Reflecting on 2024: Our Top Moments and Achievements

What a year it’s been! As we close the chapter on 2024, we can’t help but celebrate the incredible milestones we’ve achieved together with our clients, team, and community. Here’s a highlight reel of the moments that made our year unforgettable:

1. Connecting Face-to-Face: We brought the expertise to vendor fairs across Kansas City, meeting families and professionals who are as passionate about communication and swallowing health as we are. From Lenexa to Lee's Summit, we traveled the metro to spread awareness of in-home mobile services.

   

   
   

2. Expanding to the Northland: This year, we extended our reach to Kansas City’s Northland, ensuring more families could access our in-home services—because convenience shouldn’t be a luxury. Our SLPs now travel to North Kansas City, Claycomo, Gladstone, Parkville, and Smithville. We are looking forward to accepting new patients of all ages with the start of 2025.

   
   

3. Strengthening Our Team: We onboarded three rockstar speech-language pathologists who bring expertise, compassion, and innovation to every session. We are so proud to welcome Makenzie Anderson, Ashlan Martin, and Cassidy Johnson to our team! SaSS KC provides SLPs in the KC area with the opportunity to choose their own schedules, explore whatever avenues their heart desires, and maintain a great work/life balance.

   
   
   

   

   
   
   

4. Professional Development on the Horizon: We began crafting professional development courses, set to launch in 2025, because learning never goes out of style. Our courses are for SLP professionals from all backgrounds; we aim to additionally provide education for family members and related healthcare professionals as our program expands.

   
   

5. Endless Client Success Stories: From first words to smoother swallows, our clients—both pediatric and adult—achieved incredible growth this year. Their victories are the reason we do what we do.

   
   

6. A Fresh Online Look: We gave our website a glow-up, making it easier than ever for families and professionals to connect with us and access resources.

   
   

Looking back, we’re grateful for the memories, milestones, and, of course, the amazing people we’ve had the privilege to serve. Here’s to making 2025 even more impactful—because with your support, the sky’s the limit!

What was your favorite moment with us in 2024? Let us know in the comments or connect with us online!

Setting Realistic Goals for Communication Development in the New Year

The New Year often comes with big aspirations, but when it comes to communication development, small, achievable steps are the key to success. Whether you’re a parent supporting your child’s speech progress or an adult working on personal communication skills, setting realistic goals is essential for maintaining motivation and tracking improvement.

Start with Where You Are

The first step is understanding current abilities. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) often conduct thorough assessments to pinpoint specific strengths and challenges. For instance, ASHA emphasizes that individualized goals should align with evidence-based practices and realistic expectations. A baseline not only guides progress but also ensures goals are personalized to your unique situation.

Break It Down

Large goals, like “speak more clearly” or “reduce swallowing challenges,” can feel overwhelming. Instead, try smaller, actionable objectives, such as improving one sound at a time or introducing a new safe swallowing strategy during mealtime. Research highlights that targeted practice, when paired with measurable steps, fosters quicker progress (ASHA, 2021).

Build in Flexibility

Life happens, and setbacks are part of the journey. Plan for adjustments and celebrate small victories along the way. For children, this might mean recognizing the joy of mastering a single word. For adults, it might be successfully navigating a social conversation. Remember, progress doesn’t need to be linear to be meaningful.

Partner with Professionals

One of the most powerful tools for achieving communication goals is a trusted team. SLPs bring expertise in speech, language, and swallowing challenges and can help set meaningful, manageable objectives. Working with professionals ensures your efforts are evidence-based, as ASHA’s guidelines suggest focusing on collaboration between SLPs and caregivers to achieve the best outcomes.

Celebrate Progress

Don’t forget to look back on how far you’ve come! Use progress as a motivator to keep going. After all, New Year’s goals are about improvement, not perfection.

This New Year, let’s make communication growth a journey worth celebrating. If you’re ready to partner with us at SaSS KC, we’re here to help you set and achieve goals tailored to your needs. Let’s make this year one of connection and confidence!

5 Fun Winter Activities to Encourage Communication Development

Winter isn’t just for snow angels and hot cocoa—it's also the perfect time to sprinkle a little communication development into your child’s play! With these five fun and evidence-backed activities, you can support your child's speech and language growth while making magical memories together. All of our activities are supported by current research from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).

1. Snowy Storytelling

When the snow comes down, bundle up and build a snowman or fort together, then create a backstory for your frosty friend or snowy structure. Encourage your child to name their creation and craft a mini adventure.

Why it works: Narrative skills foster vocabulary growth and sequencing abilities, vital for language development.

2. Hot Chocolate Chats

Whip up some hot chocolate and add a twist—marshmallow questions! For each marshmallow added, ask a question about your day or favorite winter activities.

Why it works: Interactive conversation strengthens turn-taking and builds pragmatic (social) language skills.

3. Winter Word Hunts

Take a stroll (indoors or out) and create a scavenger hunt for winter-related words, like “sled,” “gloves,” or “snowflake.” You can also snap photos and label them together.

Why it works: Labeling objects improves word retrieval and builds vocabulary breadth.

4. Cookie Creations and Directions

Bake winter cookies and let your child “play chef” by giving simple, step-by-step instructions: “Add the sprinkles!” or “Mix the dough!”

Why it works: Following multi-step directions enhances auditory processing and comprehension skills.

5. Arctic Animal Charades

Play charades with a frosty twist! Act out animals like penguins, polar bears, or owls, and guess what they are.

Why it works: Pretend play improves symbolic thinking and encourages descriptive language use.

With these activities, you're not just enjoying winter but building communication skills to last a lifetime. Don’t forget to let us know which activity your family loved most—snow joke, we love hearing your stories!