Language Therapy of Disorders of Fluency - Assignment Example

 Disorders of fluency There are various advantages and difficulties that are emerging from the case study. The advantages and the difficulties are based on the given family or personal information in the case study, and medical development. Family/personal information positive factors The first positive factor is that Cara is female aged 3.10. This increases the possibility of her spontaneous recovery. The reason is that developmentally, it is normal for a child to undergo a period of stuttering up to age five (Conture & Curlee 2007). It becomes a concern when the stuttering is predictable and also persistent in multiple settings. Moreover, there is his mother’s cousin who stuttered at a young age but later grew over it. Most of the young children undergo a period of stuttering of up to 5% of their speech. Majority of such cases are resolved either through treatment or spontaneously. Thus, chances are also high that Cara would grow over it by the age of five but the mother is concerned that the cycle is deteriorating since her stutters are more obvious and rampant now occurring on a daily basis. Second benefit is visible in the way her mother is concerned about her (Cara’s) wellbeing and thus took her to a speech therapist. She was concerned about the intervention taking place for her daughter. She indicated that Cara’s speech and language skills developed at a similar rate to that of her peers. However, the problem began soon after her 3rd birthday when she began stuttering and having real difficulties in pronouncing words. The stuttering appeared to have gone and then come back worse than ever. Thus, the mother was concerned about the welfare of her daughter since she felt the condition had deteriorated and she could not wait for a longer period before she could intervene for her daughter. Third advantage is the way Cara lives in a well integrated nuclear family. She lives at home with her mother, father and her baby brother who is one years old. This nuclear family provides her with the required parental support (Cummings 2008). Medical and developmental history Her health condition is good and she has a very active lifestyle where she is able to meet all her milestones in development. Her gross and even the fine motors skills are of appropriate according to her age and she presents excellent play skills. Communication history Cara has developed her language and speech at a similar rate with her peers. This is a good sign indicating that her stuttering could just be a phase that she was going through and she could come over it before the age of five. However, there is also a concern considering that her uncle has the same problem thus there was no confirmation for sure that she could recover from the stuttering spontaneously or if she needed any medical intervention. Secondly, occasions where she seemed to stutter appeared to go away altogether at some point. However, when the stuttering reappeared, it becomes worse than ever before. Difficulties Family or personal information One of the difficulty arising is that Cara is a female whose stutter began 10 months ago and no spontaneous recovery had been recorded yet. This is a difficulty since girls stutter from 24 months onwards (Howell & Borsel 2011). Secondly, her mother’s anxiousness may also highlight an issue which may not be that important for the child. This could hinder the child’s existing confidence and her social communicative behaviors at home/ school. The fact that the child attends nursery means that she should master all her confidence and communicative behavior to interact well with other students. Moreover, the mother has made an observation that Cara has become excessively quiet and even more withdrawn (Jaksic & Onslow 2012). The parents may also prioritize their time to the sibling who is just one year old and may find it difficult to provide Cara with the undivided attention that she deserved at that point. In addition, the uncle to the mother stutters up to date. The uncle’s sons used to stutter though he grew over it. This could be a problem considering that family genes play a part if the family has a history of stuttering. Communication history Cara displayed difficulties in getting out words as soon as her third birthday. Moreover, her new environment could have made her stutters worse. As a result, her confidence and her active lifestyle could be tarnished due to her bullying or teasing that she was exposed to in such a new environment since she disengaged in making conversations with her peers. Thirdly, her stutters tend to fluctuate but come back worse than before. It has worsened over the past four weeks making stuttering present each day. Part three To assess the intervention for this child, lidcombe intervention program would be used. It is a behavioral intervention program used to treat stuttering children (Onslow, Packman, & Harrison 2012). It focuses on the behavioral feedback that is provided in response to the fluency of speech of the child. The main goal is to reduce and eliminate stuttering in these children. One of the identified strategies of the child is through behavioral treatment. It focuses on the development of behaviors that relate to the child’s stuttering. It aims at raising awareness of the child’s stuttering characteristics and eliminates them gradually. It occurs in a natural environment. Considering that Cara is still below five years, .then there is a high chance of spontaneous recovery if this method is used. Moreover, she is healthy and has an active lifestyle, thus, she will be in a position to relate to the natural environment that she is exposed to in this method. By so doing, she could bring out her unreserved age appropriate skills and be encouraged to explore and pronounce the words that proved difficult to her more frequently. By so doing, the stuttering could go away with no time. However, considering that there is a family history of stuttering in her lineage, there was no evidence that she could recover spontaneously. Moreover, she had not recorded a spontaneous recovery yet and her stutters were fluctuating. In this method, clinicians demonstrate treatment techniques to parents until they can conduct the treatment on their own. The parents are then encouraged to use generalize techniques outside the clinical setting. The child and their parent often attend clinic once every week. The weekly performance of the child is assessed on a 10 point stuttering severity scale to obtain the percent of the syllables stuttered. The SLP then provides the severity ratings and discuss the discrepancies that result. This is a good intervention method for Cara since she will be in a position to exercise on how she let out her words. However, it will be problematic if the mother will not have the required un-divided attention on her due to her younger one year old brother. The reason is that it is crucial for the parent and the child to have a stable and a positive relationship to improve the efficiency of the results. From her speech rating, it is evident that her stuttering fluctuates as her mother indicated. The reason is that on her initial visit to the clinic, her severity rating was a six at the time while she records a severity rating of between a three to a nine beyond the clinic. In the clinic the percentage of syllables stuttered was 10%, while at a home recording, the syllables stuttered was at a percentage of 8%. Bibliography Conture, E. G., & Curlee, R. F. 2007. Stuttering and related disorders of fluency. New York: Thieme. Cummings, L. 2008. Clinical linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Howell, P., & Borsel, J. v. 2011. Multilingual aspects of fluency disorders. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Jaksic, S. J., & Onslow, M. 2012. The Science and Practice of Stuttering Treatment A Symposium. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Onslow, M., Packman, A., & Harrison, E. 2012. The Lidcombe Program of early stuttering intervention. Austin, Texas: Pro-Ed. Read More