A new Voice Unearthed blog post, “…we did luck into this approach to therapy.” is from a series of interviews that shaped the narrative of my next book, VoiceS Unearthed: The Impact of Early Intervention on Those Who Continue to Stutter – available April 1 – as both an e-book and a paperback! (Names of interviewees have been changed for reasons of confidentiality.)
Neil, dad to 10-year-old Celia
Their speech therapist helped them focus on helping their daughter build confidence and latch on to the mindset of ‘hey, this is what I’m great at!’ before starting the school year.
“Our youngest daughter, who is 10, has a stutter. We noticed it about two years ago when she was around eight. She would stumble on certain words, but she didn’t let it bother her. I wasn’t too anxious about it until one of her good friends said, ‘you know when she has that little glitch…?’
Fast forward to six months ago when we were noticing more – maybe because we were doing school from home or was it exacerbated by the pandemic. Nobody knows. Our pediatrician gave us two recommendations. We went to one for an assessment and she came back and said, ‘I can’t help her, but I do know an organization who can.’ She referred us to the American Institute for Stuttering (AIS) which focuses on acceptance, avoidance reduction, and empowerment – for both our daughter and our family. The speech therapist shared her write-up with AIS and that’s how we were introduced to our new speech therapist.
This speech therapist and our daughter have been working with each other for about four months. By and large, I believe it’s been successful. Our daughter is always excited to go on the 45-minute sessions. The first five or ten minutes is usually with all of us and the speech therapist. Sometimes the speech therapist just wants to talk to us separately, and then our daughter on her own.
The speech therapist has helped us with our daughter’s transition to 5th grade at another location – all new people. I was concerned about how her speech would be interpreted or accepted. The speech therapist really got ahead of that. She told our daughter, ‘You’re starting a new school soon. We could write a letter to your teachers and also prepare a presentation if you’re comfortable with that. I think you should talk of your stutter with your new classmates.’ The speech therapist prepped our daughter to do her presentation when she felt comfortable. Our daughter came home last Tuesday and wanted to the presentation the following Friday. The speech therapist joined through Zoom at the conclusion of the session and did a Q&A with the class. It was fabulous.
The speech therapist also prepped my wife and I. Prior to starting this therapy, we used to say, ‘say that one more time, slow down.’ It’s great knowing that’s not the way to handle it. While our daughter didn’t seem uncomfortable with that, the speech therapist suggested that instead, we focus on some of the positive things that our daughter does so we can build up her confidence before she goes to school. We want her to latch on to a mindset of ‘hey, this is what I’m great at!’
We did that the six weeks leading up to school. Our daughter is super smart and we’re never going to have to worry about her in terms of what she wants to do because she’ll just go out and do it. With the support and guidance of our speech therapist, we can help her to be comfortable with her stutter. We want her to feel confident and not go into a muddle because of her stutter.
We’re lucky – we did luck into this approach to therapy. I’m happy that the first therapist was humble enough to pass us on.”