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From: Charlie Healey
Date: 10 Oct 2011
Time: 20:22:02 -0500
Remote Name: 76.84.70.41
Hi Kelly, You asked a great question about your client's stage of treatment and how he could achieve more success than what he has apparently achieved thus far. Lynne has given excellent advice and insights for you and I would agree with everything she has said. I would add though that maybe the child is comfortable and accepts his mild stuttering. I think to push him to higher levels of fluency and to convey to him that he must use his techniques more often gets away from the central message that we like to instill in therapy, which is it is okay to have some stuttering and feel like he is successful. I don't advocate measuring success by how frequently a child stutters. Has he changed is feelings, attitudes, and reactions to stuttering? Can he tell a long complex story without lots of stuttering? If not, then work at that level. Story telling is key and that is part of the effective communication skill that Lynne was talking about. I also think that you need to sit with the child, the parents, and your supervisor and discuss where you are in therapy and what other things can be accomplished, if anything. Is it really motivation issue? Maybe the child will say that he is fine with his speech and the parents are too. It's amazing sometimes how everyone is not on the same page. Try not to let your own bias or perceptions lead him to think that he is not motivated to improve his speech. I think through more discussion with the child and the parents, you will get a much better picture of what additional things you need to do in therapy. Or, as Lynn suggests, maybe this is a good time to cut back on the number of times he is being seen for therapy. That's a decision for everyone involved to make.