, and she told me about an apraxia camp that Nancy Kaufman used to put in, put on. So the kids would go and they would see her and like it was very, it was an intensive. And so was like, okay, perfect. So, you know, way that I am, I figured stuff out and I, so got, made a video, I sent it to her. She calls me the next morning and she says, Michelle, this is Nancy Kaufman. And I was like, ⁓ hi Nancy. And she goes, Michelle, I cannot help your son. I can't, he doesn't have anything like he has, he doesn't have words, so I can't help him. So you need to go see my friend, Laurie Overland, and she is out in Connecticut and that's who you need to go see. And I said, okay. She's like, I'm going to put you on email with her. So just, you know, figure it out. And I was like, okay. I only live in California. So close, right? Kira Howard: It's just all about the other side. Michelle Choairy: So we went to see Lori Overland and it was an amazing experience. She was so good, so good. And we with all the talk that she goes into and we just ⁓ really into And then ⁓ that led to the ⁓ one Southern person had done an apraxia kids. Back it was... It was another name for the, for the, the anyway, she had done the bootcamp. Yeah. She had done the bootcamp. She was like super well, like good. And name was Lisa Klein. She's still in, California in, in Los Angeles. in Santa Monica and my gosh, it was like life changing. But we, like my husband would drive my son an hour and a half over there for 30 minutes speech, hour and a half back home. Kira Howard: I have that weeks on camp. Yeah. Michelle Choairy: two or three times a week. It was crazy. So that tells you like how much like we've grown. And then we found one that he has now, he's with her since he was four and she's for the bootcamp they have, they have to pick a child and she had him. So her bootcamp study, ⁓ Kira Howard: Yeah. into the assignments, yeah. Michelle Choairy: was my son. And so that's how long we've been involved in the apraxia okay, so let's talk, go back to you, because we already talked about me enough, but ⁓ your so you're at home, which that is Where do you live in Utah? Kira Howard: It is. So I live in a little town called Cedar Hills. It's right between like American Fork, Pleasant Grove. So a bigger reference point would be Provo, if people know Provo. It's about half hour from Provo, about 45 minutes from Salt Lake. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'm up the street from video anyways. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it really just, it just is like, it's just works for now because just cause my children are between ages six and 12. Michelle Choairy: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I want to, I want to be why you, want to be why you so yes. Yes. I know exactly where that is. Perfect. So Mm-hmm. Kira Howard: And I just into the place where it's like, I'm not ready to rent a space. Yeah. I have four kids between six and 12 I'm not ready to rent a space and I have this home office. ⁓ at first I was like, I don't know if people are like going to like this, but I have a lot of families who really appreciate that. It's not a huge hospital. It's close for a lot of people and it's just has worked for the time being. So it's been, it's been a blessing for me. Michelle Choairy: for Mm-hmm. And it's crazy, Kara, because here's the thing. I that speech disorders, diagnosis, all of those things are, it's like the chicken and the egg thing. So we're either diagnosing more right now and we're actually catching it sooner and we're getting the diagnosis and they're not the little crappy kids that just don't listen to you, Or like something is in the water. ⁓ Kira Howard: Yeah. Yeah. it's all prevalent. Yeah. No, I talk about that with friends a lot, trying to figure out that like, why is that? And at the end of the day, I'm like, I don't know, but I appreciate that at least the mindset I see culturally shifting to like, let's meet a child where they're at and provide some support. And I also think that like, yeah, early intervention, and I know that like, parents have the biggest, the biggest say here. And I feel like at least culturally, I'm seeing a shift in doctors Michelle Choairy: or in the food or, know, which, you know, I, I, it, Yes. Early intervention. Kira Howard: listening to parents be like, something is off. And instead I feel like a lot of pediatricians be like, well, you can kind of wait and fill it out. And I actually tell parents like, if something feels off, do something. You don't need a pediatrician to go get a PT evaluation or an OT or speech. can, and I mean, out of pocket might be a little expensive, but in my mind, it's super worth that peace of mind. And a lot of times like parents intuition is spot on. Like if something's off, I can't tell you how many times parents are like, I just noticed something like when they were like one. Michelle Choairy: Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes. Kira Howard: And I'm like, you're right. There was like this speech thing going on here or like maybe it started at speech and then you're like, then I'll make a referral to PT or OT. And I just, I think there's been a big shift in like trust. The parents are the experts. They know their child best. And if they're saying something is off, they're usually right. I appreciate that like the medical and education is catching up with that. ⁓ And I'm sure that's probably your thing. Michelle Choairy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I call that the mama got. Yeah, I call it the momma guy. If you