By: Carlee Jones, M.A., CCC-SL
Speech therapy for stuttering will include a comprehensive and tailored approach targeting increased fluency of speech, positive feelings towards self, management of fluency techniques, and environmental modifications to foster these goals. A combination of direct and indirect approaches, including person-and-family-centered treatment can serve to promote generalization to varying communicative environments. Below are some direct and indirect strategies that you can begin implementing at home, which will be discussed and trained further during speech therapy sessions.
Fluency Shaping Strategies
Fluency shaping strategies are methods that can be utilized by the person who stutters to produce fluent speech by making changes to the timing and tension of speech within sounds, syllables, words, and phrases. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Easy/gentle onset: Helps to produce vowel sounds at the beginning of words, by slowly and relaxedly initiating the sound with a breath out.
- g., “Apple” –> “hhhaaapple”, “Of course” –> “hhhoof course”
- Light articulatory contact: Helps to reduce tension that can cause disfluency with initial consonant sounds such as words beginning with p, t, k/c, b, d, g
- g., lightly/gently using lips/tongue when making these sounds
- Stretchy speech: Prolonging production of sounds to allow the brain more time for planning speech. Aiming to produce one syllable per second, not one word per second.
- g., “What’s for dinner?” –> “wwhaaattsssffooorddiiinnneerrr?”
- Rate control: Slowing the overall rate of speech
Environmental Modifications
Environmental modifications are made largely by family members to foster a home communicative setting that promotes fluency, including:
- Slower rate of speech
- Reduced interruptions
- Patient listening
- Open communication
- Reduced time constraints
While these are introductory in nature to assist in decreasing instances of stuttering and promoting comfort within your child’s communicative settings, these are just the tip of the iceberg. Every person who stutters is different, and because of this, requires different considerations, interventions, and approaches to help them achieve their goals. If you feel that your child’s stuttering inhibits their ability to communicate freely, participate in educational and social settings, or maintain positive regard for themselves, it will likely be most beneficial to seek out the services of a speech-language pathologist
