The EST-project

Treatment of stuttering: the Minikids program

Two of the aims for this blog are to disseminate knowledge about stuttering and treatment of stuttering and disseminate what the project group is doing. Today’s blog post covers both aims as it describes a stuttering treatment program that Linn was lucky to attend a course in before Christmas. The course was given by Veerle Waelkens, a speech language pathologist (SLP) with 25 years of experience treating children who stutter with Minikids.

Mini-KIDS is a stuttering treatment program for 2 to 6 year old children. The program is a direct stuttering treatment approach that is based on Van Riper’s principals for treatment. The overall structure of the program is divided into four stages: (1) desensitization, (2) identification (only for the 4-6 year olds), (3) modification, (4) generalization. Indication for therapy is reactive stuttering behaviour, emotional and cognitive reactions in the child and/or the parents.

The basic idea of Minikids is to have fun and experiment with the stuttering, to learn about what is happening during stuttering in an open transparent way with a neural helping attitude. It is recommended that the treatment is individualized and that the treatment activities are motivating for the child.

The goals of the program relates to different aspects of stuttering - both the stuttering behavior and the emotions and thoughts related to the stuttering. In regards to emotions, thoughts and attitudes, the goal is that the child and the parents cope with the stuttering in a self assured way and that the stuttering is openly named and discussed in a neutral and helping manner. This is aimed for by parents and therapists openly talking about stuttering and by modelling positive or neutral thoughts or emotions related to the stuttering. In regards to stuttering symptoms, the goal is acceptable stuttering or recovery. If recovery is not achieved, then the child should be allow and dare to stutter with easy, relaxed and short moments of stuttering that does not hinder communication. This involves no presence of avoidance behaviour and that the stuttering does not limit the child in term of functioning, activity, participation and self-esteem. Different from several other stuttering treatment programs, the Minikids does not target the frequency of the stuttering, but rather aims at modifying the struggle, tension and length of the stuttering moment and increasing the child’s tolerance of the stuttering. According to Waelkens, frequency of stuttering decreases when tolerance increases.

Modification illustration in the book by Waelkens

One of the key components of the program is to allow stuttering. The name of the program is based on the statement “children is allowed to stutter” (KIndern Dürfen Stottern). Stuttering is no taboo (stuttering is named, talked about, identified and neutralized), allowed and tolerated by the child and the environment. This is achieved by working with desensitization. Parents are crucial in this treatment; they are co-therapists and they are the ones that make the transfer from the clinic to the child’s every day life (generalisation). For the parents to work with desensitization with the children, the parents have to be desensitized themselves and have confidence in coping with the stuttering. Therefore, during therapy, the SLP work with both the parents and the child at the same time.

Thanks to Veerle Waelkens for a interesting course and to Senter for stamming og løpsk tale for arranging the course.

References:

Waelkens, V. (2018). Mini-Kids. Direct therapy for young children who stutter. Leuven: Lulu