Don’t let it define you…
“Don’t let it define you.”
That is the advice Joe Biden gave to a 13-year boy he met on the campaign trail about something they have in common: stuttering.
Biden has certainly not let his stutter define him. Instead, Biden is defined by his long career politics, his historic election as the 46th President of the United States, and by how he faces the challenges set before him.
Effective Fluency Therapy
Effective stuttering therapy treats more than just disfluencies and stuttering behaviors. There are a wide-range of goals that can and should be included in a comprehensive treatment plan for school-age children who stutter.
When preparing goals, consider these seven major areas that Scott Yaruss, PhD, CCC-SLP and Nina Reeves outlines in their 2013 book School-Age Stuttering Therapy: A Practice Guide .
They are:
- 1. Learn about speaking and stuttering
- 2. Reduce frequency & severity of stuttering
- 3. Learn techniques for enhancing fluency
- 4. Minimize negative reactions to stuttering
- 5. Improve overall communication skills
- 6. Educate others in the environment
- 7. Generalize skills to the real-world setting
“Taken together, these areas address the entire stuttering disorder to ensure that our treatment embracs the notion that, ‘stuttering is more than just stuttering.”
Famous People Who Stutter
Learning about famous people who stutter (or others who stutter in general) relates to several of Dr. Yaruss’ suggested goal areas. You should absolutely consider it when crafting any comprehensive stuttering / fluency therapy plan.
Given the historic election of U.S. President Joe Biden, why not start with the man on top and teach your students about this public figure and his own relationship with stuttering.
Setting the Stage
Many therapists ‘set the stage’ for fluency therapy by learning about the parts of the speech system. This is a valuable way to give clients the language to talk accurately about what is happening during stuttering.
But another important part of change is showing the client that meaningful changes are possible and motivating them to pursue those changes (Dalton & Gotlieb, 2003).
Learning about the experiences of others who stutter can be a powerful way to show clients a real-life example of someone like them. If the client holds that person in some regard, they may be especially motivated to emulate them.
For example, if your client is a sports fan, they may be excited to learn that Bo-Jackson, George Springer, Adrian Peterson, and many others also know what it is like to stutter and struggle to manage it.
Here’s some of my original resources on fluency (link to TpT)
Regardless of politics, the fact that Joe Biden is a person who stutters and has risen to be the President of the United States speaks volumes to other people who stutter and what they too can accomplish.
Shared Experience
The words and experiences of “famous people” (or simply other people who stutter) may be more meaningful to a client because of their shared experience.
If you as a person who does not stutter tell your client, “It is okay if you stutter in front of your class during a presentation. Don’t worry just be yourself.” Your client might think to themself, “You don’t know what it’s like…”.
Now imagine that your client hears that same message from President Joe Biden, a person who stutters and speaks regularly in front of the entire world. And then President Biden follows up with, “I promise you – you have nothing to be ashamed of, and you have every reason to be proud.”
Wow. Infinitely more powerful.
Why? Because not only does he understand stuttering, but he understands the fear and embarrassment first hand. President Biden once said, “I can think of nothing else that has ever stripped me of my dignity as quickly and as profoundly and as thoroughly as when I stuttered in grade school.”
How to incorporate it into your therapy?
As speech-language pathologists, we tend to most comfortable with discreet grammar, targeted phonemes, and overt communicative behaviors that we can count and document.
My background as a middle and high school teacher means sometimes I think about things a little differently.
I’ve created a simple 1-page reading and accompanying 1-page worksheet on President Joe Biden and his relationship with stuttering.
The worksheet included 5 vocabulary questions, 3 comprehension questions, and 3 potential discussion or written response questions. And of course you get an answer key.
General Education Use
This same lesson plan, designed for late middle school to early high school students, is great for people who stutter but equally great for those who don’t!
If you’re used to pushing in to the general education classroom (or even if you’re not!), consider partnering with a reading or civics / history teacher to teach this lesson to a group of students. Part of what we do is working directly with our clients, but we can also use our voices to educate and advocate more broadly.
So, what do you think?
In the comments below or in a private message, let me know if you teach about famous people who stutter, what you think of this lesson plan, or your thoughts about effective fluency therapy.
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