Blog
“we got lucky and dodged a bullet”
The appropriateness of speech therapy for children who stutter should not be a matter of getting "lucky" or "dodging a bullet." Luckily for these parents, that was the case! Here's their story:...
Options – we need real options.
Just returned from the FRIENDS Conference in Denver. Big thanks to Lee Caggiano, John Albach, and all the volunteers for this opportunity to come together with support and education. Thanks also to the American Institute for Stuttering staff for sharing their insights...
“Going to speech therapy made me have the idea that stuttering was bad.”
Yesterday I posted a Voice Unearthed book quote – a comment made by our son in 2009 when he was 12. He said: “Going to speech therapy made me have the idea that stuttering was bad. They’d say it was okay and then they’d tell me not to do it.” Several leaders in the...
Please tell me your story!
Do you have a child whose speech tension persisted into their teen and adult years, even after formal early intervention with speech professionals? Are you an adult who had early intervention with speech professionals but continues to struggle with speech tension? If...
Stuttering doesn’t cause disconnection, shame causes disconnection.
Stuttering doesn’t cause disconnection, shame causes disconnection. What do your children look like when they are most connected? Our boys would immerse themselves… Legos, playing “flood the city” in the huge sandbox, playing Pokemon, reading, building forts,...
Should you find a specialist? Can you find a specialist? What does that even mean?
A common suggestion made by support organizations and within Facebook groups is “find someone who specializes in stuttering.” Turns out this is not as easy as it sounds. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 146,900 licensed therapists and...
Don’t hesitate to ask “what do you mean by that?”
A review of posts from the Voice Unearthed Facebook group reveals a common use of terms that few people question. For example: I referred my 7yr old to speech and language My son has had his stutter since he was 4 and we have been receiving treatment since he was 5....
Mom’s intuition is usually a good thing – until it’s not.
I was sitting with a friend about 20 years ago, watching our kids tear around the yard. I had just returned from meeting up with a new speech therapist who felt it was time to introduce our five-year old, who had stuttered since he was 2 ½, to speech tools (turtle...
The seductive simplicity of either/or thinking when treating children who stutter:
I swear I put more thought into choosing my coffee than I did into choosing speech therapy for our son who stuttered over 20 years ago. (In my defense, those were pre-Internet days.) There continues to be is a seductive simplicity of either/or thinking when treating...