Can we make a 9 year old go for stuttering therapy?-Part 1

About 4 years ago I was treating a wonderful nine year old girl I will call Dori. (not her real name).  Dori was discharged from speech therapy in school because her SLP said she hadn't noticed any dysfluencies in the speech room.  Dori was thrilled to not be pulled out of class anymore for speech therapy.  Her parents brought her to me because she was stuttering significantly at home. Dori later admitted that she became a pro at hiding her stuttering in speech in school.  She was bright and could easily subsitute words.

Dori was approximately 33% dysfluent in my speech sessions (this was an average over 5 sessions).
She presented with whole word repetitions, part word repeitions and laryngeal blocks. She also displayed lip tremors.  At the end of 4 months, Dori's fluency had increased dramatically as did her eye contact and communication skills (we worked on these too).  She was giving oral presentations in front of the class and tried out for the school play.  One day, Dori asked me why she still had to come to speech therapy .  She was adorable and trying not to hurt my feelings. She explained that she enjoyed our sessions and the fact they were fun, but she was happy how she spoke.  She said her friends didn't care that she stuttered and she spoke all the time. In fact, her teacher called her parents reporting that she was disrupting the class by talking to her friends often.  (This was actually music to all of our ears). I brought her parents in for the next session to talk about progress and whether she should continue. Dori's parents were torn.  They thought she had progressed and was doing great, but they could not let go of the dream of total fluency.  I think we resolved this conflict in a positive and healthyy way.  This blog post will be continued at week's end, but I would love to hear how other parents, grad students or speech paths. have resolved this issue.  What do we do as professionals when a family wants perfect fluency and the child is happy with the progress made? Please share your thoughts with me. tks Lori

Fortune 52 honor-Please seek help for your children

Practice groups are coming. Tonight I was honored by the Long Island Press at the Tilles Center. It was a big honor and I can't thank Steven Kaufman enough for nominating me. If anyone would have told me I would be honored when I was younger and suffering from severe stuttering, I would have gotten very angry. I never thought I would be able to answer a phone, let alone be honored. Please bring your kids for speech therapy and remember they don't have to struggle. Let me help them try and improve fluency and communication. Here is the link for those of you who haven't read the interview yet.
http://www.longislandpress.com/2009/09/02/lori-melnitsky/

Fortune 52 Nomination LI Press

Sorry I haven't finished the speech therapy advice. I got very sidetracked with school starting.
*******************************Big News******************

I was nominated for a wonderful award. To read more, please read:
http://www.longislandpress.com/2009/09/02/lori-melnitsky/

I never thought when I was young and severely stuttering I would be nominated for an award like this. tk you for everything.

IMPROVED FLUENCY THROUGH STUTTER FREE SPEECH-DAY 2

Day 2
Can you feel your diaghram expand? This takes lots and lots of practice. It is hard to feel. Don't get discouraged. It will get easier. I want you to keep doing it throughout the day. Try this sitting in a chair, standing up, or lying on the floor. Imagine a balloon expanding in you. Do it at work, on the subway, at home and as often as you can. Just not in speaking situations yet. You are not ready. Tune in tommorrow for more. If your are breathing with your shoulders raised, then this will produce tension. Breathe like you are inhaling through a long tube below your lungs.

IMPROVED FLUENCY THROUGH STUTTER FREE SPEECH DAY 1

Day one tune ups:

1. Practice complete breath target twenty minutes. Formally feel the diaphram expand. Practice throughout the day. 4 important steps to follow:

1. Let out residual air.
2. Take in slow relaxed deep brath.
3. Slowly let out air.
4. start process over.

This is vital for fluency. Tune in tomorrow.

You can become increasingly fluent with hard work and intensive therapy. I did it. YOu can too

P.A.C.E. Towards Fluency- NEW Preschool Program

Watch for NEW preschool program-very effective results:

P.A.C.E. Towards Fluency

Effective resuls-taken from Lidcombe program and modified:
Please go onto Yahoo groups:
Parentssupportlidcombe@yahoogroups



Looking for grad SLP students to help promote stuttering awareness-contact Lori@allislandspeech.com
Thank you all for your support and reading my posts!!