Cleft palate, resonance disorders, and market research (with Allison Fors)

On episode 99 of the “De Facto Leaders” podcast, I had the opportunity to interview Allison Fors, who is a pediatric SLP-A, mom to a child with a cleft palate, and a Teachers Pay Teachers seller with tons of great resources for early language. Allison is an SLP-A in California. She has primarily worked with diagnoses of autism, Down syndrome, and developmental delays in schools at the K-12 level, as well as private practice. Her interests include early language, as well as understanding and incorporating sensory strategies into sessions. She also has a cleft-affected daughter, which began a special interest in this particular population! She loves creating resources and connecting with others in the field via her website AllisonFors.com. In this interview, Allison shares her experience as a parent with a cleft-affected child; from navigating parent groups to working with a multidisciplinary team. She also shares some common compensatory errors that go along with clefts and some tips for navigating early intervention. We wrap up the interview by discussing her process for selecting products to create for clinicians; as well as how she makes resources that are creative and engaging for her audience of pediatric clinicians.  You can connect with Allison on Instagram @speech.allisonfors.com as well as on her website here.  You can also find her on Teachers Pay Teachers here. In this episode, I mentioned my Executive Functions Implementation guide that shares how school therapists can lead their IEP teams in providing mental health, behavioral, and social skills support for K-12 kids . You can download this free resource here.