School-age Stuttering Therapy: A burden, a challenge, or an opportunity?

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Re: school-age therapy

From: Scott
Date: 16 Oct 2012
Time: 18:16:51 -0500
Remote Name: 108.17.124.241

Comments

Hi Dana - Yes this is a very common experience. In fact, I used to have a question about it on my final exam in my class... As a newly graduated SLP, you find yourself in the schools to do your CF. Within a month or so, you start to notice that all of the clinicians are referring their stuttering cases to you because you're not afraid of working with kids who stutter. What should you do about it? (The answer, of course, is educate the other people about stuttering, and the students taking the exam would highlight some key things that we want people to know...). It really is important for clinicians to develop comfort in areas that they're not comfortable with. At the same time, we have to recognize the extreme pressure that many clinicians are under just to see the kids they need to see...In a prior post, I talked briefly about the economics and politics of this situation, and it's ugly. Put simply, without adequate funding for our schools, it will be impossible for children to get adequate treatment in that setting. Of course, there are private settings, but reimbursement and third party payment is another challenging issue that is controlled by economics and politics. To give a simple example: clinicians seldom get the time they need for training. They are required to get a certain number of CEUs (in some states), but their districts can no longer host trainings or even give clinicians the opportunity to go attend trainings... SO, even some clinicians who WANT to improve their comfort may have difficulty doing that. (That said, there are still plenty who are uncomfortable and prefer to refer out.) The good news in all of this - and something that Nina and I know from personal experience - is that clinicians CAN improve their comfort in working with stuttering...they can do this through training materials, in-person and on-line workshops, and interactions with other clinicians. That's part of why we do what we do - it's sort of our personal mission, if you will...we've been fortunate to talk to thousands and thousands of clinicians, and many have learned to become better stuttering therapists because of it. I don't say this to take credit; i say this solely to point out that positive change is possible. That's the real point of this article and what we hope people will take away. Thanks again for your post! S


Last changed: 10/22/12