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From: Rosemarie
Date: 09 Oct 2010
Time: 06:04:44 -0500
Remote Name: 86.129.241.142
Hello Caitlin, it seems we have lots of agreement that parents should be involved in therapy. Some parents feel anxious about commenting on stuttering and this is understandable. I would always encourage parents to work at a pace that feels right for them as well as right of the child. Some parents are not used to giving specific feedback, they are more inclined to say things like ‘good boy’, ‘clever boy’ and so learning to give feedback on smooth talking and then less frequent feedback on stuttering is in itself a challenge. We need the feedback to be genuine, non-judgmental and aimed at giving the child information that will help him manage the stoppages in the flow of his speech in a more effective way. So one strategy for therapists is to give parents time to find their own way of giving helpful feedback to the child, another is to take more time modeling possible ways of giving feedback so that the parent can see how the child responds when the therapist makes these comments and then have a go themselves. Sometimes, children ask their parents for feedback, they might say ‘that was smooth Mummy’ and so they remind the parents to do it. The use of tangible reinforcement can also help remind parents to give more feedback. I find it difficult to suggest strategies in this context because I don’t know how you would interpret what I say. Sometimes we write things that seem very clear at the time of writing only to discover that the reader has placed a different interpretation on the text. I think the best way of developing strategies for dealing with challenges in therapy is to discuss different options with our clients, to observe what seems to help a child the most and to schedule peer discussion and support into our working lives. I hope this reply is helpful.