Can Stuttering Therapies Work Effectively?
When it comes to stuttering therapies, the real question of how “success” is defined remains. A person seeking help for a stuttering problem might feel that going from stuttering in every sentence down to only stuttering in every ten sentences is a marked improvement. Yet, critics might argue that any stutter is still a problem and not a cause for celebration. A third school of thought suggests that success has been achieved when the speech stuttering therapy enables a person to have renewed self-esteem, pursue his or her goals and enjoy a greater satisfaction in life.
With regard to children, it was discovered that a computer-based anti-stuttering program with minimal interaction from speech-language pathologists held the most promise for keeping disfluency rates below 2%. In the 1996 “Controlled Clinical Trial for Stuttering in Persons Aged 9 to 14 Years,” researchers found that 71% of the children treated with computer programs and minimal speech pathologist interaction became fluent, compared to 63% of the children whose parents were trained by a speech pathologist to complete therapy at home, and 48% of children treated by the actual pathologist him/herself. These findings shed light on the important role of family when it comes to language skills.
It is important to note that all stuttering therapies are not created equal. There are over 100,000 so-called “speech-language pathologists” in America, yet fewer than 500 are actually certified fluency specialists. There is a growing sub-set of stuttering program peddlers who promise speech improvement through hypnosis, herbal supplements, motivational tapes and more. For stuttering in children, the most effective method — according to studies — is, in fact, one of these self-help methods involving at home computer programs that are studied with loving, supportive parents.
Experts say self-therapy is important for any of the stuttering therapies. In his book “Self-Therapy for the Stutterer,” Stuttering Foundation of America originator Malcolm Fraser said that those who stutter should make a habit of talking slow and deliberately; speaking easily, gently and without force; and taking advantage of block correction procedures. A stutterer should approach the issue directly, rather than try to hide the truth, and should focus on eliminating facial contortions, jaw tensing, rapid blinking and other reactions. The best approach is to practice speaking with varying inflections and melody and to continue moving forward with speech, rather than back-tracking or repeating.
Beth Kaminski is the co-author of Curing Your Anxiety And Panic Attacks which detailed anxiety or panic attacks as well as tips on the various medications for panic disorder available at anxietydisordercure.com.
Tags: Book Self, Clinical Trial, Computer Programs, Fluency, Herbal Supplements, Home Computer, Hypnosis, Language Skills, Minimal Interaction, School Of Thought, Self Esteem, Self Therapy, Sentences, Speech Improvement, Speech Language Pathologists, Speech Pathologist, Stutter, Stutterer, Stuttering In Children, Supportive Parents
February 15th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Dear Daan,
Your article is remarkable! I have a Brazilian friend who stutters… Sometimes he really gets too blocked – it´s sad to see him repeating many times the beginning of a word without being able to finally say it …
I´m sure that this is a psychological problem. My friend never stutters when he talks to his mother, only when he talks to everyone else. He got married four years ago, and he is fine.
I never tried to help him with psychotherapy because I live in Greece and I see him only once in three years for example… besides that, he doesn´t want to be treated.
He is a happy man, he works a lot and has a totally normal life, many friends, and a contagious personality. He simply doesn´t care for his problem. He doesn´t want to be treated.
I´m sure that dream interpretation would help him if he would care about it, but he offers resistance against any kind of psychotherapy, and everyone is used with his problem, as if it didn´t exist.
This is a way to beat your depression if you are a stutterer, but it would be better if you could get rid of this problem, instead of having it.
Perhaps we can help all stutterers get rid of this problem.
I´m glad because you have a blog and a website! I would love to work with you and show you many things about the meaning of dreams. I had many ideas when you wrote a comment under one of my articles at Ezinearticles.
Since you are so active online, I can give dream interpretation lessons to everyone, using your example as a student. I can teach you how to translate dreams into practice, and you´ll become an expert like me, besides showing to everyone how they must translate dreams, avoiding all the common mistakes.
For example, I will let you translate the public´s dreams, and then correct your translation. This can be done publicly and on time, at our blogs.
Well, this is only an idea…
I sent you a message on Twitter, but I guess you didn´t see it in your page. I hope you´ll read this comment!
Thank you for helping the world with your research!
I´m sure that we will be able to help people who stutter through dream interpretation. The unconscious mind who produces our dreams is a superior doctor. He can cure all diseases and all mental illnesses, without a doubt.
But the point is that in order to understand his messages, we must learn the dream language. And, the dream language follows a different logic… while most people try to understand the meaning of dreams based on the logic of their conscience. This is the biggest obstacle one has when trying to learn how to immediately translate the dream messages: the dream translator must follow the unconscious logic if he wants to understand the unconscious´messages, and not the logic of his conscience, because his conscience is under-developed, ignorant and absurd. The dream logic is saintly, based on compassion and wisdom.
February 16th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Christina,
Thank you for your reply. I did not write the article, it is syndicated content that was published onto my blog using the Syndicate Kahuna service. I am in fact a very sporadic writer. I have been thinking of changing this blog and publishing only articles that I wrote myself. I am not really happy with my website.
Concerning the dream logic, I often feel that I do not understand the logic of the unconscious. Or rather I cannot grasp the meaning of some of my dreams and have to settle with the one or two dream symbols that I can identify. I feel as if I am missing the big picture of the dream.
Concerning dream symbols, I have found the snake to be the easiest symbol to relate to my daily life. Since it refers to a bad event it is easier to see in practice. I do not have the ability to avoid the bad event, but afterward I can at least recognize it and think about how I should change my behavior.
I will send you an electronic mail message and then we can discuss your ideas further.