Carly Axani SLP

Carly Axani SLP Hi! I'm Carly! I am a Registered Speech-Language Pathologist who has been working with children and their families for over 10 years.

I offer fun, functional and family-centered SLP services for children in the Edmonton area.

06/12/2026

I always knew I was a baddie 🖤

06/12/2026

Yes. Always yes ❤️

06/09/2026

“Just add more details.”

If only writing were that simple. 😉

One of the biggest misconceptions about writing is that it’s a single skill.

In reality, writing is one of the most cognitively demanding tasks we ask children to do. Students must generate ideas, organize them, hold information in working memory, choose vocabulary, build sentences, remember spelling and punctuation, and monitor whether their writing makes sense—all at the same time.

This is why I love the Simple View of Writing.

Writing is the product of:

✏️ Transcription skills(handwriting, spelling, keyboarding)

🧠 Composition skills(language, vocabulary, sentence structure, idea generation, and organization)

So when a student’s writing lacks detail, the question isn’t:

“How do we get them to write more?”

It’s:

“What part of the writing process is making this difficult?”

Because writing is not one skill—it’s dozens of skills working together simultaneously.

And yes, this is exactly why SLPs can support writing.

Writing is language expressed through print.

📚 Research consistently shows that skilled writing requires the coordination of transcription, language, and executive functioning processes. When lower-level skills become more automatic, students have more cognitive resources available for generating and organizing ideas (Berninger et al., 2002; Berninger & Amtmann, 2003; Berninger et al., 2006).

ScienceOfReading ExecutiveFunctioning Literacy LanguageAndLiteracy

06/03/2026

Ready to splash back into the clinic tomorrow after some much needed hydration 💦 ☀️

06/02/2026

Okay, story time from clinic today because this one matters.

Six months ago, I tried targeting the /f/ sound with one of my little clients.

And it was a DISASTER.

He couldn’t make the sound.It was causing disfluencies.He was shutting down emotionally.Every attempt felt hard.And honestly? It was one of those sessions where you walk away thinking:“Okay… this is not the right target right now.”

So we pivoted.

Instead of forcing the /f/ sound, we worked on other speech skills that his nervous system and motor system WERE ready for.

We targeted S-clusters.We worked on reducing gliding with the /l/ sound.We built confidence.We built success.We built motor planning.

And today?

Not only could he suddenly produce the /f/ sound in functional words…

He could produce it in FL blends.

FL blends.

Which are actually one of the more complex speech motor patterns in English.

And that right there is SUCH an important reminder:

What a child cannot do today…does not mean they will never do it.

Sometimes children are not refusing.Sometimes they are not lazy.Sometimes they are simply not developmentally ready YET.

And this is why intervention matters.

As speech-language pathologists, we are constantly making micro-adjustments:→ changing goals→ changing prompting→ changing timing→ changing complexity→ changing HOW we teach

Sometimes within a single session.

Now let’s connect this to the classroom.

Even when teachers are using excellent, explicit, systematic instruction…the reality is that classroom teaching is a giant net.

The goal is to catch as many students as possible.

But some students won’t get caught the first time.

Because of developmental delays.Because of language differences.Because of trauma.Because attention was elsewhere.Because learning is not linear.

And that is NOT a failure of the child.And it is not a failure of the teacher.

That is where intervention comes in.

The classroom keeps moving forward.An interventionist helps fill in the gaps.

And sometimes…six months later…the child who couldn’t make the sound at all…

is suddenly saying “flower” perfectly. 🌸

05/28/2026

Okay, let’s talk about decodable readers versus leveled readers.

And first, I want to say this clearly— this is not teacher bashing.

Teachers have worked incredibly hard for decades using the training, curriculum, and resources they were provided. Many wonderful educators were taught to use leveled readers and cueing systems because that was considered best practice at the time.

But literacy research has evolved.

And when we know better, we do better.

A leveled reader often encourages children to use, pictures, context clues, sentence patterns, or the first letter of a word to predict or guess what the word might be.

A decodable reader, on the other hand, is intentionally written to align with the phonics skills a child has already explicitly learned, allowing them to actually decode the words on the page.

That distinction matters.

Because skilled reading is not guessing.Skilled reading is the ability to look at a word, connect sounds to letters, blend those sounds together, and map that word accurately in the brain for future automatic recognition.

This is especially important for students who are vulnerable to reading difficulties.

When a child is repeatedly encouraged to compensate using pictures or context instead of decoding, they may appear successful early on while missing foundational reading skills underneath.

And eventually, many of those children hit a wall when the pictures disappear and the text becomes more complex.

