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From: Dick Mallard
Date: 03 Oct 2009
Time: 08:27:21 -0500
Remote Name: 70.115.245.165
Roxanne, thanks for your comments and questions. Problem solving can be used with any age child (or adult), not just older children. Problem solving is the foundation principle that I use for all my therapy. The parents may be the ones to have the problem with the child's speech so we have to approach therapy by helping the parents deal with or cope with the child's speech. You would be shocked, as was I, when I started asking young children what their problem with speech was and what they wanted to do about it. You will increase your accountability and probably your success rate if you let your clients tell you specifically what their current problem is and what they want to do about it or what they are willing to do about it. When you work from that perspective, you are addressing the problem at hand with a solution that the client blieves might work. Just because the person stutters does not mean necessarily they want to work on speech directly. They may want help with coping with the problem, not correcting it. I became a better clinician when I quit trying to tell people what they should do and let them tell me what they wanted to do. We then go from there. I hope this helps. Let me know what you think. Again, thanks for the questions and your interest.