Advice for Emerging SLPs
Hi everyone. My name is Rachel and I am in my last year of graduate school to be a SLP. Is there anything in particular you’d like for us to know as clinicians, especially those of us with minimal experience? Do you recommend any books/movies that show perspectives that are critical for our understanding? I would appreciate any advice or recommendations. Thank you!
Hi Rachel
I’ll start with material first. Besides books about therapy (make sure you check sites by reputable organisations, such as Stamma, SFA, Stuttering therapy Resources, etc), more and more PWS are writing books about their own experiences. The latest, highly recommended, is Stuttering – from shame and anxiety to confidentauthenticy, by Hanan Hurwitz. A (free) booklet, a bit older but still useful, I would have had when I was a child is “Sometimes I just stutter” by Eelco de Geus, which explains stuttering to children, and has different pages to give to different people.
When it comes to movies, there is a project checking movies that include stuttering in some way.
https://www.stamily.org/post/project-stuttering-in-movies
But I would highly recommend is When I Stutter. It goes straight to my heart as it’s so recognizable. Also My Beautiful Stutter is really nice to watch.
So what else. 🙂 The best way to learn more about stuttering is to ask and listen. Before you even think of starting therapy. As we all bring different things to the table. Background, culture, religion, family, age, gender, and our many different experiences. This goes for clients of all ages. You may found out that not all clients come for total fluency. Some want answers, some want a family member to know more, some want some tools to speak with less tension, some want to practice job interviews, some are there because the parents want the child to be fluent while the child just wants to speak freely, some want help with self-esteem, etc etc. When you get a picture of the client and what they want, you can start offering a smörgåsbord. This can be all from speech training to refer to relaxation, mindfulness, NLP, speaking circles, theatre, art, presentation techniques, yoga, swimming, singing, and maybe even a combination.
Also show the way to the stuttering community. This group is not instead of, but can be a great addition to therapy. People who walked the walk and literally talked the talk. They can help with exercises, help to speak in school or at the workplace, support outside the therapy room, etc. They often have gatherings, camps and some even have virtual meetups, even international ones, with meeting friends and simply playing games together.
With acceptance being the safety net, you can start the journey of practice, challenging yourself, and go for your dreams. Acceptance doesn’t mean you’re done. It means you catch your breath and get ready for the next step, whatever that step may be.
And help me to find my true self, and my self-worth. Show me what I’m good at, and that stuttering is not bad and fluency good, but that stuttering just IS. And that it’s not up to me to make my listener happy, but maybe instead up to the listener to simply… listen. Help me to see there’s more in life then fluency. And that I’m good enough either way. But to also help me to find tools that fit me and my stutter, ways to explain to others what stuttering is, ways to meet bullies and other people not getting it. Ways to speak to my teachers. And show me the way to stutter camps, where I can be me, speak freely, without any therapy, and where my parents can come and speak with adult PWS. As the more we understand, the more we feel good enough, the more we lose the shame. So be a friend. 🙂
Most of these advices can work with both adults and children. With children however, make sure you listen to the child and not just to the parents, as they can have different goals, and the child might tell you what s/he thinks others want to hear. So have them both together and seperately. Also group meetings are good, to show they are not alone, and do exercises together, the same for parents.
Lastly: stop the counting syllables. Just because someone stutters less, doesn’t mean things are going great. It can also mean the iceberg is getting under the surface, and thus way harder to notice, and to treat. So listen not only with your ears, but also with your gut, to what’s not been said.
Sounds tricky? I promise you that, as soon as you gain your client’s trust, you’ll have an exiting road ahead, walking and working together, sharing ups and downs, and enjoy the progress, whatever this word includes for that very client. And we warmly welcome you to our meetings and events.
Keep them talking
Anita
And don’t forget Cluttering. As common as stuttering, but woefully misunderstood or misdiagnosed. There is a ton of info om the ICA website, but/and I can also recommend the book “Too fast for words” by Rutger Wilhelm (aviable as print-on-demand on Amazon), and the YouTube channel of/by Joseph Dewey (he talks about his own Cluttering, and has interviewed a ton of people about Cluttering, regular people like myself, Rutger Wilhelm, and several experts (Yvonne van Zaalen and others (can’t remember their names just now). Clutterers are experts in/on masking (inadvertedly) making diagnosis harder. And it often occurs in conjunction with stuttering, which then often becomes the main focus of the SLP since the SLP doesen’t know (enough) about Cluttering Speech.
That’s my advice. 😊