To think this approach of speech therapy for a stammer isn’t working? And what worked for your child?

[LukeSkywalkerBoots]

Hello,

Ds is 7 and has had two lots of speech therapy on the NHS. He has a stammer which shows up as getting stuck on the beginning of words. Sometimes he’ll repeat the sound so I-I-I etc or he opens his mouth and no sound comes out for a few seconds, and he has a facial tick where his mouth kind of contorts out to the side.

In the NHS therapy their approach was to use some characters which represented speaking slower and pausing between words. Now in the session of course when we are sitting with the therapist and she is talking to him so unnaturally slowly, it will helps. And sometimes if I try and sit him down for ten minutes with a quiet activity and we speak slower, it helps. But he is an excited jumpy 7 year old who for the rest of the time is excited to tell us stuff and wants to run around and gabble with his friends. AIBU that this approach just isn’t practical for his every day life. He isn’t going to be able to talk really slowly all the time. He isn’t going to remember when he is running around the park with his friends etc.

We’ve also tried slowing our pace of life. But naturally 7 yo’s are bouncy and excitable.

I think YABU. You said yourself it works when you sit down and do a quiet activity. I went to speech therapy at 5 and 6 so just a bit younger than your son and the same approach was applied to me. I don’t have a stammer anymore but even as an adult when I’m excitable and talk fast I start to trip over my words and have to mentally tell myself to slow my words down.

My son did the smooth talking technique, which is apparently well regarded and backed with research. For DS, the stutter actually is anxiety driven, and the pressure he put on himself to perform for the speechie resulted in a stutter, that she then tried to treat. We'd actually started for other reasons, sigh.

Because it was anxiety related, the therapy did not have much impact. We took time off and it all resolved once the pressure was off.

I had speech therapy, it didn't work for me, I still stammer as an adult. But it doesn't bother me. I was brought up to to know that it doesn't matter. There's nothing as patronising as someone saying 'take a breath, slow down' everyone you speak. Who wants to think before they speak every single time? You don't get blind people to try and see, or deaf people to try and hear.

@missionitsimpossible but how do I keep a 7 year old sat down at a table speaking slowly all day long?! Normal life= v different. Me and my husband try and speak slowly to him all day long in the hope that he will mirror us but it doesn’t work.

I can totally see how being reminded to speak slowly would be annoying.

It's not going to be a quick fix perhaps your expectations are too high?

Is he making the progress the therapist expects?

The therapist only saw him for half an hour during which they did some very slow speech therapy exercises. And then he’d get outside and go immediately back to talking really fast and stammering again.

We did two lots of how many sessions you get on the NHS so we aren’t seeing her at the mo, we’ve got a check up in a few months.

I didn’t expect a quick fix, I was just hoping for a strategy that would help more.

My 14 year old DS stammers. He's had various ST over the years. Learning to speak more slowly has helped a bit but there is no cure for a stammer.
For my DS the important thing has been to encourage him to speak as much as he wants to even though he stammers. Luckily it has not held him back too much as he is talkative and confident and his peers at school are patient with him and don't make fun of him.
We stopped ST few years ago. DS didn't want to go anymore and it wasn't really helping.
As your son is younger I'd stick with it for a while and practice with him at dinner time or bedtime when it's a more quiet time. You're right it's going to be difficult for him to automatically remember these techniques when he's playing.

Is there a program of work provided for school?

Time. My eldest had a stammer and it disappeared on its own. I used to just ask him to try repeat what he said slower and more calmly. It used to frustrate him at times, sure, but it worked and went away and now there is absolutely no sign of it

Feel your and DS's pain.
My DD has SALT but for forming sentences connected with her ASC. It's great we have these sessions on the NHS, but frankly they're a bit rubbish. Half an hour isn't long enough. We are doing a block of 5 at the moment only the last three have been cancelled. Last week's with only an hour's notice. DD, being three and havng autism was upset. She had been primed all week about our routine on each day.
Also, the work books are a bit questionable as to what the pictures are.

I do what other posters suggest. Do it yourself. At home, when it's quiet. When it's not. Through play. Any situation where I can encourage her to use sentences. Get on the internet (sure you have already.) cos you're really on your own. SALT literally has no resources to help. Awful as it is.

