How can SLP’s support beyond therapy?
Hello! My name is Danielle and I am a 2nd year SLP graduate student. My question is what support can SLP’s give beyond therapy?
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How can SLP’s support beyond therapy? — 3 Comments
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Hi Danielle,
Thank you for your question.
SLPs can recommend support groups for their clients. Especially with today’s technology, they can find resources in a plethora of different places — Facebook, MeetUp app — and guide them in the direction if needed.
Something that actually helped me during a time in high school was speaking on the phone with my SLP. This was technically still a part of our therapy but this started due to a circumstance beyond our control. I don’t remember why — maybe a snowstorm or a brief school strike — but something was preventing us from meeting in-person at school, so we had to adapt. This was actually a very effective way, especially for me as I’ve always had trouble speaking on the phone.
I hope this helps.
Ryan
Thank you for this thoughtful question!
I think one way is to encourage clients who stutter to attend self-help groups for those who stutter, if there are such groups near to where the client lives. It would be very helpful for the client to meet others who stutter, either through live gatherings of people who stutter or online meetings. It would be helpful, too, if a clinician informs clients of national or regional stuttering conferences; to meet many others who stutter can lead to increased positive self-perceptions, and show people who stutter that they are not alone and unique in coping with their challenges.
It would also be helpful to become familiar with applicable disability laws, and how they can be applied to the advantage of clients. In that way, clients who stutter would have useful information on their rights in areas such as education and employment.
Best of luck in your future profession!
Hi Danielle
You ask an interesting question. So I’ll ask one back: what do you mean with therapy. 🙂 Is therapy some kind of fluency shaping? Or also to help me find my true self, my self-esteem, my skills, my goals and dreams, my hobbies, where to find peers, and how to develop myself? As in a way this too is therapy, and yet not always seen as such. Stuttering is so much more than what comes out of my mouth. It’s also how I feel about my myself. And that’s what makes your job so challenging, and yet so interesting. 🙂 As you’ll first have to find out who I am, what I bring to the table, my background, what it is I want and need, options and limitations, and after that, together with me, find a smörgÃ¥sbord with options to try, even if they are outside book/box. So the more you ask, the more you listen, the more you will find what pieces are missing.
As we’re all different, want and need different approaches. Some might want total fluency. If so, make sure they understand that this might not be an obtainable goal, but that there are many steps in between. Some might want help to accept and live with stuttering. Some might simply want some techniques to get out of a block. Some might want to know more about stuttering. Some might want help to get family members to understand. And therapy can be a full smörgåsbord with different things to try, of which some are maybe completely different than speech therapy. F ex yoga, singing, art. Also bring your clients to support groups, camps and online places where PWS meet. This has been life changing for me.
Show the way to meet others who stutter, like camps, meetings, chat groups (check out Penny’s paper on playing video games with other kids who stutter). But also group therapy to proof they are not alone and can support each other. Let him/meet other adults who stutter. Bring a friend into the therapy room and let them do homework together. But… add fun!! When it’s fun, it’s more likely to continue, and to open up. And when giving assignments, do them yourself too. Don’t give assignments you’re not willing to do. Also offer help to speak to the classroom, you or your client, or maybe someone from a local support group. To talk to the class and/or the teachers (but decide that together).
I recently was at a weekend where a group of PWS who stutter practice public speaking together. With the funniest assignments, that made us ROFL! I had a social studies teacher in school who literally jumped on the table to make a point. Don’t just be the therapist. Be the friend. 🙂
Keep them talking
Anita