When
I walked to a nearby shopping center this week, the parking lot outside the
office supply store was extraordinarily busy. Inside,
children strolled up and down the aisles chattering about new classrooms and selecting
school supplies. It was back-to-school shopping time.
The
beginning of a new school year brings with it an abrupt lifestyle change. We
can help children transition from the casual summer months to the more rigorous
academic calendar by making small changes several days before school begins. The
National Center for Learning Disabilities
suggests[1]
1.
re-establishing bedtime routines before the
start of school,
2.
preparing a location and schedule for doing
homework,
3.
collecting and organizing needed supplies,
4.
reviewing basic academic material,
5.
building excitement for school, and,
6.
reading books together about going back to
school.
The child who stutters has an even longer
to-do list. She has the added
responsibility of
1.
educating her new teacher(s) and peers
about stuttering,[2]
2.
planning new communication goals, and,
3.
role-playing
options for how to cope with teasing.
I
read through print copies of newsletters I’d saved over the years in search of
tips for going back-to-school. These newsletters from Friends[3],
The National Stuttering Association[4] and
The Stuttering Foundation[5] are
priceless resources for family-friendly information. They are filled with brief,
understandable articles by children, parents, and professionals. I was thrilled to find that back issues were available
on the organizations’ websites.
A few back-to-school activities showed up
repeatedly: writing a letter to the new teacher(s), planning a class presentation,
and dealing with teasing. The National Stuttering Association had a brochure
about Stuttering and Reading Fluency also.
I was grateful this information was so
easy for families to locate and download. In this article, I’d like us to think
about skills and attitudes that may be preconditions to accomplishing any of
these self-advocacy activities.
The child feels respected. I have listened to some children,
with and without speech/language differences, talk about school as an
intimidating institution in which expectations feel overwhelming and
dehumanizing. When school personnel view students in terms of performance data,
I understand why children hide their stuttering. A former student of public
school speech therapy writes, “By counting each stuttered word or
reporting specific moments of dysfluency in the classroom, I would argue that
this places an unnecessary burden on the young stutterer. I have been lucky to
witness the extraordinary work of numerous special educators who resist this
pressure. Take it from my firsthand experience, educators are able to make a lasting
impact by working closely with their student without quantifying his or her
communicative performance.”[6] I
think a child will need to feel the warmth of personal concern from a teacher
before starting a conversation about stuttering.
The child can discuss thoughts,
feelings and behaviors. Most moms of older children tell me
they seldom talk about stuttering. Parents of preschoolers worry that saying
something will make the stuttering worse.
I sympathize. Inviting children to talk about stuttering is a delicate
process and I’ve had many mishaps trying to talk about ‘the elephant in the
room.’ I’ve had students cry, change the topic, act silly or aggressive, or
stare at me silently when I ask them specifics about their speech and
experiences with communication. Stuttering
is an intimately personal topic and should be approached carefully. Peter
Reitzes experimented with humor by asking children to write funny laws such as ”Anyone
who tells a child who stutters to ‘slow down’ will have to walk around all day
with his or her shoelaces tied together.” This humor helped move children into
discussions of how to educate and advocate. “Creating new laws for people who
stutter proved to be a valuable tool for discussing stuttering in an open, fun,
and productive manner.” [7]
I
don’t anticipate much progress in fluency therapy until a child and family can take
a step back and observe stuttering with a cool head and forgiving heart.
Desensitization to the moment of stuttering is, in my opinion, essential. It’s
an issue that resonates across sessions and communication goals. It impacts
multiple components of a comprehensive speech therapy program. Negative emotional
reactions to stuttering create a fog, clouding our senses, preventing a clear
perception of reality and blinding us to creative solutions.
So…
If
a child is developing sense of empowerment and can talk about his communication
needs, then speech therapy can confront the issues children who stutter encounter
at school.
Quick, verbal self-defense is
especially difficult for children who stutter. Even the cleverest come-back can be too
difficult to say right when it’s needed the most. So alternate ways of coping
with teasing are important.
Listeners don’t know stuttering. Teachers
and peers will need some information. If a child would like to write a
letter to her teacher, there are examples on the Friends website.[8]
The August 2010 issue has Approaching
Your Teacher About Stuttering by Elizabeth Mendez[9] who
writes, “Think about a fresh start and consider being open about something
about you that has made you become the amazing and strong person you are today.
