The two articles I choose to read and write about are “Covert Stuttering: Coming out of the Stuttering Closet” and “Stuttering and Sleep: Some Speculation”. I choose these two articles because I found them to be very interesting and insightful. Reading the two articles gave me a lot of informative information about stuttering and how it affects everyday life. I learned how certain lifestyle habits can affect a person who stutters and how stutterers have developed skilled techniques to hide the fact that they stutter. This paper will explain what I read and how it will help me conduct the clinical process with people who stutter. The first article that I will discuss is “Stuttering and Sleep: Some Speculation” by Sandra Melo. It has been researched that stuttering became worse after several nights of poor sleeping. In a single day, the brain processes more information than you can possible imagine. We rely on our brain to actively interpret and manage every piece of information our body is in contact with. When we sleep, the brain gets to rest, recharge and get ready for the next day of activities, thinking, processing, analyzing and more. That is why the amount of sleep we get is crucial if we want to efficiently function during the day. Sleep deprivation affects a person’s speech. It has been a general observance that individuals who lack sleep tend to stutter and slur. Vocabulary becomes limited and the tone of the voice is lowered. When conducting speech therapy with someone who stutters as an SLP, I first have to make sure my patient is getting the proper rest. Depending on the age preschool children should get 14 hours of sleep, school-aged children 10-11 hours, and adults should get 8 hours of sleep each night. Without the proper amount of sleep patients might suffer from increased muscle tension, which can affect speech. Another consequence of sleep deprivation may be the impairment of cognitive function that supports speech. After a bad night of sleep, attention and executive functions become worse on the following day and this may affect speech fluency. Attention and executive functions are necessary abilities to apply speech strategies to improve fluency. Although there is currently no cure for stuttering, there are a variety of treatments available. The nature of the treatment will differ, based upon a person’s age, communication goals, and other factors. Once I have taught my client the importance of proper sleep hygiene I can focus treatment on teaching parents about ways to support their child’s production of fluent speech away from the clinic room. This will be done by teaching parents the importance of providing a relaxed home environment that allows many opportunities for the child to speak, to refrain from reacting negatively when the child stutters and most importantly to listen attentively when the child speaks and wait for them to say the intended word without trying to complete the child’s sentences for them. From these steps my client should perform exceptionally well in therapy. The second article that will be discussed is “Covert Stuttering: Coming out of the Stuttering Closet” by Jill Douglas. Covert stuttering is the ability to successfully hide stuttering the majority of the time from listeners and the ability to maximize the use of accessory behaviors and social techniques to not stutter. Having this ability is not a good thing because people can go on for years without being properly diagnosed with being a stutterer and go on more years with out receiving the proper treatment. Therefore, causing the person to become withdrawed from others, which can cause problems in school, with family members, at work or with having and maintaining relationships. From the article I learned ways to incorporate different tactics, which can lead to an effective therapy session for a covert stutterer and will be explained in the duration of this paper. Therapy techniques for a covert stutterer would begin by performing a stuttering evaluation and building rapport with my patient. Through out the years I came to realize that relationship with the therapist and the client is very important. Patients must feel a connection with their therapist before confiding in him or her. Research states that covert stutterers often feel that stuttering is their biggest hidden secret, so they must feel safe and comfortable to share their feelings openly. As the therapist I should not get discouraged if this does not happen in one or two therapy sessions. It takes time to build a trusting relationship.
Therapy would then focus on lessening the covert behaviors, and focus on self-acceptance and reducing the internal fear of stuttering. Discussing stuttering openly, reading others' accounts of how stuttering has made them feel, and role-playing some of the covert stutterer's past experiences with disfluent speech will help reduce the fear and anxiety related to the stuttering behaviors. Pseudo-stuttering and acting out possible disfluent scenarios also will help reduce the stigma associated with stuttering.
My next strategy for therapy would begin by using a variety of fluency techniques such as continuous phonation, relaxed breathing and reduced articulatory pressure can help ease covert stutterers into difficult speech moments. Once they have mastered techniques at the word, phrase and sentence level, it is time to face their feared situations, starting with the least difficult to build confidence with the newly learned techniques. Once the covert stutterer confronts each speaking situation, as the therapist I must note if any old avoidance behaviors are beginning to show. And remind them that it is okay to stutter because you must hear those moments to help them achieve their fluency goals.
Challenging covert stutterers to use fluency techniques in their most feared situations may be difficult at first. Encourage their efforts and give them the opportunity to make decisions about their next goal. Allowing them to participate in creating goals will promote confidence and independence and give them more control over their speech. Practicing these tactics will lead to a productive therapy and can teach the covert stutterer to handle difficult speaking situations.
Reading the two articles, “Covert Stuttering: Coming out of the Stuttering Closet” and “Stuttering and Sleep: Some Speculation”, help changed my