We
are so excited to announce that our research team will collaborate with
Statped, Norway’s national service for special needs education, within the
EST-project!
Statped
is a state agency that offers special education services for individuals. The
team conducts assessment and treatment for children and adults with special
education needs and provides counseling to parents and professionals who are
part of their client’s lives. Statped also has services at a system level,
teaching in tertiary settings and offering courses to other professionals. Statped
provides services throughout Norway within six areas of specialization: Deaf-blindness/Dual
Visual and Hearing Impairment, Acquired Brain Injury, Hearing Impairment, Complex
Learning Disabilities, Visual Impairment, and Speech and Language Impairment.
Our
collaboration will predominantly be with speech and language therapists (SLTs)
who work exclusively with people who stutter within the team for fluency
disorders, at the Department for Speech and Language Impairment. These SLTs
have extensive experience working with pre-school children who stutter, delivering
direct treatment and counseling as well as consulting with students and other SLTs
in the community. They have also been invited on numerous occasions to teach
into the Speech and Language Therapy program at the University of Oslo.
The
team at Statped is also committed to raising public awareness about fluency
disorders throughout Norway. Last year, Statped produced
four educational videos about stuttering to enhance access to information for caregivers
and parents of preschool children who stutter. The videos are in
Norwegian and can be seen here.
One
of the team’s latest initiatives is developing courses for parents who stutter
using telehealth. These courses will provide parents with general information
about preschool stuttering, advice for parents about managing their child’s stuttering,
as well as available treatment options. There will also be an opportunity for
parents to share their personal experiences in smaller groups (4-6
parents). These discussions will be led by an SLT. Offering
these courses via telehealth will enhance the equity of access to services by
allowing them to provide support and services to people in rural or remote
regions of Norway.
Further
details regarding the extent of the collaboration will be discussed and
announced over the coming weeks. For now, we are simply thrilled to extend our
research team to include others who have a special interest in working with
young children who stutter!
From the EST-project team
