The Prof Is In

[ Contents | Search | Next | Previous | Up ]


Re: Fluency Shaping?

From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 22 Oct 2010
Time: 17:34:17 -0500
Remote Name: 157.182.15.31

Comments

Don, Are you a lawyer? <smile> Asking a negative question implies that the answer is "yes." No, I don't think the "best" therapy is necessarily a combination of fluency shaping and stuttering modification. Some clients I have had simply cannot manage the SUBSTANTIAL cognitive requirements of using fluency shaping most of the time on all of their speech but then having the ability to use stuttering modification as a "backup" or "fall back" strategy when the fluency shaping is not successful. Other clients, especially older ones who really don't care as much about their stuttering as they used to (see an earlier thread about this), often want to use neither approach. They, buttressed by some of the writings of Joe Sheehan and others, hold that ANYTHING one does to change or eliminate stuttering is nothing but a more sophisticated accessory behavior. Instead, they prefer nonavoidance, i.e., just let the stuttering happen. That, alone, for them gives them the fluency and freedom of communication they seek. As you go on to say, individualized treatment is a positive option. Some of the intensive programs you list are reasonably flexible, but not nearly as individualized as treating everyone entirely on his or her own merits. I may be splitting hairs here, but that's the way I see it. Take care, Ken


Last changed: 10/23/10