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From: Dick Mallard
Date: 08 Oct 2009
Time: 18:48:25 -0500
Remote Name: 70.115.247.118
Irina, thanks for writing. You bring up an interesting point about parents thinking I would be shifting the work load from me to them. This has never happened to my knowledge. The parents come to me to find out what to do and I merely help them discover their very important role. If a parent comes in and believes I can fix the child in isolation, then I need to work with the parent, not the child. We speech-language pathologists cannot "fix" any communication problem. We can assist people in helping themselves and that is how I see my role. Success, to me, is when the client can go about his/her daily activities and stuttering does not enter into the communication decision making process. I do not define success based on percentage of fluency. Our long-term follow-up data suggests that anywhere from about 78-82% of the families I see no longer need help for the management of stuttering. I am not sure how you define failure. One of the main reasons children tend to regress is either the child and/or the parents are focusing too much on speech change and not enough on coping strategies and the use of proper social skills. Let me know if you need additional information. Thanks again for your interest.