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kwg
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My ds5 had a speech eval with the school system. They sent me the report to review before the meeting. I am trying to weed through wth they are saying :lol:

 

If anyone could take a look who has btdt or just has experience I would appreciate it. I do not want to go in there like the dumb mom. It is a little intimidating- big table, principal, special ed people....good lord.

 

 

He took the SSI-3 (Stuttering Severity Instrument 3)

Frequency-16

Duration-12

Physical Concomitants-4

Total Score- 32

 

She writes:

These scores indicate a severe level of stuttering.

 

question one- Is that accurate? 32=severe?

 

She then goes on to describe some things and says "it should be noted that Ian continued to speak and did not appear to become frustrated"

 

question 2- why is this important?

 

she says "(ds's) stuttering is having a substantial impact on on his speech. However, he continues to speak and does not appear to avoid speaking situations. Stuttering behaviors include sound, syllable, word, and phrase repetitions of phrases and sentences. Stuttering events lasted as long as 5 seconds. Secondary characteristics of sniffing, panting, and lip smacking were noted during the evaluation. Articulation skills appear to within age level parameters. The Special Education Committee should consider these results when determining placement in the speech language program."

 

 

SO. He has a problem.....are they saying yes they will help him? or no b/c he keeps talking and doesn't get frustrated?

 

Also, I am honestly not sure he knows he has a problem. She is right- he just pushes through :001_wub: and we beat anyone who tries to act impatient :lol: Will speech therapy be beneficial? Dh is very concerned so I went with it.

 

TIA

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From my experience with ds, that is a severe stuttering issue. My ds had a score in the 30's with similar issues. I believe the frustration level is important in how they work with him.

 

My ds has been going to speech therapy at our public elem school. He goes once per week for a 20 min individual session. He would go more often, but the therapist is only at our school one day/week.

 

5yo is still young. Most stuttering gets resolved by 7yo, so your ds could naturally remedy himself.

 

And that is what I know. I would definitely take whatever help they give you. A kid stuttering in this range is having significant challenges.

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SO. He has a problem.....are they saying yes they will help him? or no b/c he keeps talking and doesn't get frustrated?

 

 

It sounds like they'll probably help him. My son went for speech therapy testing when he was 3, and even though he technically made all the proper sounds for his age and passed the "test", they noted that family members could not understand much of what he said, and he was confusing sounds on certain words (had issues with /m/ vs. /n/, though he could say both sounds). He's been in speech therapy for 2 years now. They kept him in this year because he was still having issues with word order in his sentences. He says all his /m/ words correctly now.

 

And don't freak out about the IEP meeting. It is kind of daunting the first time with ALL those people in there! But it's basically the red tape they have to go through. I've found the folks at our school to be really nice, and they listen to my concerns and take them seriously.

 

Sorry I can't help you on the stuttering test results.

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My ds5 had a speech eval with the school system. They sent me the report to review before the meeting. I am trying to weed through wth they are saying :lol:

 

If anyone could take a look who has btdt or just has experience I would appreciate it. I do not want to go in there like the dumb mom. It is a little intimidating- big table, principal, special ed people....good lord.

 

 

He took the SSI-3 (Stuttering Severity Instrument 3)

Frequency-16

Duration-12

Physical Concomitants-4

Total Score- 32

 

She writes:

These scores indicate a severe level of stuttering.

 

question one- Is that accurate? 32=severe?

Yes, accurate for their scale. You look at the frequency with in a set number of words per minute.

 

She then goes on to describe some things and says "it should be noted that Ian continued to speak and did not appear to become frustrated"

 

question 2- why is this important?

It's important because it's believed that disfluency is made worse the more aware and frustrated the child gets. Their therapy methods will vary depending on his level of frustration with his own disfluencies.

 

she says "(ds's) stuttering is having a substantial impact on on his speech. However, he continues to speak and does not appear to avoid speaking situations. Stuttering behaviors include sound, syllable, word, and phrase repetitions of phrases and sentences. Stuttering events lasted as long as 5 seconds. Secondary characteristics of sniffing, panting, and lip smacking were noted during the evaluation. Articulation skills appear to within age level parameters. The Special Education Committee should consider these results when determining placement in the speech language program."

 

 

SO. He has a problem.....are they saying yes they will help him? or no b/c he keeps talking and doesn't get frustrated?

It's a good thing that he doesn't get frustrated! I think it sounds like they will help him.

 

Also, I am honestly not sure he knows he has a problem. She is right- he just pushes through :001_wub: and we beat anyone who tries to act impatient :lol: Will speech therapy be beneficial? Dh is very concerned so I went with it.

 

TIA

 

He's only 5? He should be helped, but don't look for a "cure". Most stutterers either grow out of the problem or they learn coping mechanisms and techniques that help them not to stutter as much so it's less noticeable. My dd did therapy through the local university which was a training facility. They are nationally known for work in stuttering. Keep in mind that many SLPs have a small amount of training in disfluency, but not much. They are much more accustomed to seeing articulation issues. You will need to watch his progress closely and see if you need to get him to a stuttering specialist.

