[ Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Peter Reitzes
Date: 08 Oct 2011
Time: 10:43:19 -0500
Remote Name: 66.57.22.122
Julie, thanks for taking the time to share your comments and current situation working with a child who stutters. I am not very comfortable giving suggestions for people and clients I do not know. It reminds me of asking a professional poker player about a specific poker hand and if I played it correctly. Generally, the poker player will respond back, “It depends.” Then I am reminded that what happened before the hand, what happened with the other players at the table, what happened in previous poker sessions, etc. really, really matter. So, I have to respond to your question with a very unsatisfying “it depends.” Now, generally speaking, it sounds that the things you are doing like examining how speech works and experimenting with different speaking approaches can be very productive. My preference when working with school age children who stutter is to try and do group therapy as much as possible or as much as is productive. I have found that children, at times, are more open and willing to explore their stuttering and take risks when working with other children who stutter. My experience has been that working individually with a child for some sessions is more powerful after having used group sessions first. In my experience, group sessions have helped my clients understand their stuttering better. Then we can move to some one on one sessions to really focus on specific goals. Of course, this is all very generally speaking.