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From: Vivian Sisskin
Date: 04 Oct 2008
Time: 19:37:50 -0500
Remote Name: 96.255.167.23
Certainly, your SLP can give you some direction here, but I will make some comments on this topic…. As you mentioned, stuttering is variable, and there are times when your child may demonstrate a good deal of fluency and other times when struggle becomes severe. Most strategies require practice so that they become habituated or so that your child can access them when needed. New habits can best be learned under conditions when your child is not struggling. I often advise children to practice in low-feared situations, or when only minimal symptoms are present. It is very difficult to feel success from practice when trying to implement strategies in the moment when one feels a loss of control. This is probably true for other motor learning tasks as well.. a musician doesn’t try a new technique during a performance, and an athlete doesn’t try a new skill during a competition. So, it may be that a good time to practice a given strategy is when your child may not appear to need it.