If your child is engaging in individual therapy for stuttering, your therapist will highly
recommend daily blocks of at-home therapy practice together, with your ongoing support.
Sound overwhelming, and yet another thing you need to add to your already piling to-do list?
Never fear. Here at Bambini Health, we believe therapy homework shouldn’t feel like a chore for you, or your child! But before we get into the HOW of homework practice can be more fun and engaging, let us breakdown WHY homework practice is *so* important for children who stutter.
Reason #1
The core stuttering intervention programs (e.g., The Lidcombe Program, The Westmead
Program & The Oakville Program) require direct child-parent/caregiver interaction with the same trained parent(s). In other words, stuttering home practice and therapy is not something a child can practice by themselves. They need you, as the parent or caregiver, to provide them with feedback (otherwise known as “verbal contingencies”) during your scheduled home practice blocks. This may include positive feedback (e.g., “nice smooth talking”), acknowledgement (e.g., “you just used your smooth talking) and constructive feedback (e.g., “that was a bit bumpy”). Please note, the feedback you use will be guided by your therapist, depending on what treatment approach is being implemented, and depending on what stage your child is at in their stuttering treatment program.
Reason #2
For majority of your child’s treatment plan, your therapist only sees your child for up to one hour a week! This means, we don’t know exactly what their stuttering behaviour is like at home or at school, and we need YOU to help give us some of this insight. As your child may not have the skills, knowledge, and self-awareness to objectively “rate” their stuttering severity, YOU as their parent/caregiver, are their eyes and their ears!
By completing your daily severity ratings form, you are an ACTIVE part of helping track your child’s therapy progress. This data is incredibly invaluable to your child’s speech therapist in learning about what is and is not working as well in regard to their current treatment plan, potentially learning about their stuttering triggers, as well as understand some of the barriers your child and family may be facing in terms of consistently making time to engage in daily home practice sessions. There is no shame if you or your child were unable to complete therapy homework for whatever reason. Remember, your child’s therapist is there to support you and your whole family in helping them to achieve their therapy goals.
Reason #3
Stuttering therapy is not overly time consuming! Most stuttering intervention programs only require your child to engage in short blocks of around 10 minutes duration per day (that’s 2-3 songs worth!). This should be enough time for you to see a positive difference in reducing your child’s stuttering behaviours.
THERAPIST TIP: With your child’s consent, use your phone to film short clips of you both
engaging in stuttering home practice sessions to show your therapist. This can help in
regard to providing you with positive and constructive feedback as part of the parent
coaching journey and get to know your child and their personal interests a lot better.
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