Children who stutter and the "therapy paradox": If every therapy works, then no therapy works

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Re: East Carolina University, CSDI

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Date: 10/6/00
Time: 2:11:53 PM
Remote Name: 205.198.54.33

Comments

Spontaneous recovery is an issue in other types of communication disorders, as well, and cannot always be accounted for. Many children exhibit articulation errors which disappear over time, just as many children are dysfluent at a young age and spontaneously recover. I don't think there's a way to account for that in any situation.

As for the therapy techniques, I suppose our society rejects the first approach because we are no longer a complacent society--we need to jump in and be direct. We also don't like to admit defeat and are in the mindset that everything works no matter what. Look at telemarketing and infomercials! We have the ability to persuade anyone that something works! We also seem to have the mindset that we are invincible, so the almighty cure is always a possibility. I'm glad you came right out and stated that nothing works and that you've taught your students the same thing, because it's important for us as students to learn that there are some things that aren't necessarily fixable, and while we're in the process of looking for a cause and cure, coping strategies are what we have to work with. We also need to learn to be accountable for what we research and practice, and if we don't have steadfast data, how do we know if something really works or not?


Last changed: September 12, 2005