More collaboration!

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