Counseling in Stuttering Therapy
Hello! My name is Kira and I’m an SLP graduate student! My classmates, Ryan and Andrea, and I wanted to ask what the best strategies are for educating and involving parents and family members? If parents are hesitant/resistant to therapy, what are ways to increase their buy-in?
Hi Kira, thank you for your great question. I think you and your classmates are spot on in wanting to involve parents and family members in therapy – it is so important when thinking holistically about a little person who is stuttering. Parents are so important in creating a stutter friendly space, for welcoming stuttering and for supporting and advocating for their child. My tips for educating parents would be bringing them together with other parents of children who stutter, enabling them to meet adults who stutter who act as role models. There are some excellent books out there for parents, such as ‘Voice Unearthed’ by Dori Lenz Holte, along with various social media accounts. I work in the UK and we have excellent charities such as STAMMA which have resources for parents on their websites, stories written by parents and online support groups. Spero Stuttering have produced a beautiful video called ‘Nurturing and empowering your child who stutters,’ which is available from their website. So as part of the ‘education,’ I would be sharing stuttering affirming resources with parents as part of their therapy. With education and understanding of the important role they play in their child’s stuttering, along with an understanding of stuttering and therapy that affirms stuttering, parents readily engage in therapy. Sometimes this takes time, but that’s ok. If parents are hesitant/resistant to therapy, I don’t think we necessarily need to increase their buy in, it could be for a whole multitude of reasons. Perhaps they are happy and comfortable with stuttering and the way their child communicates? Not all children who stutter and their families need to enter therapy. For those who are worried or anxious, the ‘power of listening’ comes into play. A family’s concerns are very valid in a world where fluency is preferred, therefore I believe we need to listen and validate their feelings. My experience is that when a family feels heard, they embark on their therapy journey collaboratively with you, they grow and learn with their child, shape their experiences in a positive way and make space for stuttering,
Hi Kira, Ryan and Andrea!
Interesting question! However, in my clinical experience, I more often experience the opposite; that the parents are very motivated, but the child is not.
My aim in my clinical practice, is usually not to educate. Speech-language therapy is rather a process of co-constructing or co-designing a therapy process which may fit the persons themselves and/or their parents/familymembers. If the goals or wishes is very different between the parents and the person himself, I would rather emphasize the person’s wishes as more important. However, I would also give space to the parents, so they could reflect further, without me judging their thoughts and concerns. Maybe this could lead to increased awareness of what their own child may feel and/or wish regarding therapy. There are so many factors that can influence therapy and therapy outcomes, including personal motivation. Evaluations from persons who stutter need also to be included as a basic source of information, including the level of satisfaction with and felt responses to therapy elements, regardless if any elements are related to the speech or not. I think this aspect as well could increase the interest and motivation for all parties. Therapy also often focus on general communication and/or presentation skills, in which may include use of pauses, speech rate, eye contact, awareness, body posture etc. Value- and mindfulness-based strategies are also often elements which are included in the SLT’s toolbox. These elements are usually very useful for all people, regardsless if the person is stuttering or not. Maybe some of these elements could be something that the whole family can focus and work together on, in which hopefully could change the parents’ or the person’s attitude.
Best wishes,
Hilda