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

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Direct therapy vs. parental counselling

From: weezy0@aol.com
Date: 10/10/00
Time: 7:40:26 AM
Remote Name: 64.12.104.184

Comments

I recently evaluated an 8 year old boy whose primarily dysfluencies are interjections and occasional revisions. He is a bright young boy, who is also bilinqual in Hebrew. AT times during the evaluation, his interjections ( um um ) almost appeared to be related more to word finding than an actual stuttering block. He exhibited no secondary characteristics. He denied being bothered by these interjections and appears to have a happy, full social life at school..where he loves to be. Parents openly state they are fast talking, fast moving, upwardly mobile folks. Dysfluency began at age 6 when a new baby came into the family. Mom is open about discussing the client's need to talk quickly to get a word in at home. He is the oldest of three little boys. Because of the very mild nature of the child's dysfluency, the lack of secondary characteristics, and the environment at home, I felt direct therapy at this time was inappropriate with the child...and that my emphasis should be on the family/home envirnoment and training in fluency enhancing techniques. My plan is to work with the parents very specifically on techniques to enhance the child's fluency, rather than make the child more conscious of a problem that appears to concern his parents more than himself at this time. After three weeks, I was planning to see the child again, talk with the parents, and evaluate the need to continue the treatment plan as is, or make changes towards more direct therapy. Question: Should I be doing more direct work with the child at this time, or do you support my plan to work with the environmental issues first?

Thank you.


Last changed: September 12, 2005