The Modification of Stuttering in a Public School Setting

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to share a stuttering program utilized in public schools of Oregon. It is a direct intervention program aimed at the elementary age school population. The program has four stages which combine management and transfer in order to lead to fluent maintenance. The central goal of the program is to teach the child to make appropriate discriminations of muscle tension and air flow. Suggested criteria for movement between stages are included. THE MODIFICATION OF STUTTERING IN A PUBLIC SCHOOL SETTINGToo often stuttering programs are designed for adults or, at best, for the adolescent population. It then becomes the task of the public school clinician to adapt for children a program meant for adults. Williams (1971) surveyed public school clinicians regarding the types of clinical experiences received during their training. Of those surveyed, only 28 percent of the clinicians had clinical experience with elementary school age children who stuttered. The participating clinicians were trained at 33 different institutions and, thus, probably represented a rather general trend throughout the country. Approximately, then, three-fourths of those trained for the public school setting gained their clinical experience in stuttering with the wrong age group and in a nonappropriate setting. The two age groups do not match in terms of language, internalization of the problem, types of failures nor the amount of concern verbalized. The amount of time available each week to work with the client was probably different as well.Additionally, many programs which are designed for the public schools involve expenditures for hardware which tax limited school budgets (especially so, if the clinician sees only three or four stutterers in five years).The purpose of this article is to share a program designed to aid the speech clinician working in the elementary school setting. It is not the program; however, it is free of hardware constraints and has been field

Progressive relaxation training : effects on the communicative ability of aphasic adults

“…Froeschels {1932) indicated the rationale for using relaxation with clinical speech cases is based on the premise that a statelof general or specific body relaxation facilitates good speech production. As a consequence, relaxation training has been successfully employed in the treatment of a variety of hyperfunctional voice disorders (Brodnitz, 1962;Murphy, 1964;Fisher, 1966;Moore, 1971;Boone, 1971;Marshall and Watts, 1975) and stuttering (Wolpe, 1958;Damste, Zwaan and Shoenaker, 1968;Falck, 1969;Casteel and McMahon, 1978).…”

An analysis of the relationship between the degree of maintained fluency improvement of former Portland State University stuttering clients and the overall language themes they used

“…Casteel's Four Stage Stuttering Program: A behavior modification program for the treatment of stuttering which utilizes four stages in which specific vocal parameters are first sacrificed and then reinstated (Casteel and McMahon, 1978). Knowledge of correct: "I am maintaining reduced tension in my laryngeal muscles" (Prichard, 1971;and Stone and Casteel, 1975).…”

“…Transfer: The generalization of newly learned skills, in this case speaking, to daily routine and a variety of speaking situations (Casteel and McMahon, 1978).…”

An Investigation of Client Fluency Maintenance Between 1972-1977 at Portland State University

“…Distracting movements of extremities: Body movement such as shifting the torso, foot-tapping,· or excessive movement of arms an_d legs, or the lack of movement as in tensing (Riley, 1972 (Casteel and McMahon, 1978).…”

“…Transfer: Spread or generalization of newly learned skills to various speaki~g situations and daily routine (Casteel and McMahon, 1978 (Prins,1.970).…”