Decodable readers give children the opportunity to:

📖 practice sound-letter correspondence

📖 strengthen blending skills

📖 develop orthographic mapping

📖 build confidence through accurate reading

Reading is not memorization.Reading is not prediction. Reading is not guessing from context.

Reading is a language-based, highly teachable skill.

And the beautiful thing is that with explicit, systematic instruction and practice with text children can actually decode, so many students absolutely thrive.

We know better. So let’s do better. ❤️

05/27/2026

PSA from your friendly neighbourhood SLP: 🚨

If your school-aged child is STILL cheating at games and adults are continuing to let them win every time “to keep the peace”…you may actually be hurting their social communication skills more than helping them.

And before the comments come for me, I am NOT saying children should be shamed for struggling with losing.

Losing is HARD for many kids. Especially neurodivergent children, perfectionistic children, anxious children, or children with emotional regulation difficulties.

But tolerating frustration…playing fairly…winning graciously…and losing appropriately…are all SOCIAL skills.

And social skills directly impact:✔️ friendships✔️ classroom relationships✔️ group work✔️ sports✔️ play dates✔️ peer reputation✔️ confidence

The reality is other children typically stop wanting to play with peers who constantly cheat, change rules, melt down, or must always win.

That doesn’t make your child “bad.” It means they need a safe space for support and practice.

Here are a few ways to help your child build resilience around losing:

🎲 Play low-stakes games frequently. The more exposure, the less emotionally charged it becomes.

🗣 Model losing WELL yourself
“Oh man! You beat me fair and square!”
“That was frustrating, but I can handle it.”

💛 Praise regulation over winning
“I’m proud of how calmly you handled losing.”
“That was really flexible thinking.”

⏸ Don’t immediately rescue. It’s okay for children to feel disappointed. Disappointment is survivable.

🎯 Teach expected responses explicitly
“Good game.”
“You got lucky!”
“Want to play again?”

🧠 Normalize that skills take practice. Many children are not naturally good losers; gracious losing and winning is learned behavior.

As an SLP, I care deeply about communication and connection. And sometimes that means helping children understand that fairness, perspective taking, flexibility, and emotional regulation are part of successful communication

05/22/2026

A five-year-old with a dyslexia diagnosis.

You might be thinking “wow, that’s early…”

We should be thinking:

👉 “Wow, that’s incredible information.”

Because for far too long, we’ve been told to wait.

Wait until Grade 2.
Wait until they fall *2 grade levels* behind.
Wait until they’re frustrated.

But here’s the truth:

We often see the signs of dyslexia years before a child is expected to read.

Things like:
• difficulty with rhyming
• trouble learning letter names and sounds
• speech sound delays
• difficulty blending sounds
• family history of reading challenges

These are not things to ignore.

They are early indicators.

And early identification matters—because early intervention changes everything.

When we provide:
✔ explicit
✔ systematic
✔ evidence-based literacy instruction

We can change the trajectory of a child’s entire academic experience.

Not just their reading.

👉 Their confidence.
👉 Their identity as a learner.
👉 Their belief in themselves.

Because the goal is not to wait for failure.

The goal is to prevent it.

A child does not need to struggle for years before they deserve support.

⸝

Save this if you’ve ever been told to “wait and see”
Follow for more Talk Nerdy To Me content

⸝

📚 Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity; National Center on Improving Literacy; Sanfilippo et al. (2020)

05/20/2026

Things your child should know before the end of kindergarten:
1. the names of all uppercase and lowercase letters
2. the sounds those letters make
3. and ideally… be understood when they speak

And I say this with so much love… This is not “extra,” this is the foundation for the HUGE shift of grade 1.

We move from:
learning through play
to
learning through reading and writing

Kids are expected to:
• start reading words
• write simple sentences
• follow more complex instructions
• and interact more independently with peers

And if those foundational skills aren’t there, everything feels harder.

Not because your child isn’t capable.
But because we’re asking them to build on skills that aren’t solid yet.

⸝

The good news?

☀️ The summer is a PERFECT window.

No pressure.
No report cards.
Just a little bit of intentional support can go a long way.

This might look like:
• practicing letter sounds in play
• building early reading skills
• getting support for speech sound development

Because early intervention has the biggest impact.

But it’s also never too late.

The goal isn’t perfection before Grade 1.

The goal is giving your child a strong enough foundation that they can access learning with confidence.

⸝

If something feels off, trust that instinct.

You don’t need to wait.

⸝

Save this if you have a child heading into Grade 1 and follow along for more speech, language and literacy content from your SLP mom bestie ❤️

Address

6105 Currents Drive NW
Southwest Edmonton, AB
T6W2Z4

Telephone

+17808504327

Website

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