At Thrive Pediatric Therapy, we work with children and young adults with fluency disorders, such as stuttering or cluttering. When working with individuals with fluency disorders, the goal of speech therapy treatment is to work towards reducing tension, building confidence, and providing the child with strategies and tools to modify their speech. Therapy is individualized towards the patient’s specific goals, their age, and the types of disfluencies they may be experiencing. We work on practical situations, focusing on education about fluency while also discussing the attitudes and feelings around stuttering. We work towards teaching the child to utilize tools to allow their speech to be more fluent and less effortful. When working with those who stutter, we like to think “big picture” to think about how it may be impacting the child in various settings.
Everyone can be disfluent at times, it’s just how we communicate! Speech-language pathologists are trained to identify when stuttering is typical or when speech therapy services might be recommended. This is dependent on many factors, including the types of disfluencies (such as blocks, prolongation of sounds, and repetition of sounds), the duration and frequency of the disfluencies, and if the child is experiencing any secondary behaviors (such as body movements in reaction to the tension/stuttering).
If you think your child may have a fluency disorder, contact us to schedule an evaluation. For more information about the evaluation process, click here.
