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From: Dick Mallard
Date: 06 Oct 2012
Time: 20:53:55 -0500
Remote Name: 72.178.121.195
What is your opinion of treating school-age and adolescent clients? Ryan, thanks for asking this question. It is an important one. I see school-age children and adolescents as two distinct populations. I prefer to follow a problem solving approach with all clients; that is, find out what their problem is and go from there. For school age children, I try to keep therapy simple and focused. Keeping good eye contact and stuttering easily are the two areas that I emphasize. These two skills provide an excellent foundation on which to build further speech change skills when the child is ready. For adolescents, I focus on social skills training. If adolescents can learn to cope with teasing, how to respond appropriately to difficult situations, and develop goals in which they come out a winner then they will be ahead of the game, and perhaps somewhat desensitized with good self-confidence. Obviously, I cannot elaborate on each of these here but this should give you an idea of how I approach these two groups. Thanks again for asking. I look forward to future interactions with you, either during this conference or at a later date. Best wishes!