Interview With Caroline

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Re: Great Paper

From: Lynne Shields
Date: 10/21/02
Time: 10:09:53 AM
Remote Name: 199.217.208.172

Comments

Katonya,

Thanks for your comments. Regarding the child you are seeing, my guess is that he reacts violently when teased because he is quite angry about his stuttering and the teasing. It may, in part, be related to the fact that his mother seems to be reacting rather violently to his stuttering. I cannot know the best thing to do, since I do not know this case personally, but it seems that some outside counseling might be appropriate for this boy and his mother. There may be some issues that he and she need to deal with that may be bigger than what you might accomplish. If you are seeing this boy through the public schools, you might talk with the school counselor to see what s/he can suggest.

Since you have had some contact with the mother, you might invite her to join her son in several therapy sessions, if this is o.k. with the boy. I would only do joint sessions with his permission, and work out what to cover with him first. He may not be comfortable talking to her about how she reacts to his teasing at first, or ever. But, you can do other activities to get mom involved in a more positive way, and to help her gain information about stuttering and its impact on her son.

In addition, perhaps having him plan and carry out a presentation to his class about stuttering with your assistance could help him gain allies in preventing bullying. You might also talk to his teacher about working on cutting down the amount of teasing that happens at school. Marilyn Langevin had a wonderful article in last year's ISAD conference on teasing and bullying. You might want to read that, if you haven't seen it, to get some other ideas about handling teasing.

There are no quick fixes or easy answers to the issues you raised. Best wishes as you work with this boy.

Regards,

Lynne


Last changed: September 12, 2005