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From: Patty Walton
Date: 19 Oct 2008
Time: 11:05:01 -0500
Remote Name: 207.200.116.137
Hi Joelle- Great question. Parents are such an important part of therapy with the young child. One thing I think is important to tell parents is that listneing to what their child is saying is much more important than listening to how they are saying it. If we can get parents to focus on postively reinforcing communication, independent of fluency this is a great beginning. encouraging parents to tell children "I love your stories". "You are so good at talking". "I am happy you told me that" etc, help children feel good about talking. Listening validates the importance of not only the message but the speaker. I encourage parents to repeat back in an easier, more fluent manner the child's dysfluent utterances, which also send the message that they listened to what the child said. Another key issue is the more parents can tolerate and not respond to moments of stuttering the better for the child. Educating the parents about stuttering, giving them a mulitude of resources to look at, and giving them alot of support will in the end also help the child feel better about talking.