What works?

What works?

Stuttering therapy is very confusing. Does it work? for every one? all the time ? Difficult questions… David Kehoe has reviewed a whole lot of studies trying to analyze what works, what does not. He has put it in a small free pdf e-book. I am quoting the most interesting part- the conclusions. But there is more. Definitely. TISA thanks David for this labor of LOVE. In our opinion this is most authentic and objective review of various therapy approaches and their effectiveness. READ it and develop your OWN opinion:

“…the effective therapies share the same components:
• Relaxed, diaphragmatic breathing.
• Relaxed vocal folds, including gentle onsets and offsets, and a slow-
er speaking rate with stretched vowels.

• Relaxed lips, jaw, and tongue.
• Beginning therapy with simple sounds and words, then progressing
to longer phrases and then conversations. This increases the lin-
guistic complexity of your speech, and should not be confused with
increasing the stress of speaking situations.
• Involving the parents increases therapy effectiveness. Given how
important parents are to children’s speech therapy success, it’s sur-
prising that therapy programs for adults don’t involve in their
spouses, children, or co-workers. Adults, Teenagers, and School-Age Children
• Transfer and maintenance phases are Important. Programs that “cure” you in the speech clinic and then wave good-bye are best avoided!
• Social, emotional, and cognitive (SEC) therapy. Two-thirds of adult
stutterers have psychological disorders, such as social phobia, asso-
ciated with stuttering. For many adults the fears and anxieties asso-
ciated with stuttering are more disabling than their stuttering.
• Using biofeedback technology to increase fluency shaping effec-
tiveness.
• Using altered auditory feedback (AAF) to treat the auditory pro-
cessing underactivity associated with stuttering (see page 40).
• Stuttering is a dopaminergic disorder (see the section on medica-
tions, page 53). Other dopaminergic disorders include Tourette’s
syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). These disor-
ders manifest under stress. Trying to not do the behavior makes it
worse. This is not the same as psychological disorders that two-
thirds of adult stutterers have. Everyone experiences stress. Some
types of stress increase fluency and some increase stuttering. You
can learn to recognize good stress and bad stress, and choose how
you respond to stress in ways that improve your fluency.
And all of these components can be combined. Stuttering treatment
isn’t about picking this therapy or that therapy. It’s about doing all of the above at the same time. ..”