Location: Birmingham, AL

Role: SLP

Students Served: 3–21 yrs old

Pilot: 12 people, including 8 teachers, SPED Director, and Assistant Principal

Time saved: 5-10 hours/week

Background

A speech-language pathologist (SLP) works at a rapidly growing charter school in Birmingham, Alabama. She has 25-30 students on her caseload. The school serves a diverse student body from preschool through high school, with a significant proportion of learners impacted by poverty and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). The SLP is committed to fostering a safe, supportive, and trauma-informed learning environment where students can strengthen their communication and self-regulation skills to thrive both academically and socially.

Related resources: See our full list of social skills lessons.

Challenges

The SLP joined the school after nearly two decades in public education, looking for a place where she could make a deeper impact. She was met with:

• High-need student population with limited coping strategies: Many students had experienced significant trauma and came from households impacted by incarceration, poverty, or domestic violence. As a result, foundational skills in emotional regulation and functional communication were severely underdeveloped.
  
• Under-resourced and inexperienced staff: The majority of teachers were early in their careers, often overwhelmed by frequent behavioral disruptions and lacking access to training, tools, or support for effective classroom management.
  
• Absence of a structured multi-tiered system of supports: Social skills instruction was largely reactive, with no consistent framework for Tier 1 universal supports or Tier 2 targeted interventions to address social and behavioral development proactively.

Solution

Having used Everyday Speech at a previous district, the SLP brought the program to the school through their Free Pilot Program. She handpicked eight teachers (those with struggling classrooms and limited experience) and worked with school administrators to evaluate its impact.

Key features that stood out:

• Ready-to-teach video-based social skills lessons
  
• Structured for MTSS  (Tier 1, 2, and 3)
  
• Easy onboarding for teachers with little or no training
  
• Engaging student-friendly games, videos, and printable worksheets
  

“With just a little support, these kids can thrive. Everyday Speech gives us a way to do that, every day.”

Everyday Speech quickly became a daily ritual used during morning routines, breakfast time, and small group pull-outs.

Results

Time savings: The SLP incorporated Everyday Speech into parent trainings to spark meaningful conversations between caregivers and children.

Classroom transformation: Teachers reported calmer mornings, fewer incidents, and more student engagement. One teacher’s class went from chaos to students not wanting to miss their daily video.

Teacher empowerment: New educators gained structure and language for managing behavior. Everyday Speech became both a student resource and a professional development shortcut.

Student skill-building: Kids learned concepts like compromise, deep breathing, and accepting disappointment. They used vocabulary from the lessons in conversations at home, as shared during parent trainings.

Family involvement: The SLP’s “Parent University” events began integrating Everyday Speech materials, sparking meaningful conversations between caregivers and children.

“I had one kid today take a bench and just throw it over, because his mom is incarcerated. But being able to say, ‘I miss my mom’, that’s what we’re working on. Teaching them to ask for a break, to ask for help, those are the replacement behaviors we’re building with Everyday Speech.”

If you’re supporting students with trauma, behavior challenges, or social skills gaps, check out Everyday Speech. Whether you’re a seasoned educator or brand new to the classroom, the video-based curriculum helps schools build a foundation of social and emotional intelligence and transform classrooms from chaos to calm.

Learn more about our Free Pilot Program.