[ Contents | Search | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Judy
Date: 09 Oct 2007
Time: 21:05:48 -0500
Remote Name: 70.22.163.191
Kim, you sound like you are going to be an ace SLP! Thank you for saying you liked my ideas. :) I find that being client-centered is easier said than done because it seems that so many people expect to receive how-to instruction. While you play with a preschooler, the parent may not understand that you are behaving in specific ways to elicit specific goals. To the untrained eye, it just looks like playing. The typical elementary school child is so used to sitting quietly in a classroom and filling out worksheets, quietly walking single file to and from art/gym/lunch/recess, and quietly listening to lectures that he/she may have no concept of leading discussion with an adult. The teenager exhausted from homework and extra-curricular activities can be half-present and half-thinking about lots of other things while with you. I usually I have to provide some structure at the beginning of each session with some specific description of what is going on and why. Clients seem to like having a framework. I give lots of reinforcement for clients' input and gradually, some of them realize its safe to take more control of the session and do so. Ta-da, now the client is thinking out loud, solving his/her own issues, and you are the skilled listener, not giving advice, but somehow acknowledging and feeding back to the client what you hear. Now you save a portion of each session for open-ended conversation. Not all clients become willing conversationalists. I've learned that some clients just want to be drilled as if attending football practice, and that's ok too. But, as an SLP, I need more than data to stay in this field. What keeps me here is learning about all the marvelous variations there are in human beings. People live such interesting lives! As you discover the unique interests and qualities of each of your clients, you may discover they have a subset of concepts with which they understand the world. When you discover this, you can translate information about stuttering into the langauge of the client. For example, sports analogies abound and there are current day atheletes who persevere, train, use relation/focus/technique along a hierarchy of tasks to become good at what they do. I once had a student who was a natural at motorcross. I talked about fluency enhancing techniques and his dad translated them into ways in which the child shifted his bike and manuveured over rough terrain. I learned about motorcross and the family understood speech issues. Besides a child's interests and culture, there are other life issues to consider in tailoring your speech therapy such as adoption, learning disabilities, giftedness, alcoholism, bullying, stress management, single-parenthood, and war. Of course, these issues are outside the scope of practice of the SLP, but it helps to have an interest in them to approach your client with empathy. You'll learn about empathy in your SLP coursework, but similar communication skills are available in many different forms such as negotiating, sales, coaching, and management. These fields also value understanding people and their needs. I could recommend many paperbacks since I have a habit of collecting them, but for starters, I would suggest books such as "Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood" by William Pollack, Ph.D. (1998). Many of your clients will be male and as a female SLP, you will need some appreciation and respect for the male perspective. Good luck!!