[ Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Charlie Healey
Date: 15 Oct 2008
Time: 12:50:03 -0500
Remote Name: 129.93.99.57
Adolescents are difficult to treat typically because they have had such negative experiences from being disfluent for many years and not having any success from previous therapy. One of my principles is that clients need to want therapy and this is especially true for adolescents. They are brought in by the parents because the parents think that their child is now old enough to take on more responsibility for making changes in his/her speech. So, when I work with an adolescent, my first question to the child is, "Do you really want therapy?" If they say yes, then I think the process is one in which you review what they know or have learned and go from there. Many times, I feel like we have to start all over with learning techniques, thinking differently about themselves and the stuttering, and work some on getting the speech to transfer to realistic speaking situations. Teens want to be cool and stuttering is not cool. So, keeping their attitudes positive and putting stuttering in proper perspective is an important part of therapy. I also like to work on some simple things they can do with their speech that will work pretty quickly in reducing the severity of the stuttering. Giving them some success tends to build on itself. I also work more on understanding what happens during a stuttering moment, increased awareness, and being able to talk about what they are doing to interfere with the normal processes of talking. I also think there is a lot of attitude and emotion work that can be done with teens. The Stuttering Foundation has a nice DVD on working with teens who stutter so you might want to check that out for other insights and ideas.