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From: Charlie Healey
Date: 10 Oct 2007
Time: 21:16:55 -0500
Remote Name: 76.84.69.211
I was pleased to read that you are using the CALMS approach to treating the child with severe stuttering and that you said the approach is helping be a better communicator. If you read my Seven Principles of Therapy article, that's one of my points. Using the speech easy is okay as that provides a delayed/altered feedback that is fluency enhancing, There is no reason not to introduce that or other forms of fluency enhancing strategies into therapy as long as the child understands that it isn't magic or something else that is creating the fluency...it's something he is doing differently with his speech mechanism as a by product of the change in auditory feedback for speech. The effects won't last and that's what the child needs to understand. I would recommend you continue with the multidimensional approach by focusing on several factors that contribute to stuttering, i.e., the CALMS factors. Also bear in mind that severe stuttering will be hard to change so if you can improve his awareness and understanding of his stuttering, help him develop a positive attitude about it, help him see that the amount of stuttering and who he talks to will dictate how much he stutters as he trys to manage a very unstable motor system, then you are on the right track. The process will take time.