Have You Given Up Hope on Stammering Treatments?

Many teenagers and adults who stutter or stammer have had tons of speech therapy and many stammering treatments. They start in the public schools. There would usually be a new clinician every year with a new plan for stammering treatment.

 Lack of Training in Stammering Treatments

The problem is that most University Graduate Programs do not provide adequate training in the area of stuttering. When I went to school, the Communicative Disorders department required first, an introductory course in stuttering, and then, a graduate seminar class to learn about the latest research in stuttering. Graduate students used to complete 25 hrs. of clinical training, working with a person who stuttered in the clinic under the supervision of the professor.

Stammering Treatments Training Requirements

All that has changed. The American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) is responsible for setting course requirements in accredited Speech Pathology graduate programs across the country. About 15 years ago, graduate school administrators complained that they could not find enough people who stuttered to enroll in their clinics. Also, that they could not find enough professors with expertise in stammering treatments to teach their courses. So what did the Association do? They got rid of the requirements for stuttering classes and clinical training in all universities. As a result, graduate training programs can now grant a Masters Degree and Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) to students who have not even had a course in stuttering, much less any clinical training.

These same students then go to work as speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in the public school system with no training in stuttering. School speech pathologists are mandated by Special Education laws to treat all communicative disorders, including stuttering. They are not prepared and feel inadequate when working with children who stutter, but it’s obviously not their fault – they didn’t get the training. So these well-meaning therapists are in a tough position and try their best to help their students who stutter.

Board Certified Stuttering Specialists

At about the same time that ASHA got rid of the requirements for stuttering training, a group of us decided to develop a Stuttering Specialist Recognition Program that provided extra training to those who wanted to work with people who stutter. As a result, there are about 160 Board Certified Stuttering Specialists in the country now. Unfortunately, there are also millions of children and adults who stutter in this country.

I think that this is why many teenagers and adults have given up on stammering treatments. Their experience in the schools and even private practice had been one failure after another.

There Is Hope For People Who Stutter

People who stutter need to know that researchers have developed effective treatment programs for children and adults who stutter. These programs are provided by stuttering specialists like myself and others around the country. They have the designation of ASHA – Board Certified Specialist in Fluency – BCS-F.