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From: Deborah L. Bennett, MS CCC-SLP
Date: 06 Oct 2009
Time: 07:06:02 -0500
Remote Name: 24.63.202.152
Hello Dr. Mallard, and thanks for your article. My first question is whether you would be willing to share more specifics about the Talk Time form that you have parents fill out twice weekly. You said you ask for their comments, observations, and feelings about the Talk Time, but I would like to know how you present these questions. I find that asking for weekly comments usually gets me responses such as "It went well," and maybe a reference to what was talked about. Most parents of children who have been stuttering for a while, in my experience, are comfortable with it, aside from a concern about their child's feelings. You say that parent information provided this way often has an impact on future goal development. What kinds of information or observations lead to what kinds of goals? How can I better elicit useful parent feedback about Talk Time at home? Right now, I am working with a nine year old 4th grader. He stutters on about 9% of syllables. His description of his problem is that he "looks stupid" or feels embarrassed because of his stuttering. He is able to maintain eye contact easily with any partner when he stutters, and when he is practicing voluntary stuttering. This is a relaxed kid with a relaxed home life and supportive parents, peers and teachers. Pull out therapy occurs after school. My current goal with this student is to help him become more aware of stuttering moments ("catching the stutter," based on Mark Allen's methods) so that we can begin to use stuttering modification techniques. After four therapy hours, he still finds it very difficult to notice stutters as they occur. If I stop him, he can identify a stutter that just happened about 25% of the time. He easily identifies and describes his stutters from a recording. I don't feel it would be appropriate to send home a "catching the stutter" assignment in which parents try to help the student notice his own stutters in a conversation. At this point in therapy, what would your thoughts be? Working toward more awareness of stuttering moments, or perhaps brainstorming ways to cope with feelings of embarrassment? Thanks for your work, Debbie Bennett, MS CCC-SLP