Consider sharing with your teachers your stuttering and for those who can do
the extra mile, educate them with resources.” Resources are free at the
National Stuttering Association website including the comprehensive brochure
“What Teachers Need to Know to Help Children Who Stutter.” The Stuttering Foundation
has a booklet, DVD, brochure, and new storybook about teachers. I recommend
that a parent be proactive as well, arranging frequent parent-teacher check-ins.
Some
children may want to give a class presentation about stuttering with the
help of their speech language pathologist. The National Stuttering
Association and the Stuttering Foundation furnish guidelines for putting such a
presentation together. The following issues
of Reaching Out have examples:
A
Proud Mom’s Story by Sue Parisi (Sept-Oct 2008)
Does
Anyone Have Any Questions? By Ellie Hooey (Jan-Feb 2009)
Telling
the Class by Francine J Bliss (March-April 2010)
Children who stutter are teased. Constance Dugan has a very thoughtful article to
accompany her “Teasing Inventory for School-Age Kids Who Stutter” in the 2006
International Stuttering Awareness Day Online Conference[10].
She spends a few minutes of every speech therapy session filling out the
teasing inventory. Repetition helps children get comfortable with the process. She
finds that the scale format helps children to respond and teaches them about intensity.
“It is important to recognize not only different feelings but different
intensities. For example, ‘annoyed’ reflects less distress than
‘furious’.” The few, carefully crafted,
short-answer questions “communicate the old advice: Honor your feelings but
monitor your actions. Following these up by “How did you feel then?” can help
kids become aware that they have some power to reduce their own suffering.”
Gail
Wilson Lew’s article “Stuttering and Teasing” in the Nov-Dec 2009 Reaching Out reminds us why children may
not seek help for teasing. She writes, “One day, in 9th grade
Spanish class, the boy behind me started to pull on my pony tail. I did not
want to turn around because I was afraid I would get in trouble with the
teacher. I was also reluctant to tell the teacher, because I would then have to
speak up and explain: thus, the possibility of stuttering and
embarrassment.” Later in the article she
explains, “A child who stutters does not want others to know that he stutters,
because he does not want to be ‘different.’ He wants to be accepted. A lot of
pressure may be lifted if a child lets people know that he stutters and does
not try to hide it.”
Reading aloud and reading assessments can
be demoralizing. I appeal to everyone who reads this article
to download the brochure “Stuttering and Reading Fluency: Information for
Teachers.” The national initiative to promote reading is admirable.
However, it is placing excessive pressure on children who stutter. “Reading
aloud can be quite stressful for those who stutter, mostly because they are
worried about how others might react to their stuttering.” Also, “a child
should not be penalized for moments of stuttering when assessing reading
fluency. Fluency of speech is not the same as fluency of decoding.”[11]
I agree that children, in partnership with
parents and educators, can advocate for their communication needs. I also think that advocacy is predicated on healthy
communication attitudes and sensitive support from others. If teasing crosses
the line and becomes bullying, my blog of 9/6/12 “Bullying Prevention and
Intervention Laws Could Help Children Who Stutter” may prove useful.
I wish you lots of fun friendships, fond memories and academic
success as you embark upon another school year!
Judy
[1]
The National Center for
Learning Disabilities, 8/17/13, “Six Ways to Get Your Child Back into the
Learning Groove,” e-mail newsletter, the six items are paraphrased, www.ncld.org
[2]
According the Bill of Rights
and Responsibilities of People Who Stutter, “A person who stutters has the
responsibility to... 1.understand that listeners or conversation partners may
be uninformed about stuttering and its ramifications…” International Stuttering Association http://www.isastutter.org/what-we-do/bill-of-rights-and-responsibilities
[3]
Reaching
Out, Friends: The
Association of Young People Who Stutter www.friendswhostutter.org
[4]
Family
Voices, The
National Stuttering Association, www.westutter.org
[5]
The Stuttering Foundation www.stutteringhelp.org
[6] Jack McDermott. “Speech Therapy in
Public Education Settings: A Former Student’s Perspectives”, Family Voices Third Quarter 2012 p. 7 (broken link)
[7]
Peter Reitzes, “It Outghta Be
a Law!” Reaching Out, October-November-December
2005.
[8] Friends: Teacher Letters http://www.friendswhostutter.org/teacher-letters/
[9] Reaching Out July /Aug 2010 (broken link)
[10]
Constance Dugan (2006) “Teasing
Inventory for School Age Kids Who Stutter” International Stuttering Awareness
Day Online Conference http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad9/papers/therapy9/dugan9.html
[11] broken link