Advice for future SLPA
Hello,
I am a student, about to finish my BS in communicative disorders. My question is for anyone. What advice would you give to a future SLPA who wants to work in an elementary school and might encounter a student whose parent is seeking therapy for their child? Also, how can speech therapy help the individual gain confidence?
Hello, and thank you for your important questions!
I think it’s important to spend time with the parent, as well as the child.
Presuming that the child stutters: The parent needs to fully accept the child as having a speech difference, treating the child exactly in the same way as if he/she was fluent. Full attention must be given to the child when he/she speaks; the parent needs to have patience in this respect, if it takes the child a little longer than “normal” to speak; and the parent should not comment on the child’s disfluency – ONLY on the content of the child’s speech. The parent should be careful not to give any gesture or expression in any way that would be different if the child was speaking fluently.
If the child brings up the fact of his or her speech difficulty, or is avoiding situations due to stuttering, the best possible answer for the parent would be to explain that people have differences, and that having a difference in the way that one speaks is okay.
BUT, again – it is important for the parent NOT to point out or react to a child’s stuttering on their own.
With children who stutter, it can really be helpful if parents are aware of all this, and nurture a home environment that can be most helpful to the child.
It is important in therapy to help build the child’s confidence in himself or herself. The child needs to understand that people are different, and that people speak differently – and that is okay. In some therapies (not all), speech techniques are taught; and if this is the case, the child can be taught ways of practicing, and gradually building confidence in his or her life situations. But confidence can be also built through talking with the child, and helping him or her understand they happen to have a difference; and that this difference should not hold them back in any way from participating fully in all activities of life, in meeting with everyone who they wish to meet with, or in communicating anything they wish to anyone they wish to communicate with.
Best of luck to you in your future career,
– Paul
Thank you for your interesting question, LO. You have already had great advice from other panelists. So my additional thoughts:
If parents ask for therapy, start with therapy for the parents. Why do they want therapy for their child. What are their expectations. Does the child want therapy. Does stuttering bother the child or is s/he talking and interacting with others just like any other child. As sometimes parents want to help their child and think therapy will make it all go away. They might be worried life is going to be impossible when having a stutter. This might make the child want to please the parents, while increasing the pressure to become “fluent” or worse, hide. If terms like “bad”, “cure” etc are used, maybe the parents have goals for the child that need to be adjusted.
So my next advice, before even seeing the child, is to connect the parents with succesful adults who stutter. That might make them feel more at ease and put less pressure on the child. Also to connect parents with other parents who have learned about stuttering and how to suport their child.
I also would like the parents, and the child, to go to a stuttercamp, f ex Camp Dream.Speak.Live or one of the many other camps where CWS just play and meet peers. Also other events, f ex an event from the local or national stuttering association, where also parents can meet other parents, while kids meet other kids and adult role models. Sometimes even siblings can come, which helps them to understand better as well, and learn how to be a supportive friend.
Give parents information and lead them to support groups. Many stuttering organisations have informers. F ex I was at a school last week to inform the teachers, and also make stuttering cool in the classroom of the child who stutters.
See, all this is important even before treating the child. As the child might have a different view on his/her stutter and experiences. Parents sometimes want fluency, while the child maybe just wants to talk without being ridiculed and get more self confidence to speak no matter how, or wants to be able to get the words to explain it to others, or wants to stutter with less tension. Not everyone wants to climb the Mt Everest.
So in short, don’t prioritize fluency, but prioritize what makes the child say what he wants to say, when he wants to say it, the way he is OK with saying it. And du educate the people surrounding the child, family members, teachers, and even friends, and show them what creates a respecting and accepting speaking environment. Ad conversation is not just the child’s responsibility. Others need to learn to listen.
And how to teach confidence? Show the child its super skills, as every child is good at something. Turn stuttering into something that s/he might do, but they are so much more, than their stutter. Teach the child how to explain stuttering and tools to use when people are being “funny”. Stuttercamps are amazing, as there they are in the center and are in this safe environment to be completely themselves. Try and expand comfort zones, as sometimes we don’t believe we can do things, but don’t let them do things you yourself wouldn’t want to do. And bring friends into the therapy room, so that they too can learn about stuttering and support their friend and practice together.
I tell kids that they are doing something that is really hard, but they are doing it anyway. That makes them superheroes. 😉
Happy ISAD and keep them talking
– Anita