A Blog by Daniel Shaw

If you are like most school-based SLPs, the start of a school year is a mixed bag of hopes, ambitions, optimism, and, of course, logistics.

We serve a wide range of needs and children who stutter can get lost among the myriad challenges of autism, AAC, and IEPs. Perhaps graduate school did not include a course on stuttering, or you’ve only served one or two children who stutter in the last five or even ten years. If this or similar scenarios is true for you, consider adding a few strategic questions to your arsenal. The questions we will discuss in this brief article can help to shift some of the responsibility for change to your children, increase their confidence, and encourage the belief that they can make the changes they want. By shifting the responsibility of change to children, SLPs are conceding that ultimately, we cannot make anyone change. By leaning on our children’s (and their parents’) expertise, we free ourselves from the burden of having to solve everyone’s problems for them. Instead, these types of questions place us in a supportive coaching role.

In schools, we have amazing resources a phone call or a hallway away: our children who stutter and their families. And the right question paired with careful listening can help us to simultaneously identify what children and parents want to target and what they are doing to move in that direction. After all, it is often the case that children are doing more than they realize. So as a therapy session begins, we might simply ask: What’s better since last week, even if just a little bit? This type of question builds in an assumption: that things are indeed a little bit better. If children struggle to answer, try including a more concrete action, a specific location, or a specific person. What did you do today/this week at lunch/with friends that used to be hard for you?

Another type of question looks for exceptions—times when things are a little better or when things are not as bad. One approach is to begin with a problem the child has shared in the past: Tell me about a time where you were afraid to talk and did it anyway or when did you feel like saying as little as possible and decided to say more/keep talking? or when did you last raise your hand in class, even when you thought you might stutter? Notice the assumption in these questions. Rather than ask did you or have you, which offer a yes/no choice, we are asking when did you. These questions encourage them to identify something they are already doing. Our job is to amplify those things, to help them hear themselves. We can do this with simple reflections or summaries of what they tell us. This often encourages them to do more—after all, success breeds success. These questions can also be used with families. Parents might already be on the lookout for what isn’t working or going well, and these strength-based questions can begin to consider their children in new ways. 

So, what is the purpose of asking questions this way? Simply put, we want to encourage children and parents to discover the things they are already doing, and which are already working. This builds confidence and a sense that they are capable of making changes (self-efficacy). Much better than hearing from their therapist, they are learning to voice successes and experience the power of hearing the sound of their own voice. Therapists can encourage them to write these down into a journal, post them on the wall, draw these successes, or write them on note cards and keep them in a bravery box. Therapists can pull these out any time to review successes and remind children of their strengths. Parents can do this at home as well. As children begin to internalize these positive messages, we can fan the flame to encourage them to continue in this direction.

Consider using questions and see what happens with your children who stutter. You might be surprised at how easy it is to do and how much fun you can have counting successes and highlighting wins.

Posted Aug. 27, 2024