 

He will learn breathing techniques, what's called "easy-onset" where you put a little breath at the beginning of the word, and they work a lot, LOT, on slowing your rate of speech. They want the parents to model slowed-rate too. It was hard for me, so I would practice when I did read alouds.

 

:grouphug: It's a challenging problem. He may very well grow out of it but therapy will help him tremendously. My dd was late onset (after 7yrs) and so it's been harder for her to overcome.

 

I would definitely ask their experience level in working with stutterers. This is through the school right? Maybe you can find out who the most experienced (with stuttering) SLP in the district is and take them to that person. Our folks at the Univ level did not speak too highly of having stuttering treated at the local school level because of the lack of experience of the SLPs. They felt that private was the way to go.

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It is important to note his frustration level with stuttering, since generally most children will start to avoid speaking and/or use avoidance tactics so they won't stutter. Did the SLP discuss with you the types of avoidance behaviors you should be watching out for?

 

Personally, I would want to seek treatment for it right away. Most stuttering responds well to treatment, especially if it is started within 6 months of the onset of stuttering. It is harder to change speech patterns the longer they have been around. It is fantastic that he isn't really bothered by it so far.

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Thank you all!!!!!

 

Yes he is 5. No one has mentioned anything to look out for. I will google it.

 

I have to fill an educational summary and include how his speech impacts his educational performance such as answering questions, etc. (that is what it says). uh....??? He answers me :001_huh: I will say I told one of his co op teachers the evaluator might come in to observe him for stuttering and she said, "He stutters?" So I am guessing in that class he must not speak up much? SHould I just put down he avoids talking? He doesn't with me....but if she was surprised and he has a severe problem it sort of seems to indicate right?

 

Also, it says to list what interventions we have tried. Now when I googled helping children who stutter at home....it came up with a list of parenting skills like pay attention to your kid, don't interrupt, spend one on one time with him. Am I supposed to list that stuff? (kinda seems like- duh! :tongue_smilie: ) I do not know what other things they are looking for? What accommodations am I supposed to make ?

 

Are there other things I should be doing to help him?

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My dd was painfully shy, then developed the stutter. I had already had a bad habit of speaking for her. She's now 12 and still won't order her own food in a restaurant. So the advice at home was to stop speaking on her behalf, slllllllllooooooooowwwwwww my rate of speech way down, put pauses in my conversations to give her a chance to answer, have her practice the slowed rate herself, and have her practice "easy onset" where there is a little breath that pushes the word out.

 

They did a lot of forced stuttering too, because supposedly this builds awareness for the child of what triggers their disfluency.

 

She was in 3rd grade when we finally pulled her out to homeschool. I remember about 8 weeks into that school year I asked her teacher about her stutter, thinking she could get an eval with the school. Her teacher had no idea that she stuttered. 8 weeks in to the school year and she had not had a meaningful conversation with my child. It's likely your son doesn't say much in class if he's aware at all of his stutter.

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I have to fill an educational summary and include how his speech impacts his educational performance such as answering questions, etc. (that is what it says). uh....??? He answers me :001_huh:

 

Our speech therapist filled out all the paperwork after talking with me. We discussed how the stuttering impacts his education (b/c after all the school is sponsoring the therapy), and I answered honestly. Since he is home with me, it doesn't impact his education. I also noted that he doesn't stutter when he reads out loud which seemed to be an interesting fact for our therapist. The therapist/school officials filled out the paperwork appropriately to qualify my ds for an IEP and speech therapy. A kid who stutters with 30ish% disfluency clearly needs help, and they gave no push-back at all even despite me pointing out that the stuttering wasn't impacting educational performance.

 

Like a pp noted, stuttering isn't magically cured. Most kids outgrow it by age 7. The rest develop coping mechanisms and techniques to live with it.

 

Our therapist seems to be doing a good job with my ds, as in teaching all the "right" techniques (based on my internet research), but the kid has to want to use the techniques. Which, of course, my ds doesn't want to do. :glare: Nevertheless, my ds' stuttering has improved remarkably, and his stuttering isn't life-altering right now. He does go through hills and valleys, though. Our therapist says that is natural, particularly since stuttering doesn't go away and is usually worse when under stress.

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I called the school this morning to ask them (nicely) what in the world :lol: and it turns out that they have to have documentation that it has an adverse effect on his education but that just means something simple like it takes him longer to answer a question. That I can get behind.

 

I have noticed also that he does not stutter when he reads aloud. He is a beginning reader so I assumed it was related to that.

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One of our twins had a huge struggle with severe stuttering. We did seek therapy and it gave me the tools that I needed to help him at home. I would make sure that you can be there if he does do therapy, so you understand how to model ssslllllooooowww speech etc. for him at home. Our DS is now almost ten and pretty much is stutter-free(he did therapy at around 5 years old).

 

Beyond that, I want to offer a :grouphug:, from someone who has BTDT!

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My oldest stuttered a lot at age 5. I talked with a speech therapist friend. She told me kids typically outgrow it and it's really difficult to remediate stuttering so speech might not help anyways.

 

DD finally just magically outgrew it. It was bad for awhile, though, because not only was she stuttering, but her younger brother started talking like her as well!

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