District: Norwalk-La Mirada USD (CA)

Role: SLP 

Students Served: 55 (elementary and middle school)

License: Individual (self-funded)

Background

Carlye Glonchak has been a speech-language pathologist at Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District for over a decade. She currently splits her time between elementary and middle school, with a caseload of 55 students. At the middle school level, many of her students have autism or Down syndrome, while others present with learning disabilities or are part of the general education population but still require support.

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

Challenges

Like many SLPs, Carlye juggles a heavy caseload (55 students) across two schools. That number, combined with the diversity of needs (autism, Down syndrome, learning disabilities, and general education support) means she’s constantly balancing priorities and time.

Before Everyday Speech, Carlye spent hours creating lessons for push-in therapy.

“I was spending all this time planning, and then sometimes it didn’t work…and so that was a waste of hours of my time.”

Her workload isn’t just direct therapy; there’s also the administrative side of the job, like paperwork, IEP meetings, notices, parent calls, and progress tracking. All this extra work can easily overshadow what she loves most: being with students.

“My biggest challenge is trying to put processes in place that make my life easy, that are somewhat automated so that I can just do my job and do it well and not have to worry about all the nitty-gritty.”

Solution

Carlye first learned about Everyday Speech at an SLP meeting where colleagues were asked to share useful resources. She paid for the license out of pocket because there’s no dedicated budget for therapy materials.

The appeal was immediate: instead of spending hours planning push-in sessions that sometimes flopped, Everyday Speech gave her reliable, ready-to-use lessons.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a lesson not work from Everyday Speech.”

Carlye uses Everyday Speech across her caseload and beyond:

• Full-class push-ins: alternating every other week for an entire school year.
• Small groups and one-to-one support: adapting lessons to specific student goals, such as communication breakdowns, perspective taking, or appropriate conversation skills.
• In-the-moment interventions: quickly pulling up a video or worksheet when a teacher brings her an urgent student concern.

Her favorite modules, “Think It vs. Say It,” “Private vs. Shareable Information,” and Perspective Taking, have become staples she uses year after year. She also values the clear curriculum design.

“I like the layout. I like the system. I like the lesson planning. I like how easy it is to maneuver through to find what I’m looking for.”

Results

Time savings: Everyday Speech eliminates wasted hours of lesson prep.

“I would say a couple hours per week … the video modeling system is really amazing.”

Classroom transformation: One middle school class was “spiraling out of control” behaviorally until Carlye began using Everyday Speech every other week.

“Within two months, there was already an improved atmosphere in the classroom. They started using “Think It Versus Say It” and it was awesome to see the progress.”

Engaging lessons for students: Carlye reports consistently strong engagement with Everyday Speech, especially compared to other tools.

“They always stay engaged… Everyday Speech is always different, because I’m constantly moving forward with whatever we’re working on.”

The video-modeling format helps students learn by seeing and doing, students engage with fresh, relevant content, and Carlye keeps momentum across sessions without losing the room.

Clear and organized structure: Carlye relies on Everyday Speech’s structure to move from concept to concept with intention. She calls out the organized curriculum and easy navigation and uses it to build sequenced progressions (e.g. a full year alternating pull-out and push-in). That built-in scope and sequence lets her quickly find a lesson and support a student in the moment while reducing prep.

Beyond the caseload: The success of her push-ins didn’t go unnoticed. After a middle school class transformed from constant behavior challenges to a calmer, more respectful environment, school leadership approached Carlye to ask how the same program could be extended.

“It was so successful that it caught the attention of the admin, the principal, and the assistant principal, and made them come and talk to me about how to support the whole general ed population.” 

Everyday Speech helps SLPs like Carlye quickly adapt lessons, save hours each week, and foster meaningful growth in diverse groups of students. Want to see how it can support your team? Learn more about our Free Pilot Program.