Hi my son has a stammer - he prefers the word stutter. We have been through years of NHS speech therapy with little success. We've tried soft fluffy talk, think and pause, making your mouth like a pillow. As was mentioned above, who wants to live their life thinking and pausing before every word they utter? As a lively, intelligent, vibrant little boy he just couldn't and wouldn't do it. Same as putting your hand up or asking people to wait while you finish speaking - exactly how does that work out in the playground while excitedly discussing PlayStation games or something? We have always accepted his speech as part of him - just a quirk that he lives with and it's really other people who have to learn to get over it.

His speech therapist "let him go" when he got to about 12 as she really couldn't do much more with him, he had learned her strategies over and over but because we refused to shout at him "Stop! Think and pause! Take a breath!" every time he started a stutter, he would always forget. I'm pleased about that as I refuse to make my imaginative, creative child constantly reign in his thoughts. He deserves his voice to be heard whatever it sounds like and so what if it doesn't conform to Society's rules. I realise we are in the minority with this opinion, the therapist said all the other parents were embarrassed by their child and brought them in saying "Fix them". Fuck that, he deserves better. He's a teenager now and he's pretty much taught himself to control it when with his friends and it probably doesn't matter much as kids these days accept some people have conditions (ADHD, Tourette's etc) that make them slightly different and no one says anything if he has a stutter now and then. It's a big, diverse world and your son will find his way just as mine has. If it becomes a problem going forward then as soon as he's 18 he may try the Maguire programme but that will be his choice as an adult. No way was I ever going to slow my boy down or stop a child's chatter. Good luck, he'll be fine.

My nine year old ds has had a stutter since he was 3.
He started speech therapy when has was five and went for about two years trying different methods with little success.
He found it quite stressful and I felt in knocked his confidence.
About 2 years ago I read something which made think basically saying
" listen to what they say rather than how they say it "
Since then we have changed how we react to his stutter we made a conscious effort to really listen to what he had to say and not try to correct how he was saying it.
It really has made a difference all the pressure was off him and and us
We didn't need to "fix" him
His stutter has dramatically improved in the last couple of years and we only notice it occasionally.
There is a book called voice unearthed which I also read and made a lot of sends to me

@dayswithay I’m encouraged by what you wrote and I agree totally. Constantly going on at a happy go lucky child to slow down, stop, etc etc just takes the wind out of his sails. I love how bouncy and excited he is and I can’t mould him into a quiet slow talking other person. Nor do I want to.

Hopefully in time it’ll ease. But if not, I just hope he doesn’t have any hassle off other kids over it as he gets to teenage as teenagers can be really mean!

SLT here not my specialism but I do work in paediatric. I actually quite shocked at 'slowed speech' still being so come. We stopped using it years ago. We offer two types mainly Palin Parent Child interaction and lidcombe. Both very different but equally evidence based. However we strongly but into 'is the child bothered?' Acceptance of themselves goes a long way and for some children even a really significant stammer is actually no issue. And it shouldn't be let them get on with being them if they are happy

We’ve had speech therapy similar to what you’ve described.
I think they idea is you mirror slower speech. I’m a naturally fast talker, I have to remember to pause, show I’m thinking 🤔, reduce my pace. This has had an impact along with doing the 10 min special time everyday.

We are now also doing a programme of ‘bumpy’ ‘smooth’ talking with our ST. I have 2 children with stammers. Ones stammer has gone almost altogether and the other child’s stammer is greatly reduced. I think the programme is called The Lidcombe Programme. It’s quite intense but we’ve had results.

I’m not saying it wouldn’t be hard OP! I’m just saying that it will help. Has he tried tapping his feet when he stutters? I know it sounds odd but it helped me. I think it’s somethjng to do with talking in a rhythm, similar to singing as people with a stammer don’t do it when singing.

Hi LucySkyWalker some children can be cruel but being a resilient cheery sort my son doesn’t let it bother him, I expect yours is the same. The world has changed since I was a teen and kids these days are far more accepting of differences and on the whole it’s really not cool to discriminate. Being different toughens you up, he’ll be just fine and I wish you all the best.