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From: Charlie Healey
Date: 19 Oct 2007
Time: 09:34:41 -0500
Remote Name: 129.93.99.57
Laura: Thanks for reading my article and the question you asked. If you look at the response to the post above yours, I sort of answered a similar question about what to say to parents in my response to Maria's question. I will add to what I said to Maria in order to address your question. First, if the child is unsure about what lies ahead, I would talk to the child about teasing, bullying, and difficulties in communication (interacting with friends, speaking in class, ordering food, talking on the phone, etc) that could be hard to deal with. I might ask them how they might handle some of these situations. Doing some problem solving activities before the therapy is teminated would be the direction I would take. In other words, I would say something like, because you no longer want therapy, I want to spend at least a one session talking over how you are going to manage certain situations. The purpose of this is to alert the child that things could get rough and to see if they are ready to handle that emotionally or don't care about the bullying and are okay with how they talk. If so, then I compliment them on their courage to face these challenges. But, what choices can they make when things are tough. That's where we can help them plan an exit strategy, so to speak. Within that context, I tell the child that if they find want help through various situations down the road, then the therapy door is always open. I usually say all of this in front of the parent and then ask the parent to share their feelings about discontinuing therapy so the child can hear what the parent has to say. Sometimes children don't make good choices but I would never want a child in therapy that doesn't want the help. You will know right away when that happens. So, it's not so much of a "warning" to the child that what lies ahead could be very rough, but more of an awareness or acknowledgment that their stuttering could lead to some negative reactions. The bottom line is that help is always available when the child wants the help, no matter how far into the future that might be. One last comment. I have seen lots of kids stop therapy when they are in middle school and high school. Then, sometime in their 20's, they come back and are now ready to work on their stuttering. It's all about being at a place and time that they are now ready to work again on their stuttering. Too, they are a little older and wiser so now therapy makes more sense and is more appealing than when they were younger.