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From: Jen SLP
Date: 16 Oct 2008
Time: 10:51:27 -0500
Remote Name: 216.56.86.36
Hello. I work with a teenage boy who stutters. He is such a pleasant and bright young gentleman. Recently he needed to do a presentation in front of his teacher and myself (SLP). He was quite nervous, but I thought he would do okay becuase he had his script in front of him. To my surprise, he fell apart. He was disfluent on almost every word. I stopped him shortly after he has started because I knew that it was taking a toll on him. He did start to cry when I stopped him. When he stopped we talked about how he had given speeches in the past and if he has ever given speeches into a tape recorder or been video taped, which he hadn't. I provided him support and told him that I understood how challenging this task was for him and that he wouldn't be downgraded because he couldn't complete the task. We are going to try to get him to video or audio tape his speeches to see if that makes a difference, but my question is...how can I help him? He appears to stutter more when he is reading than when he is casually talking with his friends in the classroom. I think it has to do with anxiety. He doesn't want to be different and therefore doesn't like to leave the classroom. Everyone wants the best for him. I'm thinking we have to look at constructing a "ladder" and examining situations for fluent vs. disfluent speech. Would this be a good place to start? He has been receiving SL therapy since Kgd and is now in 7th grade.