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From: Lynne
Date: 07 Oct 2008
Time: 21:53:38 -0500
Remote Name: 76.215.118.209
Dave, You pose an excellent and important question. Follow through is an issue for parents, just as it is for our clients. I certainly can not claim that I have 100% success. I will say that, when I make it a point to include parents in treatment, learning about stuttering, learning the skills that their child is learning, practicing those skills with their child in the clinic setting, and including them with their child in planning how to move those skills out of the clinic room, the likelihood of skills transferring is higher because both the child and parents are receiving focused support. It also helps to open up the topic of stuttering for conversation between the child and parents, which is important all by itself, regardless of whether or not transfer occurs. All of what I am referring to as 'skills' are not necessarily fluency shaping or stuttering modification skills, by the way. For example, if the child is working on how to respond to teasing, and the parents really understand this from hearing this in therapy, their child is more likely to share the experience they had today in school when they tried out a new response to an incident of teasing. The child knows mom and dad are in on this, and will be interested in hearing about it. Not all families are the same, of course, and people vary in their availability, abilities, motivation, and so many other factors--what works with one family won't necessarily work for another. So, while my track record will never be perfect, I am making efforts to find ways to support families in helping their child. Thanks for posting the question, and for reading my clinical nugget--I appreciate it very much. Regards, Lynne