Stuttering: Proven Strategies to Release Natural Speech in Children & Adolescents

Natural speech is not an exception; if it happens sometimes it can happen more.

• Therapy goals and activities to increase the release of natural speech
• Easy to use scales to accurately measure the fear of talking and interacting with others
• Solution-Focused Brief Therapy scaling questions to develop short-term and long-term treatment goals

Do you work with children and adolescents who stutter? Their fear of talking has them paralyzed to the point where they are unable to communicate or interact with others. Their escalating insecurity and declining self-esteem negatively affects their performance at school, but only secondary to decreased participation and reluctance to ask for help. If you are looking for an effective approach to stuttering—look no further!

Join fluency experts Kevin Eldridge, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-F, and Michael Retzinger, MS, CCC-SLP, BCS-F—both persons who have mastered the release of natural speech—and learn a new treatment approach to stuttering which focuses on the process of communication, not on mechanics of speech. You will walk away with effective activities and strategies for decreasing Communication Apprehension (CA)—the fear of talking; the fear of stuttering and the fear of interacting with others. You will also learn techniques using a Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) approach to discover what is already working and develop the child’s naturally flowing speech by maximizing their own strengths. When these two areas are incorporated into your therapy regimen, you will be able to offer natural speech as an outcome in therapy for children and adolescents who stutter.

Acquire the tools necessary to...

• Administer, score, and interpret easy to use scales to assess CA
• Administer easy to use SFBT scaling questions to develop short-term and long-term goals for treatment
• Develop therapy goals to decrease CA and increase the release of natural speech in one-to-one, small group and large group classroom settings
• Effectively demonstrate the listening skills that are required to assist students who are reluctant to speak
• Help build self-esteem, confidence and social skills in children who stutter
• Support parents and significant listeners in becoming more effective and active in the therapeutic process

OUTLINE

Current Therapy for Children Who Stutter

• Fluency Training and Stuttering Modification
• School-age therapy approaches
• Reasons for the failure of traditional therapy

Speech and Language Skills Assessment

• Why basic speech and language testing is recommended
• When to dig deeper and how
• Assess the deeper aspects of stuttering
• Key components of parent and child interviews

Communication Apprehension (CA) Assessment

• Hands-on administration and interpretation of select CA scales
• Willingness to Communicate (WTC)
• Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCC)
• Multidimensional Examination of
• Speech Anxiety (MESA)

Assessment from a Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Approach

• Brief Scaling to identify clients’ strengths
• Brief Scaling to identify short-term and long-term goals
• Explore exceptions - It’s not just being lucky
• Help your client discover what they are doing that is already working
• Develop IEP Friendly Goals to Implement a Therapeutic Plan
• Hands-on activity in small groups
• Decrease CA
• Increase WTC
• Increase the release of natural speech
• Improve parent involvement

Strategies to Decrease Communication Apprehension

• Therapeutic listening skills – small and large group activities
• Strategies to overcome concern about what others think
• Structure the classroom environment to increase WTC
• Mindfulness training

Strategies from a Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Approach

• Focus on the client’s strengths
• They are the expert – not us
• The enjoyment factor

Getting Parents/Caregivers on Board

• Active parent involvement for successful therapy
• Therapeutic listening skills for parents
• Suggested activities for parents to use at home

Demonstration videos and case studies

• Effective listening skills with parents
• Scaling questions to develop treatment goals

OBJECTIVES

• Explain the relationship between stuttering and CA, which includes the fear of stuttering, the fear of speaking, and the fear of interacting with others.
• Administer easy to use scales to identify specific areas of CA that may be obstacles to a particular child’s success.
• Implement a SFBT approach for the release of natural speech.
• Incorporate into a therapy plan specific listening skills required to assist children who stutter in releasing natural speech.
• Develop appropriate IEP goals to implement a therapeutic plan for the release of natural speech in the child who stutters.
• Employ strategies for increasing parental involvement in the therapy process.

To order the book, Evaluating and Enhancing Children’s Phonological Systems, please visit our product store.

To order the book, Selective Mutism: An Assessment and Intervention Guide for Therapists, Educators & Parent, please visit our product store.

Target Audience

Counselors, Teachers/Educators, Marriage & Family Therapists, Nurses, Occupational Therapists & Occupational Therapy Assistants, Psychologists, Social Workers, Speech-Language Pathologists, Thanatologists and other Mental Health Professionals

Satisfaction Guarantee
Your satisfaction is our goal and our guarantee. Concerns should be addressed to PESI, Inc., PO Box 1000, Eau Claire, WI 54702-1000 or call 1-800-844-8260.

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