Changing Attitudes in Children & Teens who Stutter

The article I read, titled, "Changing Attitudes in Children & Teens who Stutter looks at the specific strategies to help change the attitudes or negative judgments children and teens have on their stuttering. The article lists five important treatment activities/strategies to incorporate when working with young adults and children who stutter. The strategies/activities/approaches were:
1. Learn vocabulary to describe stuttering, the speech process and techniques to modify rate and tension
2. Learn to analyze and problem solve approaches to various speaking situations
3. Understand the impact of negative thinking on attitudes while speaking in difficult situations; transfer negative thoughts into positive ones
4. Tell your story; Read the stories of other children/teens!
5. Meet other people who stutter

I found these strategies to be particularly helpful in seeing the counseling aspect of fluency and in seeing how to modify negative attitudes towards stuttering. When I came upon strategy # 2, I did not think of fluency as thinking of ways to problem solve to various speaking situations. In this part of therapy the client identifies the difficult places and situations in which they speak and then they develop a hierarchy of difficulty and come up with ways to manage and analyze changes while speaking in these situations. I also found it interesting that time pressure and avoidance are key aspects to address when coming up with ways to manage stuttering in difficult situations. I posed a couple of questions to the author. I asked the author how she approaches parents of the children who stutter in terms of ways they can help their child accept their stuttering. I wanted to know how you can help parents look at stuttering in a positive light? I also asked about the Behavior Assessment Battery that was mentioned in the article. I wondered how this battery measured the child's behavior and perception of their stutter. The author responded by saying that the Behavior Assessment Battery is a published test that addresses a number of areas that are relevant to communication. She said that measuring attitudinal change is important over time and that she sees gradual changes in attitudes on this type of test. The author also explained she works with parents in private practice in that the parents are bringing in their kids so it gives their kids the opportunity to explain what they have done in treatment and how to see stuttering in a positive way. I think this article was worth reading because it brought up ways of treating the attitudes of stutterers in both children up through teens and into adulthood. The article also provided links to related activities and information on each strategy/approach. All of these strategies are very helpful in modifying the negative feelings and attitudes.