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From: Scott Palasik PhD, CCC-SLP
Date: 12 Oct 2011
Time: 21:14:12 -0500
Remote Name: 68.63.222.213
Gerald. Thank you for asking a wonderful question and bringing up this vital point about teaching clients to be better overall communicators. This is not only pertinent to stuttering, it can also be applied to all communication disorders. Since we are talking about stuttering, I'll address that one here. One thing I have started introducing into therapy with all of our clients is learning how to create and produced public speaking skills. We have had clients from age nine through adulthood practice speeches that are taken directly from the Competent Communicator Manual that members of Toastmasters International Organization use. We use this manual and discuss the different learning points for each speech, allow the client to brain storm ideas, and then present these speeches which could be 4-7 minutes in length to the clinician or small groups of people (depending on the client’s wishes of course). We also try to teach clients that they can talk about any topic (even those they know nothing about) for a few minutes while still organizing a good speech with an opening, body, and conclusion (again, an important component of a Toastmaster’s meeting, Table Topic speeches). Lastly, we teach somatic (body movements) as related to communication. We encourage clients to be aware of their posture and how they move in space in order to convey a message (not only verbally but also a sense of confidence). Gerald, your question is a great one and I thank you so much for posing it to this group.