This study investigated the advisability of utilizing parents to provide treatment for their dysfluent preschoolers. It involved the development, implementation and evaluation of a specific treatment program involving indirect language stimulation techniques. The primary question asked was whether or not parents can be successful in significantly reducing or eliminating dysfluent speech in their children. The secondary question was whether or not parents can be trained successfully to provide treatment.2 Four children and their mothers were involved in the study. The four children were determined to be incipient stutterers rather than having normal nonfluencies by using the criteria set up by Adams (1977). The mother-child dyad was videotaped in a play situation for 20 minutes before the training period began. Then the mothers were trained to use specific language stimulation techniques which encouraged positive and neutral statements and discouraged negative statements, such as commands and questions. They used these techniques once each day for six weeks during a 30-minute session alone with the child. In order to compensate for the possible positive effect of spending time alone with the child, a second six-week period was spent simply reading to the child and not interacting in a personal way. The mothers' comments were analyzed before treatment began and after each six week period. The Stuttering Severity Instrument (SSI), (Riley and Riley, 1980), was applied to evaluate the child's speech samples during the initial session and each six week period. A follow-up session was videotaped six months after treatment ended.The data were analyzed by comparing individual SSI scores and percentages. Jack, Steve and Sophia showed impressive improvement in their fluent speech following the treatment period and at the follow-up session. Ross showed no improvement after the treatment period, but showed some improvement after six months.The answer to the primary question whether the children's stuttering behavior is improved by the parent treatment program is not entirely affirmative. Although three of the children did make meaningful improvement in their speech, one child in the study did not, at least not until six months after the study. The secondary question regarding the ability of the parents to learn the treatment program is answered affirmatively as a result of analyses of the mother's conversation after treatment sessions. The degree of change from negative statements and questions to positive statements ranged from 26% to 68% from pretreatment to posttreatment sessions. 3The results of this investigation indicate that some reservations exist in considering a single treatment paradigm such as indirect language stimulation techniques. Although there may by some merit in using ILS in some situations, it seems apparent that factors other than the verbal interaction between caregivers and the child must be considered when adopting a plan for treatment and when choosing indirect over direct intervention.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.