MEET TERA SUMPTER
M.A., CCC-SLP
Executive function changed the way I saw everything.
I spent years trying to understand why smart kids were still struggling to learn.
I’m Tera Sumpter, a speech-language pathologist, author, educator, and founder of Seeds of Learning®.
My work is built around one idea: to understand a child’s learning challenges, we have to understand the systems underneath them.
What’s happening beneath the difficulty we can see?
This didn’t start with executive function.
I started as a medical speech-language pathologist, working in inpatient and outpatient hospital settings before founding Seeds of Learning® in 2011. I’ve worked with children in intervention settings since 2001.
But the more children I worked with, the more I saw the same problem:
A child might struggle with reading. Or language. Or attention. Or behavior.
Those challenges were often treated separately.
So I began asking a different question: What if they’re connected?
THE IDEA BEHIND MY WORK
Learning doesn’t happen in separate boxes.
Speech. Language. Literacy. Attention. Memory. Regulation. Planning.
They work together.
That idea led me to years of exploring research, deepening my understanding of how cognitive processes shape development and learning, and translating that knowledge into practical approaches I could apply in my clinical work.
Over time, this integration of research and clinical practice became the foundation for the Sumpter Executive Function Framework (SEFF) I now teach.
Where That Curiosity Led
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2007
Clinical beginnings
Began working with children in therapeutic and clinical settings.
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2011
Seeds of Learning®
Founded Seeds of Learning®.
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2021
The book
Wrote The Seeds of Learning: A Cognitive Processing Model for Speech, Language, Literacy, and Executive Functioning.
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Today
Teaching worldwide
Teaching professionals and parents across the globe about executive function and cognitive processing.
Today, I have the privilege of teaching SLPs, educators, OTs, psychologists, parents, and other professionals in the U.S. and worldwide. See some of my presentations here!
Making the Science of Executive Function Make Sense in Real Life.
I work to help professionals and parents move beyond surface-level strategies and understand what may be happening underneath a child's learning challenges.
FROM THE BOOKSHELF
The Seeds of Learning®
My book brings together research from speech-language pathology, psychology, neuroscience, and education to help you understand how the pieces of learning connect.
And yes, there’s a REAL person
behind all of this.
I am a wife, mom of three, lifelong learner, and someone who can happily spend far too much time talking about the brain.
My work is deeply informed by my professional training, but also by years of listening to children, families, teachers, and clinicians describe what happens when traditional approaches aren't enough.