One of my courageous students
presented a slide show about stuttering
to his 5th grade class. I admit that
I was slow to assist him in this ambitious project. I expected his good intentions would languish on
a wish list. Then he showed me a YouTube video he wrote and directed. Here was proof that he was a persistent
and competent young man, very likely to pursue any project to
completion.
Wondering
what my role would be, I recalled seeing an interview with Bill Belichick,
coach of the New England Patriots football team. He said quarterback Tom Brady knew it all and studied
hard. He asked Coach Belichick so many tough questions that coaching him was
very challenging. How was I going to coach my talented 5th grader?
I already
had a few links to accounts of other children who had spoken to their classes. [1]
But I surfed the "just for kids" section of the Stuttering Home Page looking
for inspiration.[2] I chose only two articles in order to prepare a thoughtful lesson within a week.
This kept me occupied during a long, snowy evening.
I happened
to be learning about Google tools and writing a talk for speech language
pathologists at a nearby school.[3]
I was multi-tasking in researching for my student' s assignment and for my own.
I found two YouTube videos to learn the
basics of Google Slides. One featured a
teacher apparently in his home office. He spoke in a soft voice with the sweet
sounds of a happy toddler in the background. Another YouTube video, this one intended
for small business owners, gave me a few
more helpful tips. I’m grateful to these two people who were so
generous in sharing their knowledge on the internet.
The two articles I chose from the Stuttering Home
Page were written in very different styles. I read one written by Dr Bill
Murphy called “Class Presentations for Children Who Stutter. [4]
It had an academic attitude and tight structure. It opened with a premise followed by a lengthy list of serious content. I took my time reflecting
upon the parts of the article consistent with my clinical experience. How could
this academic content translate into a message
my young student could quickly absorb?
The
other article was “FRIENDS Presentation Guide” by John Ahlbach.[5]
It had emotion, intuition and humor. It
affected me more now than when I read it many years ago. It suited my situation
perfectly. John knew a child's perception of the world. His article addressed a
question hugely relevant to the child
who stutters: Is it a good idea to hide ones' stuttering? The article grabbed the reader’s attention immediately by proposing the issue this way: What if our
hair turned green periodically? I read John's article with gratitude and a
smile. It had the down-to-earth, friendly attitude I needed. It buoyed my
spirits and gave me the energy to return to Dr. Murphy's article for more
content.
Brave children have taught others about stuttering in
very public ways. Nate has a recent podcast “Stuttering advice for parents, siblings and teachers” at Stuttering is Cool[6].
He has a video of a recent class presentation[7]
and one from four years ago[8]. (Also, take a look at Parker Mantell’s 2014 Commencement Speech.[9])
My student, his mother and I watched Nate’s videos during a speech therapy session. Nate’s model was absolutely priceless.
The
final product was a true collaboration. Per his request, I emailed my template home
for him to review and edit. [10]
He deleted several of my slides and added his own. This entire process, which busied
us for several sessions, fulfilled the requirements of a comprehensive
treatment approach. We reviewed cognitive and affective components as we talked
about what to put on each slide. The
behavioral goal (practicing speech change)
was satisfied as we rehearsed the
presentation. I’m sure this project could meet requirements within
the Common Core as well.
Rehearsal was more difficult than I expected.
My student began by denying any need to practice. Consequently, I needed a way to transition
from Nate’s videos to the present moment. So, I stood up
and pretended we were in a classroom and that my student and his mom were students.
I made eye contact, resisted time
pressure, reduced speaking rate slightly, paused at phrase boundaries, and
talked. Yes , it was pretty humbling to stumble my way through this exercise.
But perfection was never the goal. It was more important to have some fun with
public speaking.
We
made videos with my phone. I reviewed only three slides for ‘Take 1.’ I
smiled alot and played around with impromptu
commentary. After giggling over the results, our attitudes brightened. We used mom’s phone to video ‘Takes 2’. This time, I added loose, easy voluntary
stuttering and modification techniques. I
held up a brochure about famous people who stutter and announced that everyone
would take one home. I had a laminated a
poster of the movie The King's Speech[11]
to hold up high for the entire class to see that I was in excellent company! My
easy repetitions and mild blocks did not accompany any negative affect nor
interrupt the flow of information. At this point in the session, my student was
experimenting with the slow-motion feature and which made my videos became
downright hilarious. I thought this was
a terrific because the project was no longer terrifying. It was great fun.
Nate's YouTube video showed classmates asking questions.
We brainstormed around this possibility.
Mother typed all of this into her laptop for future reference. I was delighted
to watch mother and son work together. What success!
[1] J.
Butler (8/26/13) Back To School Preparations for Children Who Stutter http://butlerspeechtherapy.blogspot.com/2013/08/back-to-school-preparations-for.html
[3] J. Butler (3/8/14) Workshop Slides pdf (This has been removed.)
[4] As
I edit this blog post on 9/14/14, I find that the link to Bill Murphy’s
article is broken. The same content appears on the Stuttering Foundation site
in the article “Teaching
Others” http://www.stutteringhelp.org/teaching-others
[6] https://soundcloud.com/stuttering-is-cool
Episode #174
[7] Nate’s
Stuttering Presentation with Questions (Nov. 30, 2013) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0kxyzOxY3o
[8] Stuttering
Presentation (May 8, 2010) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKG2UM_5F_Y
[9] 2014
IU Commencement Speaker: Parker Mantell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTRAripodJY#t=154
[11] Stuttering
Foundation , code 0074 www.stutteringhelp.org