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From: Hanh Dinh
Date: 17 Oct 2009
Time: 23:58:56 -0500
Remote Name: 67.250.10.85
Dr. Mallard, My name is Hanh Dinh and I am a graduate student at New York University taking a course in fluency disorders. I’ve read your article on simplifying stuttering therapy and what I like most about your problem-solving philosophy is that it can be applied to other areas of the child’s life. It is a healthy approach to other obstacles that he may encounter later and learning at an early age to confront his difficulties as problems to solve is a great start. Although your approach is to teach the child to manage his problem rather than reduce his stuttering, in the time that you’ve implemented this method, have you had parents who disagreed with you and ask that you just help their child to “stop stuttering”? How do you respond to parents who argue that their child wouldn’t have these problems had they not stuttered at all, and therefore the stuttering itself should be the problem that is targeted? How can you help them to develop a different perspective on their child’s stuttering, namely focusing on the “problem solving procedures as the key to success, not specific speech change or fluency enhancing procedures?” Finally, to what extent do you feel clinicians can affect this change of perspective and attitude in parents? Your response will be greatly appreciated, and I thank you in advance for your time.