About the authors:

PaedDr. Ilona Kejklíčková, Ph.D., born in 1961 in the Czech republic, is a speech therapist and speech pathologist. She is the owner of Private clinic LOGO, the facility for complex therapy of communication disorders in Brno, Czceh republic and is an author of many publications and articles about speech disorders. She is also an expert in the field of speech pathology. She is member of ASHA and attends conferences all over the world.

Mgr.Eva Přikrylová born in 1979 in Czech republic, is a psychologist and project manager for Association LOGO, non-profit organisation helping people with serious communication disorders. She provides consulting, psychotherapy sessions and training for people in trouble. She attends conferences all over the world with concern on stuttering.

Since 1990, LOGO has been a private clinic in the city of Brno, Czech Republic focused mainly on communication disorders. From 2004, the clinic has been a holder of quality certification ISO 9001:2000 for diagnostics and treatment of communication disorders and research and development in the area of clinical speech therapy.

Model of patients´ care is based on complex approaches, which requires tight cooperation of many specialists – clinical speech therapist, foniatric doctor, neurologist, psychologist, psychiatrist, rehabilitation doctor, physiotherapist, and others who cooperate on diagnosis and procedure of subsequent therapy. In the area of clinical speech therapy the clinic offers diagnostic and re-educational hospitalisation. This complex treatment is suitable for accompanied children, but also for adult patients.

Complex care at the Private clinic LOGO includes:

• Speech therapy
• Foniatrics (study of voice disorders)
• Otorhinolaryngology (study of ear, nose and throat diseases)
• Neurology
• Internal doctor
• Psychology
• Psychiatry
• Rehabilitation doctor
• Physiotherapy
• Art therapy (drama therapy, music therapy, art therapy)
• Ergo therapy (occupational therapy)

A characteristic feature of the care provided is the mixture of individual and group therapies. Children of pre-school age can attend social welfare institution which works as a special kindergarten for clients who need intensive care. Currently the clinic registers over 6,000 patients, and carries out around 60,000 examinations.

The clinic is equipped with most modern technology in the area of speech therapy, foniatrics and rehabilitation. It focuses on the treatment of stuttering.

Forms of speech therapy care for people who stutter include:

• Individual therapy
• Group therapy
• Diagnostic stays
• Re-educational stays

In the complex program of stuttering we include breathing training, phonetic exercises, phoniatric treatment, special speech therapy, psychotherapy, rehabilitation treatment, swimming exercises, massages, oxygen therapy and relaxation therapy.

This program is based on the health condition of the patient and lasts from one to four weeks of intensive re-education in our inpatient department, which is always preceded by one week of diagnostic stay. After this therapy stay, patients continue the therapy externally – once a week.

The first year of complex treatment is worked out by a team of experts – special phoniatrist, neurologist, experienced speech therapist and psychologist or rehabilitation specialist and physiotherapist.

During the following year, patients can attend those re-education methods which helped them a lot and which they prefer. However the improvement of the patient´s  speech fluency occurred in the first weeks of re-education.

The patients are invited to regular check-ups usually once a week to monitor their speech fluency. In our patient material, including during the last three years 2,182 persons – 85 percent males and 15 percent females, we have registered severe grade of stuttering in 30 percent, medium grade in 45 percent and moderate grade in 25 percent.

We have seen an improvement in 90 percent during the first year of the complex re-education. There was no remarkable improvement in 10 percent of our patients.

For the documentation of the state of speech, we use audio and video taping and the

spirometry check-up from the very beginning of the treatment.

Our patients with different diagnosis share a summer camp every year for a week in winter, one week in summer. During the summer camp they have intensive therapy in speech therapy, psychotherapy and intensive rehabilitation and exercises.

Thanks to the positive approach of all the specialists who participate in the treatment of our patients and thanks to the participation of the patients themselves, the treatment lead to positive outcomes for most patients and sustained fluency through intensive interventions.