Essay On Stuttering

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nvolving Parents in the Treatment of Stuttering
“Stuttering is a interruption in the fluency of verbal expression”(Büchel et al. 2004). This action can be characterized as involuntary repetitions or prolongations of sounds or syllables (Büchel et al., 2004). Although we know those actions to be true, there are many other secondary actions that may occur including negative emotions such as anxiety, embarrassment, or frustration. According to Büchel et al., stuttering usually develops between the ages of two and five years old. For children under the age 6 who stutter, there are many therapy programs that have been developed such as the Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, an indirect approach (Millard et al., 2008). The goal of these programs are to “establish fluency at the single-word level and gradually increase utterance length while maintaining fluency” (Millard et al., 2008).
According to Millard et at., indirect approaches are based on the theory that stuttering is a disorder with physiological, linguistic, psychological, and environmental factors influencing the onset, impact, and prognosis of stuttering. There are also additional variables that may become significant in relation to the moment a child starts stuttering such as parent interaction behaviors, the child’s articulatory skills and the child’s temperament. Because environmental factors can be changed, parent interaction styles can have a major impact of the long-term development of stuttering (Millard et al.).
Evidence shows that a change in a parent’s interaction style can also affect the child’s fluency (Millard et al.) Millard et al. states that parents of children who stutter are no different from parents of children who do not stutter in terms of their ra...

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...ting independence and autonomy, and encouraging confidence and self-esteem, all of which could be considered essential for developing social communication skills.” For the parents, praise can be a type of feedback and reinforcement for their own parenting skills and can also reflect the child’s skills and achievements (Millard et al.). Lastly, parents are encouraged to observe themselves through a short video recording that is made while they interact with the child after selecting certain targets for themselves. Some of these targets may include slowing down the rate of their speech to match that of their child’s, increasing response time latency, or lowering linguistic complexity to a level that is appropriate for their child (Millard et al.). Parents are then encouraged to identify their changes and explain why they think it benefits their child (Millard et al.).

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