feel it, if you feel it, like I was the crazy person. I was the crazy mom that was at the doctor's office every week. And I'm like, something is wrong. Something is wrong. Something is wrong. Something's wrong. And I was, I was crazy. And it got to a point that they were like, I think your wife is kind of maybe making the stuff up. I'm like, ⁓ my gosh, here we go. So it was awful back then. Kira Howard: Something's wrong, right? Yeah. ⁓ yeah, I know. Yeah. Michelle Choairy: But it's true. And so how early are you getting the kiddos? Because you're kind of in the middle of nowhere. How early are they coming to you? Kira Howard: Yeah, you know, it just depends. see kids, I see like that very, I would say stereotypical late talker. They're like one and a half to three. They don't have a lot of words. I see a bunch of those kids that just need some speech and like coaching with the parents of like, this is how we can kind of help them learn these communication skills. And for apraxia, especially like a lot of times I see a kid when they're really young Michelle Choairy: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Kira Howard: And you kind of spoke to this when they're really young, you can't really diagnose apraxia until they're willing. They have, they can try to imitate some words with you. You might suspect it, right? Based on a lot of these other things. So a lot of times I'll be like, let's watch for these things. And when they're willing to imitate with me, then you can get a diagnosis of like, cause you're looking for that, like, the co, the transition are they able to move between those sounds? Is their prosody off? Are their vowels sounding weird or inconsistent? Like you need a little bit of speech to be able to diagnose that. Michelle Choairy: Mm-hmm. Yes. Mm-hmm. Kira Howard: So my experience, sometimes I'll be like, I think I'm seeing some stuff and I can't formally diagnose it, but I start treating it from a motor standpoint. And a lot of times when it starts clicking, then I'm kind of like, I'm still going to do that evaluation when we have enough word, like sound combinations too. But I usually tell, going to treat it like it is. ⁓ cause also treating a motor disorder with motor techniques, like it only helps. It hurt. ⁓ like it out, it's not going to hurt. And if later they don't get that diagnosis, cause it's, and it's one those things where unless you've been trained in Michelle Choairy: ⁓ huh. Yes. Uh-huh. Yes, for sure. Yeah. Kira Howard: to diagnose and treat apraxia, you shouldn't be doing that because it's very like, there's an art to it and you have to follow like how many situations do we see it, what signs are we seeing, in which context, you shouldn't be like just guessing that, right? That said, there's so many trainings available now for SLPs that I feel like more and more people are getting into it and it's becoming less of like a there's one in the whole state who can treat, right? So, but I will say if you have questions, like go to a speech therapist and if they are seeing weird things, Michelle Choairy: Yes. Kira Howard: look for a specialist. I have totally referred people in other states because you can only treat in states you're licensed. And I'll be like, here's the SupraxyKids website. Go find a specialist in your state because it's going to make a big difference to be a specialist to the disorder. Like find someone who's really good at that. Michelle Choairy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. They're 100 % on that. And you touched on something. You touched on something that I have been saved forever. So the good providers, the very good providers are usually not taking insurance. as my mom, as a dad, as a family, this is hard. Kira Howard: It's hard. It's hard. Yeah, I've noticed that in other health areas too. It is hard. Michelle Choairy: It's hard for me to go and pay, you know, $115 for 30 minutes of speech therapy twice a week. Right. So if you look at it, it's like you're going into flat for $500 a month. If you're going three times a week, which is what you're supposed to do when you have childhood apraxia of speech, then, you know, three to four times you're like, what can I do? Like, how do I even do this? So through the years, Kira Howard: It is hard. It is hard. Yeah, it is. It's so. Michelle Choairy: I kind of learned like, so we need to fight with the ⁓ company to see if we can move them into an in-at-work and then we still have to pay out of pocket, but at least part of it is paid through the insurance and all of that. But it is unfortunate because really the good providers are not taking insurance because it's not worth it their time. so, and happens is, that because the parents don't know any better, Kira Howard: It is a headache. Michelle Choairy: they end up with speech therapists who are not trained ⁓ apraxia speech. And if your child has that diagnosis, you have to make sure that you get a speech therapist who has experience or training or something like that with it. And drives me crazy when they say, ⁓ yeah, I treat apraxia, but they really, and it a difference. You can see it's night and day on the way that you practice. at least. Kira Howard: And I would still say like, I'm not an expert. I feel like I've done trainings, there's still there. I always feel like I'm learning new stuff all the time too. I feel like I have enough experience to treat it, but it's still like, I also have met clinicians who've been doing this for 20 years and like, I learned so much from them and their videos and their trainings. Like there's just always more to be