How Can We Help?
Hi! I am a grad student studying speech-language pathology, and I wanted to ask if you have any recommendations for ways a future SLP could help create positive listening environments for PWS? Obviously, I can work on my own listening skills, but my clients won’t spend much of their time with me compared to the rest of their social network. What can I be doing that will influence the outside world?
Hi kmbb,
It is important to be open. And the client is the one that can learn to advocate for himself. This is a part of many different therapy appoaches these days and very important.
You yourself can share information about stuttering, talk to people. Every person that starts to get it, is one!
I love to talk about my work and usually a lot of questions come up when I tell people that I am an SLP specialized in stuttering and cluttering. That is my time to be an advocate and tell people about stuttering and cluttering. Share what you are doing, share what is important to know, when you meet new people. If you work with children or adolescents, see if you can get in touch with the teachers and talk with them or prepare a presentation or a talk together with the student.
-Manon-
Hi!
Thank you for this very important question!
In striving to develop a collaboration which is based on a fundament where our own listening skills is regarded as one of our most important primary skills, we have to give enough space for the persons’ feedback and responses throughout the whole therapy process. We also have to look past our own arguments (if we have very fixed arguments) about what kind of interventions are the best. Rather, we have to regularly listen to the persons’ goals and aims in the persons’ lives. To get to know what is of importance (in a particular phase or time point) in the person’s life, is therefore a very good starting point. Evaluations, reflections and considerations from persons who stutter need to be included as a basic source of information, because then you might find a meaningful and relevant direction of the therapy too. The therapy should include more often the persons’ level of satisfaction with and felt responses to therapy. Then we as SLTs are able to adjust the therapy process and therapy elements into the persons’ own preferences, needs and wishes. Then we also have a direct linkage between the persons’ goals and wishes, and what the persons’ are experiencing on a moment-by-moment basis in therapy. Then we as SLTs are good models ourselves, and this may lead to very positive listening environments for more people who stutter.
Best wishes,
Hilda