[ Contents | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Gene
Date: 10/19/03
Time: 11:42:29 AM
Remote Name: 24.233.173.179
Dear Dawn:
Thank you for your interest in the CPS Syndrome. You raise an excellent question which I address in detail in the following article:
Cooper, E.B. (1993). Chronic Perseverative Stuttering Syndromes: A harmful or helpful construct? Amercian Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 3, 11-22.
Assessing and treating CPS is discussed in detail in our most recent publication: Cooper, E.B. & Cooper,C.S. (2003). Cooper Personalized Fluency Control Therapy - Adolescent and Adult Version. Austin,TX:ProEd.
Briefly, the construct is used in describing those individuals for whom stuttering will require a lifetime of vigilance. In no way should it suggest that clinicians are unable to help these folks. In no way should it suggest that individuals experiencing the syndrome cannot "overcome" the problem. We frequently use the term "conquer" in talking about CPS. That is, we may not be able to "cure" the stuttering, but we can certainly conquer it. That is one of the primary reasons we set "the feeling of fluency control" as our end goal of treatment rather than goals based on arbitrarily defined stuttering frequency counts (the frequency fallacy). Provided assistance in developing fluency enhancing attitudes and feeling along with an array of fluency initiating gestures (FIGs),clients experiencing CPS can indeed conquer the problem - and these are the very same variables that assist children and adolescents experiencing developmental and remediable stuttering to "cure" their stuttering.
Didn't mean to go on so long in responding to your questions, but you've indeed raised very critical issues. Hope you check out the references I mentioned to get a far more thorough picture of the situation.
Again, thanks for your interest.
Gene