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From: Bobby
Date: 10 Oct 2009
Time: 20:17:31 -0500
Remote Name: 71.228.119.75
I think I need to clarify the "friends" relationship between SLP and Client. I don't mean that the SLP/Client relationship needs to be a "lets go get a beer or three". But the clinical setting needs to be "friendly" enough for the client to be comfortable asking questions of the SLP. My first attempts at therapy was anything but friendly. I wasn't allowed to ask anything at all because I didn't know anything (according to the therapists). Most adults who stutter have been doing so for quite a while. We may not know all of the "ins and outs" that the clinicians know, but we do know ourselves better than anyone. Plus we know how our stutter affects us and our relationship to others. My student SLP's all made it a point to tell me there is no "cure", which is what I expected. But then they showed me how to increase my fluency through various techniques which they demonstrated first. They were to say the least lousy stutterers, but they tried and that meant a lot to me. Being drinking buddies type friends and making the clinical setting friendly are not quite the same thing. Your clients will learn a lot from each of you in how to increase their fluency, and you will learn from your clients be they adult or juvenile. Be open to questions, even "dumb" ones as they can lead to other questions which the client really didn't know how to ask. Thanks