Caryn Herring, Joel Korte and Roisin McManus of the StutterTalk B Team discuss the pros and cons of non-stutterers in leadership roles for stuttering self-help groups. Topics include the benefits and challenges of including speech-language graduate students in support meetings.
Today on StutterTalk Christopher Constantino and Peter Reitzes discuss the problem with fluency. The problem includes the common use of the term fluency when stuttering is more specific and appropriate and the suggestion that something called fluency should be the focus and goal of all treatment. Chris discusses these issues from disability rights and speech-language pathology perspectives. Constantino points out that “fluency isn’t automatically better than stuttering” and discusses his research into spontaneity and “seeking a more nuanced understanding of stuttered and fluent speech.” Listener comments and questions are discussed.
Christopher Constantino is a person who stutters and a PhD student in Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Memphis. Chris is doing his clinical fellowship in the Shelby County Schools in Memphis and is conducting a research study to understand and contextualize the experiences of passing as fluent for people who covertly stutter.
There is so much information available on stuttering. Some of the resources are trusted and honest while others make unreliable claims which may offer misinformation, quick fixes and even cures. Today on StutterTalk, Lee Caggiano joins Peter Reitzes to discuss essential and trusted resources in the stuttering community. If you are looking for information about stuttering, a professional such as a speech-language pathologist or a support network, these organizations are a trusted place to start.
Are you frustrated or confused about something people are calling “normal stuttering” or “normal developmental stuttering”? If so, then this episode is for you! Nan Bernstein Ratner tackles the question, what is stuttering?
Nan Bernstein Ratner, Ed.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-CLLD is Professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park. She is a Fellow and Honors recipient of the American Speech, Language and Hearing Association (ASHA). Dr. Ratner is author of numerous articles and chapters addressing language acquisition and fluency and co-author, with Oliver Bloodstein, of A Handbook on Stuttering (6th edition) – one of the most respected and cited stuttering texts of our time. Dr. Ratner is a much called upon adviser to StutterTalk.
Michael Giannangeli is asked about being a person who stutters in the business world and at elite universities, his success with avoidance reduction therapy and working with Vivian Sisskin, his concerns with fluency shaping treatment, self help, Toastmasters and much more. Mr. Giannangeli points out the benefits of embracing the role of a stutterer and doing the thing you fear most. He shared that fluency is not the goal.
Michael Giannangeli, 25 years old, was born and raised in Washington, DC. Mr. Giannangeli spent the last three years as an Economic Consultant at Analysis Group in DC and is currently pursuing an MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Boston, MA. Michael played varsity basketball at Swarthmore College and remains a basketball junkie despite a recently ruptured Achilles tendon.
Dr. Marie-Christine Franken and Caroline de Sonneville-Koedoot discuss their eagerly awaited, just published, rigorous scientific study Direct versus Indirect Treatment for Preschool Children who Stutter: The RESTART Randomized Trial. A major finding reported in the study and on StutterTalk today is that treatment results for Lidcombe and RESTART-DCM treatment methods are very similar at 18 months post treatment onset. In response to a question formulated from this Stuttering Brain blog post, Dr. Franken shares on StutterTalk today that “At this moment I think it would be unscientific to claim that the Lidcombe Program is the best stuttering treatment.”
Caroline de Sonneville-Koedoot
Franken, de Sonneville-Koedoot and their colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial with an 18 month follow-up with 199 children who stutter between the ages of 3-6. All subjects had been stuttering for at least 6 months. 99 children received the Lidcombe Program treatment, a direct treatment. 100 children received the RESTART-DCM treatment, an indirect treatment. The researchers concluded that “results imply that at 18 months post treatment onset, both treatments are roughly equal in treating developmental stuttering in ways that surpass expectations of natural recovery.”
Dr. Marie-Christine Franken is a Specialist Fluency Therapist and the Speech-Language Research Lead at the Speech & Hearing Department of Erasmus University MC in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Dr. Franken and her team of researchers published a much discussed 2005 pilot study which compared Lidcombe Treatment and DCM Treatment. Dr. Franken recently appeared on StutterTalk to answer listener questions about Preschool Stuttering and Its Treatment (Ep. 487).
Caroline de Sonneville-Koedoot is a PhD student at Erasmus University, in the Department of Health Policy and Management, the Netherlands, and a speech-language pathologist. Her current research focuses on the cost-effectiveness of therapy for children who stutter.
StutterTalk® is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to talking openly about stuttering. StutterTalk is the first and longest running podcast on stuttering. Since 2007 we have published more than 700 podcasts which are heard in 180 countries.
4 Oct 2015
Can a Person Who Doesn’t Stutter Be a Good Stuttering Self-Help Group Leader? (Ep. 553)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS
Caryn Herring, Joel Korte and Roisin McManus of the StutterTalk B Team discuss the pros and cons of non-stutterers in leadership roles for stuttering self-help groups. Topics include the benefits and challenges of including speech-language graduate students in support meetings.
Link from today’s episode: