More on Stuttering

There was an article I read from the April 2010 Journal of Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools about stuttering. It was a letter to the editor and it was written by Marilyn A. Nippold. The title of the article is "It's NOT Too Late to Help Adolescents Succeed in School.

It was a very interesting, although short, article about why we should not give up giving someone services just because they are getting "old." While early intervention is absolutely neccessary, we should not stop giving people services because they are in high school and the focus is often on those in preschool and the early grades, not leaving much time for the older kiddos to get services. There are plenty of high school students that still have speech and language disorders. They need are are required to have services as long as they are in school.

One idea she recommends, though not her original idea, is to not use the pull-out method for those requiring services. Instead they should be offered credit for speech and language services. The idea is that if they have an actual class where they can earn a grade and receive a credit or two, they will be much more likely to participate and try to do well. This would also help them to "avoid the stigma of being removed from other required courses" during their time at school.

This was a good article and I enjoyed reading it. I would have liked it to be longer. It was good because I will be working in the school districts when I recieve my degree and I need to be well informed and this article helped me think about things I hadn't thought about yet.