Question
How long do you work on stuttering modification strategies you presented in your workshop? Do you introduce them individually and then work on one technique a time?
Answer
Stuttering modification strategies are practiced and reviewed throughout the duration of therapy - so we never really stop working on them. However, once children have been taught and are proficient with these skills, we move onto fluency-enhancing strategies. This may take anywhere from four to eight sessions. Again, you may introduce fluency-enhancing skills earlier if appropriate for a particular student. There is no hard and fast rule about the order in which these skills are presented. Ultimately the order will be determined by the needs of the child.
Stuttering Modification skills are typically introduced individually; however, more than one skill might be introduced in a given session (e.g., Catching the Stutter and Relaxing the Stutter might be taught during the same session.). These strategies can also be combined. For example, a child might start to modify a block with Easy Stuttering and then move into a Slide or when doing Cancellation, a child might use a Slide to help them say the word again with less tension. Finally, it is essential that these stuttering modification strategies be integrated with fluency-enhancing strategies (e.g., Slide, Easy Stuttering, and Cancellation can be used while speaking at Extra Intonation, Nearly Natural Speech, and/or Natural Speech).
This Ask the Expert was taken from the course entitled: Essential Speech Skills for School-Age Children Who Stutter presented by Mark Allen, Ph.D. CCC-SLP.
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Dr. Allen is the director of the Center for Stuttering Therapy, located in Evanston, Illinois. He has over 20 years experience working with children, adolescents, and adults who stutter. In 2000, Dr. Allen was among the Inaugural Cadre of speech-language pathologists to be recognized as a Fluency Specialist by the American Speech-Language Association's (ASHA) Special Commission on Fluency Disorders.
