Stuttering treatment is a mystery. Traditional interventions that prioritize fluency drills and speech strategies often fail to generalize. We are left wondering, why isn’t the client making progress?
Maybe we're looking in all the wrong places.
When I tell people that speech IRL is a “speech therapy and inclusion consulting firm,” I get a lot of quizzical looks. As we spend more and more time working with companies, HR departments, heads of talent, and D&I/DEI committees, I’ve struggled to concisely articulate how we got here from speech therapy.
Thankfully, a new large-scale study on the merits of diversity training breaks it down. The name “speech IRL” is based on the principle that learning what to do is easy, but the real measure of change and progress is actually doing something “in real life”-- which is far more challenging.
The research conclusions Chang et al, in partnership with the Wharton School, echo almost word-for-word the founding principles of our practice.
How would we feel if we didn’t take a shower? Maybe we spent the day running errands, or commuting to and from work, or attending a yoga or spin class. If we didn’t take time to get clean—even if it’s just after a normal day—we would feel pretty disgusting. On many different levels, hygiene is a good thing!
Just as important as day-to-day hygiene is vocal hygiene. Vocal hygiene is something that we don't normally think about, and our voice can suffer because of it. The goal of a vocal hygiene program is to protect our voice so it can complete all of the tasks we want it to do throughout the day.
Vocal hygiene can be broken down into three areas:
The concept of "mindfulness" has been buzzing around lately. What does it really mean and what does it have to do with communication?
Let's tackle some FAQ's.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness means being present. That can be, present to your thoughts, present to physical sensations, taste, touch, sight, sound, smell, or present to your feelings. What you can notice in a single moment is boundless, but often our minds draw us in to a limited portion of the experience.
What better way to welcome the New Year than with new additions to the team! One of our 2019 goals (you could even call it a resolution) is to expand our clinician training and mentoring opportunities, not only within our practice, but in our larger professional community. We are excited to welcome a number of graduate student interns this calendar year. Each of them will be with us for several months, working directly with clients and supporting practice activities.
This term, we welcome Sarah Klusak of New York University (NYU) and Erin Brophy of Northwestern University (NU). We asked them to share a little bit about themselves as they begin their first week.
Part 1: What’s new in stuttering research
Treating young children who stutter: Indirect or direct?
A recent study1 used a randomized control trial (highest level of evidence), to determine the effectiveness of Lidcombe vs. RESTART-DCM for treating preschool children who stutter. The researchers found that at 18 months, clinical outcomes for direct and indirect treatment were comparable. The authors conclude that both treatments are equally effective in treating developmental stuttering in ways that surpass expectations of natural recovery.
Mice that stutter: Genetics and stuttering
Key points:
- Mice with a GNPTAB mutation (a gene thought to be involved in stuttering) displayed less vocalizations and more frequent longer pauses than mice without the mutation2.
- The genes identified in stuttering all point to a single process, intracellular trafficking, but only account for at most 20% of persistent stuttering cases3.
- Bottom line: Stuttering is genetic, but this isn’t the whole picture.
Natalie Belling and Courtney Luckman are speech therapists and people who stutter.
“I know the ins and outs of history. I can tell you verbatim the biography of Ulysses S. Grant. I know every battle of every war. How it began, how it played out, and how it ended.
But because I can’t navigate social situations, I don’t have a job and I have no friends, even though I deeply want to connect with others. Because of my diagnosis, I cannot find my place in the world.”
Is it too soon to put my child in therapy? Will attending speech therapy cause my child to become self-conscious about their stuttering? What happens if therapy doesn't work? My pediatrician said not to worry, but the teachers keep bringing it up. I think it's a big deal, but my spouse doesn't. I read online that I shouldn't bring attention to it, but my mother says I should remind him to slow down every time he stutters.
I don't know what to think!
Early childhood stuttering is enormously complicated. There are no clean-cut answers, other than "it depends on the child." Here are a few of the most common questions we encounter from parents, and our take on the answers.
“I have trouble speaking sometimes. The words don’t come out fluent, or they don’t come out at all. This happens especially when I’m excited, nervous, or during stressful situations.”
”No no, not stuttering. Just….stuck.”
"Stuttering is when people repeat or prolong sounds, right?"
