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From: Patty Walton
Date: 19 Oct 2008
Time: 12:37:55 -0500
Remote Name: 71.218.97.38
Carolyn- there are certainly some kids who will present a greater challenge to us than others. For a young child who may be withdrawn because of stuttering I think the most important thing we can do is be direct in our approach and let the child know that we understand how they feel. Which is tricky for this age! I may say to child "sometimes I get stuck in my talking and it does not feel good" or "I don't like it when my talking gets hard (bumpy)". As with everything esle in theray, we must always consider the particular child when choosing how we respond in therapy. Feeling comfortable talking to young kids like this can be quite a challenge, as many slps are concerned such attention may make the problem worse or make the child feel more negative. I think that it is our primary role to connect with the child, let them know we know how to help and that we can understand how they feel. We can put easy dysfuencies in our speech in therapy room to show them that we can stutter in an easier, less tense manner and often when parents do that a thome it has a powerful effect on how the reacts to his own stuttering. For these kids, I would start therapy at the one and two word level, give them lots of success with with easy or smooth speech and start reinforcing right away. The beauty of working with this age is they are so young that much of the negatvity is restricted to the moment of stuttering and some of the more pervasive feelings of shame and fear are not as much of an issue.