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From: Bobby Childers
Date: 10/4/01
Time: 8:14:33 PM
Remote Name: 216.234.195.177
I thought I would answer all of your questions in one posting since the questions were fairly similar.
1)Marbles in Mouth-- Back in the middle 60's, this was a common treatment from what I've heard. Supposedly it is to "train" your mouth, jaws, lips, etc., how to properly form the words and sounds. Maybe one of the SLP's online can give a better answer for that one.
I think the goal in that was "perfect fluency" as stuttering was not considered to be a "good" trait to have.
2) I do keep in contact with my student clinicians via email as we are all far away from each other now. I'm surprised that I haven't heard from any of them yet, because I talked about them.
3)Revisiting my old elementary schools--kids in today's school situations aren't as inclined to make fun of "unusual" speaking as they were 40 years ago. But then again, kids will be kids, and they tend to speak what is on their minds without thinking about the possible consequences either.
4)The speech techniques that I have found to be most beneficial are the prolonged vowels, easy onset, and light articulation. They taught me one other one also, but it was difficult for me to use, so I have forgotten it. I still have to think about doing the techniques sometimes (when I get tired), and sometimes I just get to "excited" to even think about them, and I just stumble through.
5)One of the reasons I feel that my fluency in the clinic didn't carry over to the "real world" is the clinical setting is controlled. The clinicians are aware of my stuttering, and there is no judgement per se of my speech. Outside the clinic, there is no control, people who don't know me, don't know about my stuttering, so I sometimes get strange looks, smiles, or comments.
While people claim that they don't judge someone in the first few seconds of meeting them, it is done automatically and instinctivly. So when I start stuttering right at the beginning of a conversation, the listner's first reaction usually is "what's wrong with this person". The reaction may not last but a few seconds, but the thought is still in their minds. I have to overcome that thought to prove to them that I am not an imbecile.
6)Therapy in a clinical setting is very important to the overall outcome of speech therapy. The client needs to have the controlled setting to learn how to do the various techniques which are available.
Trying to learn the techniques without being in a clinic would be very difficult and embarassing to most people. I know that when I first started learning them, my student clinicians had me exaggerate everything for a while so I could get the "feel" of it. In the outside world, this would have caused numerous problems, and I would not have even tried doing it.
After the client has been through some therapy in a clinic setting, then the clinician could start going outside and practicing with the client. They could start with the clinic staff as they are "unknown" to the client, but still safe in that they know the client stutters. As the client grows in the techniques and feels more comfortable using them, then the clinician and the client should start going to places where the client will experience situations that they normally would be in. The clinician could start the conversation and then pass it over the client like my student clinicians did, because the client doesn't really feel like this is therapy.
7) Above all though, make sure that your client feels that he/she has your support. Once they develop a trusting relationship with you, they will come to rely on that for support. The reliance may not last long, but until the client is comfortable with the techniques and his/her attitude about the stuttering, they will need all the support they can get.