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Episode 28
From Speech to ABA to NDBI: Building Willing Communicators Through Play
About This Episode
In this episode of NDBI Navigator Narratives, Dr. Jamie sits down with Tamara Kasper, a dual-certified Speech-Language Pathologist and Board Certified Behavior Analyst, to talk about what happens when speech science, behavior analysis, and play-based motivation truly come together.
From Speech to ABA to NDBI: Building Willing Communicators Through Play
Tamara Kasper
About Our Guest Speaker
Tamara Kasper
Tamara Kasper, MS, CCC-SLP, BCBA, is a pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist who has treated children with challenging behavior since 1990, specializing in children with autism since 1995. Tamara’s commitment to the children she serves led her to pursue treatment methods outside the field of Speech-Language Pathology. She has advanced training in Nancy Kaufman’s strategies for apraxia of speech and partnered with Nancy to create The K&K Sign to Talk Materials. She has advanced training in Applied Behavior Analysis/Applied Verbal Behavior and under the mentorship of renowned Behavior Analyst Dr. Vincent Carbone and his protégé she became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Tamara is a frequently invited international lecturer, enthusiastically sharing intervention techniques that build functional verbal behavior, social communication skills and combine social skills training with physical training. She has lectured and treated individuals across the United States and Canada as well as in Ethiopia, Senegal, Greece, Germany, England, Ireland, and other countries. She is a past recipient of WISHA’s Clinical Achievement Award.
Show Notes
In this episode of NDBI Navigator Narratives, Dr. Jamie sits down with Tamara Kasper, a dual-certified Speech-Language Pathologist and Board Certified Behavior Analyst, to talk about what happens when speech science, behavior analysis, and play-based motivation truly come together.
đź’ˇ Episode Highlights:
Tamara shares her 36+ year clinical journey working with children with significant communication and behavioral challenges and how her early experiences shaped her belief that motivation is not something a child “has” or “doesn’t have” — it’s something clinicians design. The conversation explores how Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs) help build resilient, willing communicators by embedding learning into meaningful, motivating play.
Listeners will hear:
Why motivation is the engine behind communication growth
How play becomes a powerful clinical tool, not just a break from therapy
The importance of shaping speech within natural routines
How short-term intensive intervention can spark rapid progress
The role of curiosity and “observing with wonderment” instead of judgment
How to transform unconventional play into engagement opportunities
Practical tools clinicians and parents can use immediately
Tamara also discusses her work developing accessible systems that bridge speech pathology and ABA, including communication kits and frameworks that help teams feel confident supporting speech production — even without an SLP onsite. A highlight of the episode is the discussion of the HOPE Profile, a strengths-based way to identify a child’s unique interests and sensory patterns so clinicians can design motivating play routines that lead to real communication opportunities.
This episode is a reminder that NDBI is not less structured — it is deeply procedural, intentional, and science-driven — but delivered through connection, play, and joy.
Because meaningful communication doesn’t grow from pressure.
It grows from motivation, relationship, and shared fun.
Memorable Quote
“Motivation doesn’t exist within the child. Motivation exists within how we organize their environment.”
Episode Resources
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