Stuttering Therapy

The Auburn University Speech and Hearing Clinic offers both individual and group treatment for individuals of all ages whom stutter. For very young clients, therapy may focus on training parents how to optimize the child’s environment rather than much direct work with child. With school age children, individual therapy may concentrate on teaching good speech production skills. For older individuals, often a combination of both individual therapy (to work on specific speech production targets to enhance fluency) and group therapy (to share experiences and concerns with others facing the same problem) is utilized. Enhanced fluency is often quickly developed in the clinic setting, and so fluency treatment often entails the client and clinician venturing out of the clinic into evermore challenging speaking situations and incorporating family, friends, and others in creating treatment experiences and opportunities.

Types of Therapy

There are many approaches to treating stuttering, and, as yet, no one approach to therapy has proven superior to the others. Therapy approaches range from:

* Learning new patterns of speaking that facilitate fluency;
* Altering speech rate, loudness, effort, and/or respiration patterns;
* Learning new ways to initiate speech and controlling speech production when approaching difficult to produce words;
* Changing attitudes and perceptions concerning stuttering and speaking
* Using experiential learning to explore and understand factors affecting speech production and stuttering
* Using prosthetic devices such as auditory maskers or other forms of altered sensory feedback during speech production,
* Neuropharmacological approaches
* Multidisciplinary treatment, integrating appropriate professionals from other disciplines in the treatment

Philosophy Concerning Fluency Treatment

Because no one approach to therapy has been proven superior, the Fluency Program at AUSHC explores a variety of treatment options for each individual, and the client (and/or parent) have a primary voice in selecting the option(s) they feel most comfortable with. The philosophy of the Auburn University Speech and Hearing Clinic Fluency Disorders Program is to:

* Conduct a detailed diagnostic assessment to determine what factors appear to be most critical in influencing stuttering occurrence vs. fluent speech for each individual
* Review those factors with the client and/or parents;
* Determine what treatment options best fit with dealing with those factors
* Allow the client and/or parents to determine what treatment options they feel most comfortable with
* Come to mutual agreement between client and clinician as to which treatment options to utilize
* Constantly assess progress to determine if alterations in treatment methodology are warranted