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From: Frances and Jane
Date: 10/16/00
Time: 9:34:51 AM
Remote Name: 62.188.134.243
Dear Rebecca Thank you so much for your question. In fact we have quite a comprehensive service for all age groups. For the ISAD we were asked specifically to talk about teenagers so that is why we limited ourselves to that particular intensive programme. We do encourage early referral and intervention where necessary. So our under 7 year age group will come with both their parents for a very full consultation appointment to make sure that we understand exactly what the parents worries are about their child and the fluency problem, we use both research information and our own clinical expertise to assess the child's level of risk for vulnerability to stammering. We don't believe that parents cause their children to stammer, we do believe that parents can be the greatest resource in helping their child to either get through this phase of dysfluency or to help the family manage the problem in such a way as to encourage maximum levels of fluency. Our therapy focuses on parent child interaction where the parents and child are video taped and then, within a very supportive framework, together we work on identifying those things which enhance fluency and those things which make it less easy for a child to maintain his natural fluency. For example when watching a replay it might be that the Dad notices that he asks a sequence of questions without waiting for a reply - we would reinforce that observation and the father would go off and practise reducing the level of questionning until the next session. The Mum might feel that she is talking too quickly and want to work on that until we see the family the following week. The whole programme takes 6 x 1 hour weekly sessions then a gap for 6 weeks for consolidation and then we review the progress. For some that is enough, for others we would go on to be more directive with the child -again working always with the parents. For older children we still work very closely with both parents (unless it is a lone parent family) - working on the family interaction styles, and more direct therapy for the child. This can take place either within individual sessions or within a group intensive. All our families are followed up for at least a year and sometimes two. I hope that gives you brief view of what we do here.