James Burden, M.Sc., RSLP

Registered Speech-Language Pathologist | Clinical & Educational Systems

jburdenRSLP@gmail.com · North Vancouver, BC, Canada
https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-burden-36525759/

Professional Profile

Speech-language pathologist and clinical educator with approximately 17 years of experience assessing complex communication and learning needs, designing coordinated services and translating specialist knowledge into practical resources. Experienced in training staff, supervising novice clinicians and evaluating performance through observation, clinical interviews and documented support needs. Brings clinical judgment, educational production and independently directed AI projects to remote contracts in expert evaluation, task design and learning development.

Clinical Leadership & Educational Production

Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School — School-Based Speech-Language Pathologist, Private Contractor
February 2012–November 2023

• Designed and led a coordinated speech-language service model for a caseload that grew from approximately 30 to 80 students within 20 school hours per week. Served a specialist K–12 school where every student was neurodivergent, primarily supporting Grades 3–7.
• Assessed individual needs using clinical tasks, observations, professional reports and input from families and staff; coordinated individual therapy, tutor-supported intervention, classroom support and small groups according to need.
• Developed neurodiversity-affirming social-communication support integrating regulation, attention to social cues, sequencing, cause-and-effect instruction, consistent language and visual supports. Trained and coached adults to apply strategies before, during and after challenging situations across settings.
• Measured social-concept understanding through observation and clinical interviews, recording the number and types of prompts required. Used demonstrated independence to guide reductions in intervention intensity; documented gains in understanding and observable behavioural changes across multiple students.
• Produced classroom tools and activities for narrative language, perspective-taking, conversation and speech-sound goals; coordinated shared documentation with tutors and wrote final SLP intervention reports.
• Supported needs associated with autism, ADHD, developmental coordination disorder, dyslexia, language-based learning disabilities, anxiety and social-communication challenges. Helped staff transition to online delivery during COVID in 2020.

Clinical Educator — Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School

• Supervised and mentored nine student SLPs—eight from UBC and one from the University of Alberta—through modelling and session discussion, helping novice clinicians apply academic knowledge in real school settings.
• Taught psychoeducational-report interpretation, identification of weak reporting, standardized-testing limitations and adaptive informal assessment guided by clinical judgment.
• Coached clear report writing, measurable goal development and accurate progress reporting, alongside student engagement, behaviour and group management, and effective communication with teachers and tutors.

Exceptional Speech and Language Services — Founder & Speech-Language Pathologist
January 2011–present

• Built and operated a private practice providing individual services, school consulting and family support; shifted predominantly online by 2020. Provided stuttering intervention for adults and maintained an additional 6–8 after-school sessions weekly alongside school work.
• Designed and delivered after-school online social-awareness and friendship lessons for neurodivergent children using Canva, Seesaw, Google Slides and PowerPoint; adapted evidence-based clinical tools and licensed materials into interactive activities and visual supports, documenting learning through observation and clinical interviews.

Independent Applied AI Projects

Self-directed projects developed with AI assistance | August 2026–present

Synchronicity Machine — Product Direction & Matching Architecture
synchronicitymachine.ai

• Conceived and directed AI-assisted development of a Base44 web app that helps people discover connections between deliberately shared ideas, exploring how their thinking might unlock something new for each other. Combined Voyage-4 semantic matching with a richer discovery process for complementary perspectives, missing pieces and unexpected connections.
• Designed the experience to use each person's own AI for deeper reasoning, rather than embedding a generative-AI service in the app. Developed prompts and a two-transfer workflow turning deliberately shared ideas into connection explanations and conversation starters.
• Personally tested proposed connections, rejecting impressive-sounding explanations that offered no meaningful reason to talk, and used those judgments to refine prompts and the user experience.

Living Library & Reusable AI Workflows

• Developed a personal knowledge-retrieval workflow using Qdrant, Voyage-4 embeddings and Obsidian, with source-linked search, incremental updates and checks against original evidence.
• Created reusable task procedures for research, retrieval, project continuity, development and testing, documenting scope, handoffs, versions and completion checks.

AI Behaviour Testing

• Directed iterative AI behaviour and prompt testing across conversational personalization, multi-stage research workflows and semantic-matching applications, using baseline comparisons, controlled scenarios, preserved outputs and checks for regressions.
• Directed a 48-response prompt-repair pilot that improved handling of insufficient information from 0/6 to 6/6 cases and reduced redundant entries from 12 to zero while preserving supported content; execution and scoring were AI-assisted. Distilled testing lessons into a reusable custom skill.

Additional Experience & Publication

Stuttering Blueprint — Founder & Speech-Language Pathologist | November 2023–present
Developed and delivered online stuttering support using evidence-based tools and approaches, including Camperdown-based speech strategies, ACT principles and mindfulness. Created instructional videos and structured worksheets guiding client practice, self-assessment, recording review and adjustment between sessions.

Earlier clinical roles: Avery Fluency Services, September 2011–February 2013; West Vancouver School District, March 2010–December 2011; Communication Assistance for Youth and Adults (CAYA), July 2009–June 2010.

The ADHD Child's Parenting Playbook — published on Amazon; written with AI assistance beginning in 2023.

Education

M.Sc., Speech-Language Pathology — University of British Columbia, 2007–2009
B.A., Psychology — Simon Fraser University, 1994–2002

Skills & Tools

Clinical assessment and evidence synthesis · Service-system design · Staff training and clinical education · Learning-resource and assessment design · Progress measurement and reporting · AI-assisted workflow design and testing

ChatGPT · Google Docs, Sheets and Slides · Canva · Seesaw · PowerPoint · Obsidian · Base44 · Qdrant and Voyage-4 within AI-assisted retrieval and matching projects