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From: Joanie Cahalan
Date: 16 Oct 2005
Time: 17:35:10 -0500
Remote Name: 68.225.174.114
Elise, Thank you for your wonderful presentation on this very practical application of CALMS into the therapy process. This thematic model makes therapy so understandable to the child who stutters, their parents and teachers. It makes sense to them. The analogies they can draw upon with the themes that are chosen are relevant, or "hands-on" if you will. In my experience as a school clinician, children become much more empowered when they learn, identify, and begin to understand about the many facets of this disorder (cognitive domain). They can become "experts" about their own stuttering, and stuttering in general. They can also have more avenues, or realistic ways to talk about their stuttering with classmates, friends and teachers. This in turn helps reduce the negative consequences of stuttering (affective domain). We use the CALMS model in our school district, both for assessment and as the foundation for treatment. The applications you have presented will be very useful to many clinicians.