learned. And I will say like good therapists across the board, not just speech, but they, have the humility to refer. Like I have stuff like I don't. Michelle Choairy: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Kira Howard: do I don't know a lot about my tongue exercises. And if I see a kid that has my own, I'm going to refer them. there's like, you have areas of specialty. And I think a lot of, and I can only speak to the speech world, but being able to be like, I'm not an expert in this, knowing my niche and being like, I know people I can send you to though. So I also like would say to parents, like, if you, if they're, if you don't see on their website or they don't say like, these are like my two to three, like I have a lot of training in these things. Feel free to ask, like, do you know somebody with specialized training in ⁓ or this or this? Michelle Choairy: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes. Kira Howard: And a lot of people will be like, I can send you somewhere. Cause parents, just feel for, they are starting from ground zero and they're just like doing all this detective work. They had to fight to get a doctor to take them seriously. They had to fight for a diagnosis. And then they're often left to like, now you find all the therapies that your child needs and you have to figure out if they're really good at it or not. And it's a so it's really, yeah, there's no manual and it's a lot of work. And so I say like, tell parents like you're already, if you're at this stage, you're already your child's best advocate. You've already made it this far. Michelle Choairy: Yeah. Yes. There's no manual. There's no manual. No. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Kira Howard: And keep pressing in those therapists. what trainings have you done? Ask those hard questions. And if you're not happy with it, you can totally ask for, like, do you know somebody? Like, I have patients at time time that someone's a better fit for them. People come to me from other speech therapists. we just, like, we get it. ⁓ got to go where it's the best fit for you and your family. But yeah. ⁓ Michelle Choairy: Hmm? Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. For sure, for sure. So I, you know, when I when I saw your videos online and if you guys just look her up, we'll have it on the show notes, but you should look her up because her videos are so cute and they're so good. So like. Kira Howard: Thank you. Michelle Choairy: that's she she just pulled me in right away as I was watching. you know, maybe it's because, like I said, I have that soft, you know, spot in my heart for for speech pathologists there. But she is so, so good. And ⁓ I that a lot of time it it you have to this is one of the things that I tell the parents that I work with to you have to mesh with the providers. They have to Kira Howard: Okay. Yes. Michelle Choairy: They have to come in, have to be a part of your child's team. And when that doesn't happen, then know, it shouldn't be there. anyway, tell us why you started this whole like social media stuff. And because I think that that's pretty cool. Like I haven't seen a lot of speech, you know, a lot of speech pathologists and maybe I'm just not seeing it, it's just not pulling up. But I think that that's awesome. Kira Howard: Thank you. Yeah. You know, I like fresh out of graduate school, you know, when I was in college, like, I Facebook came out when I was in college, right? So it really a thing. And as I was, was first out practicing, I would see these videos of these techniques to try and I'm like, that is so helpful to see a therapy technique in a session like, that was super helpful. And I feel like I just learned a lot from watching much more experienced peace therapists do Michelle Choairy: Mm-hmm. Yes. Kira Howard: And eventually I was like, I had this idea, like something I thought would be helpful. And I started making just short clips and I tried to be really good about like, it's child's never in the video, right? don't ⁓ just like having it be like, ⁓ yeah, ⁓ with consent, course, and the, ⁓ just feel like therapists are looking also for new ideas, for new techniques to try. I still learned from other speech therapists on social media all the time too of like, I'm going to try that strategy with this kid. Michelle Choairy: Yeah, yeah, you don't want to burn through hip-hop. Yes. Kira Howard: I just feel like it's a great way of idea sharing. And a lot of times, like, it's just either a quirky idea I had, or it was some prompting that I saw somewhere and I tried to. So it's not even like it's a whole, I have all of these ideas in my head. It's accumulation of, stuff I've either learned through clinical experience, or also seen and maybe tweaked, or even put out, I saw this other person do this, and I tried it and had this idea, you know? It's just, it kind of just snowballed from there, where, like, it's just kind of what I post. I try to post a therapy video every few weeks, and that's... Michelle Choairy: Yeah. ⁓ huh. