Palin PCI workshop in London

In November, I attended the Palin Parent Child Interaction (PCI) therapy workshop along with around 25 other SLPs from UK, Canada and Norway. The workshop lasted two days and was packed with information, discussions and teaching videos. The course trainer was Vicky Crofts, and she did a very good job teaching us. It was interesting to get more knowledge about the PCI program.

The PCI program build on an understanding that stuttering (or stammering as they say here in UK) has a multifactorial cause. In this model, there is four factors: physiological, speech and language, psychological and environmental factors. The child who stutters has an individual combination of factors that have contributed to the stuttering problem (Kelman & Nicholas, 2008). Furthermore, parents often have an instinctive knowledge of what to do when their child starts to stutter, and this knowledge would be identified and used in the treatment.

The program for preschool children consist of assessment of stuttering and the child’s environment, followed by six sessions during six weeks, and then a period of six weeks for stabilization. After the six weeks consolidation period is over, the child’s progress is reviewed. For preschool children, the program mainly focus on interaction between the child and parents, such as interaction strategies (like following the child’s lead and pausing) and family strategies (like turn taking and confidence building). The program is individualized for each child, based on their personal/individual vulnerability and the context of the family. One important part of the program is the “Special time”. Special time is a sort of quality time for the child with the parent, playing games or doing other kind of activities that the child wants to do. The strategies the parents decided to focus on are used during Special time.  Special time last only for 5 minutes and should be done at least three times a week.

During the course, we learned to use different forms for assessment. Video observation of parent-child interaction with later viewing together with the parents, as well as parent counseling, is an important part of the therapy. When watching videos of the trained SLPs using the therapy, it looked so easy and smooth. However, when we were asked to roleplay the therapy in the course (one being SLP and one being parent), we soon discovered that it was not easy at all!

One characteristic of the therapy is to focus on the positive and good stuff that the parents do when communicating with their child. It is so much more easy to see what is not working and get hung up on that! I believe that using this positive approach in therapy could be a good way to help parents to support their child. It makes them more certain of what they do that is good and build their confidence in being able to help their child.

If you want to learn more about Palin PCI, you can read their handbook (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351688253 ). Here is also a link to a research article about the program by Millard, Edwards & Cook (2009). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17549500802603895?casa_token=2ib4oDzru04AAAAA:8JF4o14AhkpZGOmIswY8S3hOwifpvd1LlvvrbBjgEtu0UN8YIbTh47mYeP-ZjxSIwJvu_H0ShOI  If you are able to read Norwegian, here is a summary of the program by Olsen (2014). https://norsklogopedlag.no/uploads/docs/logopeden/3_2014/3-14_parent-child_Olsen.pdf

For the EST-team, Hilde