Advice for a Future SLP
Hi! My name is Jasmine and I am a second-year graduate student in a speech pathology program. In my school placement, I was fortunate to have had an amazing supervisor. She created a presentation for the kids on her caseload who stutter and their families. It consisted of a slide with famous individuals who stutter (athletes, actors, singers, etc.) Another slide was a compilation of clips from songs that contain repetitions of sounds/words/phrases, and prolongations. I was able to be apart of a session where she introduced this to a child for his first speech session. He lit up when he realized a professional baseball player is someone who stutters. What are some things that we as SLPs can do when working with children who stutter. More specifically, children who have a harder time with the fact that they stutter and who utilize secondary behaviors like escaping and avoidance.
Jasmine, this is a broad question, so I will zone in on two things. I believe that much of what children internalize about stuttering comes from feelings that stuttering is “wrong” or “bad”, so a good starting place is generally helping children who stutter understand that stuttering is not their fault and that they’re not doing something wrong. Teaching about how brain function affects speech production (e.g., understanding neurons, neural connections and pathways, etc.) at their level is also helpful so they understand why stuttering is involuntary, variable, and unpredictable. Children need to know that they are not doing something wrong by stuttering or are inherently “bad” for it. Another helpful activity is drawing their stuttering iceberg (i.e., what’s above and below the surface) because it fosters open conversations about stuttering and enables them and you to understand the impacts of stuttering in their lives a little better, and minimizing those negative impacts is what should drive treatment.