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Kira Howard: That's kind of all I do. That's my social media is a little therapy video. Michelle Choairy: I love it. I love it. I love it. love it. Yes. love that because it opens up like for parents to see like this is, you know, sometimes like I got to a point where me in the room with my child was more distracting helpful. And so started kind of, I was just, I just stay outside and Kira Howard: Yeah, totally. Michelle Choairy: know, a lot of these kiddos have ADHD and they have the, you know, the behaviors and things like that. And sometimes it's they, they tell me that they do much better without me, or they're either lying or it's the truth. Like it's a 50-50 chance. Kira Howard: No, I see that. I see that too. Some kids love their mom being there and some kids just do a little bit better when mom's not right in the room with them, you know? I definitely see that. Michelle Choairy: Yeah. So, but I think that it's important to see what it is that you guys are doing. love watching your videos because I'm like, look at her. And you know what I see? So my son is 12. He all self corrects ⁓ himself So he, for example, he'll say back back. So he goes, because he says back back. What it? Pack pack. And so ⁓ back. Kira Howard: Right. Michelle Choairy: And he goes like this, because it's in the, you know, for the, so he goes and he does it to himself and he corrects But these are things that you guys ⁓ use sometimes ⁓ it's to see what you're doing and how you're teaching the kids. So, yeah. Kira Howard: Yeah. And that's also like a trial and error thing too, where like sometimes like the, do a lot of like prompts with my hands and my face. And I think it helps with the attention sometimes. Sometimes it helps them like, like there's just so many different ways to prompt with ⁓ child trying to get a new sound. And a lot of times it's just trial and error of like, maybe they need help with that placing. And sometimes my hand is like going back and forth to show the tongue, or maybe I'm using it like a snake sound. It's more of like a metaphorical cue, but a lot of it is just that like, Michelle Choairy: Mm-hmm. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yes, I saw the snake one online. Kira Howard: Yeah, I feel like everybody is having to time to time, right? Let's do the snake sound and we all do like, and sometimes just adding that movement or the gesture and pulling it by my face. Cause a lot of kids, they like, they don't want to just stare at my face and I kind of like make it more engaging, bring them in somehow. And it's also a very, some kids do a lot better with like, like a stick in their mouth and their flavor and they can feel like, ⁓ that's where my tongue needs to go. And just being able to like, let's try this out and see what works. Some kids are like, do not put anything in my mouth. Like do not do that. Michelle Choairy: Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Hmm. Kira Howard: and just really rolling with like, what does this child need to be successful and providing that support and also knowing when to like fade it. Cause also with praxies, especially you don't want them to be dependent on all the prompting, right? The goal ultimately being to like spontaneous questions, right? And it's definitely an art that I feel like ebbs and flows and I'm always learning and trying and every is different. Yeah. Michelle Choairy: Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. For sure. I love it. I love it. I love it. I think that, so ⁓ tell you another story about my son. We had this speech therapist and she come out with him she would be sweating from top to Kira Howard: I believe that. Michelle Choairy: They had, they had a gym and it was the only way that she could get him to, to sound out anything was when he was jumping or on the, on the trampoline or, running around. Like it was, you know, the movement, the movement, like it really helps with getting that, the words and that, like, you know, just, know, if you're going to jump. Kira Howard: Ugh, that's the best. Yeah. Yeah, no. Michelle Choairy: a place down. Ooh or something like that, right? Just getting, cause my son, like he had nothing. ⁓ this is. Kira Howard: No, I see that. I see that a lot. like, you've got to tap into their interests first. have, I have families where you just got to back up and be like, don't even drill anything, play with them and see what they're interested in. let's see we can imitate some sounds. mean, like you can see, like I got a swing hanging up here in my little office. Cause sometimes you need movement like to motivate that speech. And it really is like that, like tap into what they're into and go from there. Cause it's, that makes a world of difference. If you have buy-in from a child, it's like, this is fun. And I want to do this thing. Michelle Choairy: Yes. Yes. Yeah, there it is yes Yeah, yeah for sure Mm-hmm. Kira Howard: And if like, I feel like therapy suffers when the child is like, when there's not that internal motivation, when it feels like so much work, right? And there's like, we got to shake something up to make it more fun or maybe even taking a break. Like sometimes the break is good too. Sometimes families need a reset. I've seen kids make progress too from like, take a month off. Let's just go recalibrate and let it be and like kind of get back. Yeah. Michelle Choairy: Yeah. Yes, for sure. