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From: Gunars Neiders
Date: 08 Oct 2007
Time: 15:09:24 -0500
Remote Name: 67.183.183.115
Dear Jackie,......The time I was growing up was a time when my parents were day to day not knowing whether we would be alive the next day. For example, my father's brother and his wife were taken to Siberia by the Russians where they died. My father refused direct orders from the Nazis to mutilate Jews and we did not know whether our family would be summarily executed. When we were refugees in Germany fleeing from Russians at the end of World War II we were bombed by day by the American Air Force and by night by the English Air Force.....When the armies fought we were often in the middle of battlefields....Then there was starvation.....The list goes on and on.....My parents were just trying to keep everyone, the children and themselves alive.....I am sure that they must have worried about my stuttering.....that is why they tried to get self-proclaimed logopaeds (the Eastern European term for SLP's), standard SLP's, etc. to help me, but the logopaeds or SLP usually had no affect on me either for good or bad.....but we never talked about it.....my mother hoped that I would be able to eventually solve my own problems.....and I am happy not to have disappointed her....it might have taken a little longer than she hoped, but such is life...........................My advice for parents is taken from my own experience with my granddaughter A. who had a period of disfluencies. I think that when a child starts to speak they repeat sounds and, if they are not as linguistically developed as they themselves think they should be, they get frustrated. They start to get down on themselves, they force sounds and words, etc. (In essence, I subscribe to Nan Ratner's view.) I would have parents follow these rules: a) when a child talks I would give them all the time and all the space to talk (If there are other children in family, I would enforce strict turn taking with every child having time to fully express their thoughts. My granddaughter, when interrupted by anyone now says, "It is my turn to talk."), b) I would, for the time being reduce all the stress factors on the child as much as is possible without spoiling the child, c) make all the talking experiences enjoyable, d) contact a SID-4 fluency specialist SLP or have the attending SLP be supervised by a SID-4 fluency disorders specialist, even though it may be long distance, e) the parents should get counseling preferrably REBT or CBT type in order to minimize their anxiety, f) if the child is older the parents should try to find an SLP or counselor who is compatible with the child's outlook on life and g) give the child space in time and not force him or her into therapy against their wishes. The child may not be ready for speech therapy but may be willing to talk with a good psychological counselor about his or her problem and have the counselor check out appropriate resources in the community..........Above all the parents should not panic or act rigidly.....Let the child have space and try to follow at least some of his or her inclinations.....I disagree with the statement I found in British Medical Journal inside of a rectangular box inside of Jones, M; Onslow, M. et al article entitled "Randomized controlled trial of the Lidcombe programme of early stuttering". It states under bold title *What is already known about stuttering*: "Chronic stuttering in adulthood is intractable and has serious disabling effects". For one, I have achieved imperfect fluency (a flowing forward moving speech with very few disfluencies varying day to day, but, in my opinion within the range of a normal speaker) and I do not experience ANY, yet alone serious, disabling effects............The parents need to understand that when the child is ready he or she will be able to get proper speech therapy that includes psychological counseling based on REBT or CBT or narrative therapy that will help him or her come to grips with his or her communication problems.....one must be patient....learn about stuttering....and keep an optimistic attitude.....Also I would ask the *experts* above in the "The Professor Is In" the same question.