Simplifying Stuttering Therapy in a School Setting

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Re: Attitudes of the parents

From: Dick Mallard
Date: 18 Oct 2009
Time: 16:36:17 -0500
Remote Name: 70.115.247.118

Comments

Hanh, what a nice response to my article. Thank you. Your questions are excellent, as is your writing! You are absolutely correct about problem solving the stuttering issue can have a positive effect on solving life-situation problems. I can speak from personal experience that learning to solve (cope with) my stuttering gave me the confidence that I can deal effectively with difficult issues. My attitude was, "Stuttering was the most difficult situation I ever faced and if I can be successful with that, I can be successful with anything." You know the Bible says in Romans 5:3 that the first step in dealing with tribulation is to "...glory in tribulation." I believe that. I would not be typing to you now if I did not have a stuttering problem. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect that my wife and I would experience the things we have that were due to my professional activities that revolve around academic and clinical issues with stuttering. So yes, stuttering has been a positive influence in my life. You are correct in that the earlier a child can learn this, the better. If parents (or an individual) do not know how to help with a problem and they go to a specialist with lots of experience dealing with that problem and then disagree with the specialist, then why did they seek help in the first place? If parents do not want to work in the model that I use, I make recommendations for them to see another clinician. I have no problem with that. In fact, I believe I am ethically bound to take that course of action. Regarding the issue of the child having problems because of stuttering or vice versa, I normally tell people we don't know what causes stuttering. I usually say something like, "There are tons of people who have the same problem your child has and they do not stutter." I usually don't get into these theoretical issues. I had rather go with what the child says the problems are not what the parents think the problems are in most cases. Let me address the issue of changing the perspective and attitudes of parents. You are going to come across parents who have high expectations for their child to "use" what they have learned in speech or who expect their stuttering child to be fluent all the time. I use what I am going to tell you about next with articulation and stuttering. This works almost 100% of the time in getting the parents to change their perspective. With articulation, I ask the parents to have a conversation with me and substitute "th" for /s/ ("thun" for "sun"). I tell them every time you have a word that contains an /s/, substiutute a "th." All of a sudden, they see just how difficult this is. I then point out that you as an adult could not do this task so what are the chances your seven year old child will be successful (When he does not want to be in speech therapy in the first place!). This tends to change their perspective and their expectations! With stuttering, I have the parents learn to stutter like their child does. Normally, I have the child monitor how well the parents are doing. Talk about an eye opener! For the first time the parents experience what stuttering is like and you can imagine what might happen from that point forward. I could write volumes on experiences that have happened from that one exercise. Both of these activities (articulation and stuttering examples) are powerful ways to help parents understand just what their child is facing and to adjust their expectations accordingly. Usually, they are willing to at least consider a problem solving approach rather than a "you fix it now" approach! Thanks again for your excellent questions. I wish you the very best in school and your professional career.


Last changed: 10/18/09