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From: Tim Mackesey
Date: 20 Oct 2010
Time: 17:54:09 -0500
Remote Name: 72.152.99.49
As kids leave Piaget's preoperational stage (age 7) they have more stable memory and are doing what psychologists call 'comparing self to other." Basically they remember the stuttering events and personalize comments and teasing. I have had great success replaying and editing traumatic stutter events in kids age 8-9. This is an age where they may progress to a 'stutterer' identity if we don't help change the cognitive stuff simultaneously with speech targets. I hear the lucid stories such as "I was teased at summer camp," "my soccer team laughed at me," " I was mocked at scouts." We have to look beyond school for sure. Often times peers are used to the stutter at school and it is the unfamiliar kids who nail the pws. Flo Filley at UW-Madison taught me to get a rapport with a child and then asked "what happens at _____ when you stutter? Do people say anything or try to help?" This works great. You do not start with "ARE YOU TEASED?" If a child has not yet been teased, we can refrain from planting that seed right off. We can spin a metaphor or gently open that topic if the symptoms predict listener reaction. If a kid knows how to react the first time, he is empowered. But, we do not create worry where unnecessary.