Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Leys is spinning again

Leys Geddes, chair of the British Stammering Association, is unfortunately misleading again. Surely unwillingly, but still.
Early Intervention could reduce the numbers substantially but support from the NHS is inadequate.
There is no evidence whatsoever that the number of adult stutterers is reduced substantially. At best, the adult stutterer's stuttering is less frequent and severe, and have a better psychosocial adaptation.

And more...
However, Early Intervention allows the vast majority of those very young children at risk of a lifetime of stammering to regain fluent speech, achieve their true potential and make a full contribution to society and the economy.
It's highly highly misleading. As I told Leys a million times: The vast majority recovers *any way*. So you cannot just say that EI allows most to regain fluent speech. Yesterday, I over-heard a conversation from my neighbouring table at the restaurant. A mother told her adult son: you were stuttering, too. I took you to a strange man who did exercises with a metronome, and after a few weeks you were fluent! Leys, why don't you write a story that Early Metronome intervention allows the vast majority of .... ;-)

Here is Tom's version:
Early Intervention accompanies children and parents during the period of a child's dsyfluency. Its main goal is to re-assure and inform parents of children who stutter, to rule out other developmental issues and treat these if present, and to actively intervene when stuttering becomes too distressing or does not wane after several months. Those children who do not naturally grow out of stuttering may significantly benefit in terms of reduction of frequency and severity of stuttering and achieve a good psychosocial adaptation to their speech impediment. Only a skilled specialist speech and language therapist actively and regularly supported by the child's parents achieves such successful interventions.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please tell your readers the source of this quotation. An article? A blog? A blog comment? A private communication?

And who is Leys? A friend of yours? A stuttering researcher? Is that his last name or his first? Some of us may know who he is, but most of us don't.

Tom Weidig said...

You are right. I just added some info.

Anonymous said...

Preventing as well as curing stuttering in young children is really quite simple; just instruct the parent to let the young CWS know when they use smooth speech and good talking, as well as have the CWS evaluate their own response's. As importantly, the parent should let the young CWS know when their speech is bumpy, and have the CWS eliminate that bumpiness by trying it again.

I also helps if the parent uses an Aussie accent.

ig88sir said...
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Lil Herbie said...

nice article ! thanks for sharing the valuable information