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, isn't that crazy? Do you know what's amazing to me is how resilient my son is. been going to speech therapy since he was ⁓ months old and he doesn't complain. He and I it's just what known, but it's what he has known. But it is so much work. Like I would go crazy. It's like you're practicing a sport, right? ⁓ Kira Howard: Yeah. It's work. Yeah. It is. they are so hard working. Those kids with apraxia, they've been in therapy usually two to three times a week for years and they're still going. ⁓ There's some of the hardest working kids I've ever seen. Yeah. A hundred percent. And their families too. I mean, ⁓ happens because families are also it happen. ⁓ Michelle Choairy: Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, for sure. Yeah. So it's. Well, yeah, we do, right? We have to we have to because we want our kids to talk. So, yeah, but here. So, OK. do do online or is it all in your office? Kira Howard: Yeah. I do stuff. I do sessions online too for people who either just are too far away in Utah that are like, can't like, I see some kids in St. George virtually, right? And sometimes kids like, it's just like, traffic's too much, they want to not fight it from home. So I do teletherapy sessions as well. And it just depends, a lot of kids do really well in teletherapy. And especially if they're really young, sometimes it's not a great fit. It really just depends on a child's personality. But I will say most of my sessions are in person, just I think, Michelle Choairy: Yeah. Kira Howard: It's easier, especially with the queuing, a lot of times with that prompting, sometimes with that tactile input, they need to see it and fill it. I have seen it be successful, especially with my older kids with apraxia. I worked with a couple of them remotely who like, they've been doing it long enough. They understand it works fine, but it just depends on family preference. Yeah. Michelle Choairy: Yes. ⁓ huh. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. It never, it's so COVID. I still have PTSD from that, ⁓ ⁓ was, ⁓ my gosh, he was like six, know, and, like, this not working. It's not going to work. It's not going to sit in front of a computer and talk to you and do exercises or any of that. There's no way this is not happening. So yeah, it's crazy. ⁓ Kira Howard: ⁓ yeah. That was, was real clear. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah, that was such a rough year for speech therapy. mean, for everybody. I mean, I don't know what physical therapists did either. Like, it was hard for everybody. Yeah. Michelle Choairy: Yeah. ⁓ my gosh. It was a year from hell because I think that I really, at that time, I appreciated teachers therapists and in a ⁓ much degree appreciation than what it before. ⁓ Kira Howard: ⁓ they are doing so much. Yeah, 100%. Michelle Choairy: So we're getting towards the end here. And on my podcast, I always ask. So if you to tell my the moms that are listening or the parents, we can't about the dads. So if you're going to tell them something, the most thing that you can think of, what would it be? Kira Howard: Yes. I would say just trust your instincts. Like if you have questions about your child, keep asking. Don't let a doctor deter you, get a new doctor. If you're not, if you already have a diagnosis and you're not jiving with your speech therapist, your physical therapist, keep searching. Like it's okay. And also give yourself a pat on the back. It is, there is so much weight on the, the back of parents that are trying to get the therapy their child needs, the answers questions, and they're often working. They other kids they're supporting. It is a massive amount of work that they are under. And I think unless Michelle Choairy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Kira Howard: It's another parent of a complex child. Nobody really understands that invisible weight they're carrying. So trust your instincts and give yourself grace. Because also breaks are okay. Your child's going to be okay if it takes a while to get a new speech therapist. If you need a break from school, it's okay. They'll be okay. I see kids regularly who go on breaks and they come back. They're okay. So I would say just keep trusting your instincts and give yourself grace. Take those breaks when you need them. It will work out. And just remember, you got this far, your child is lucky to have you. Michelle Choairy: Yes. Yeah. Love it. Love it, love it. And take this from a mom of four who kids at her house for speech therapy. So listen up everyone. This is good one. okay, Kira, tell us about how to find you online. ⁓ Just, yeah, so. Kira Howard: Yeah. Cool. Yeah. So on Facebook and social media, my private practice is called Moving Mountain Speech Therapy. That's my Facebook page. I think my Instagram is just Moving Mountain Speech. It's a long name. Later I was like, I should have shortened that, but ⁓ it's Mountain Speech. ⁓ Yeah. I know. was like, ⁓ that was, that was a lot of letters in the email. But yeah. And I have a website. I'm in the process of trying to make some online courses. have a couple, I have one for parents who are at home, maybe if they're in between and wondering. Michelle Choairy: It's like mine. Awesome. Kira Howard: how to support their child with speech development. one of those courses. I'm in the process of making a few more, hopefully at the end of the year, I'll get those done. But yeah, and I do virtual consults. They can be across state lines for parents who just maybe need help getting a roadmap or like, this normal? can I go for more support? Just because I have found that sometimes parents just need a little bit of a map for ⁓ they need support. Yeah, yeah, totally. ⁓ Michelle Choairy: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. One second. Yeah. Yeah. Just a little bit. Yes. Yes, for sure. Yeah. Well, Kara, thank you so much for coming. It was so great talking to you. Thanks for like listening to me and coming on the show. This has been great. Everyone. Yeah, of course. So everyone, we're going to have everything on the show notes and look her up. She's amazing. She's awesome. Watch her we will see you guys next week. Bye bye. Kira Howard: Thank you. Yeah. I loved it. Thank you for having me. Thank you, bye.