06/10/2026
It’s all connected! What a great read about EF skills and impact/interconnection to speech! 🗣️⚓️🌞
We often talk about speech like it’s just sounds and articulation.
But speech doesn’t develop in isolation.
It relies on executive function.
If a child isn’t noticing the speech around them, that’s perception.
If they can’t focus to it long enough to take it in, that’s attention.
If they can’t hold onto the sounds long enough to imitate or use them later, that’s working memory.
If they’re not catching their own errors and adjusting, that’s self-monitoring.
These aren’t “speech issues” in the way we’ve been taught to think about them.
They’re executive function demands.
And when we only target the output (the sounds) without supporting the system behind it, progress is slower, harder, and often doesn’t generalize or carryover to other settings as easily.
