Stammebehandling i Koronaens tid

Med fortsatt stengte skoler har logopedisk oppfølging på kort tid endret drastisk form for logopeder over hele verden. EST har i den anledning samlet en del ressurser som kan brukes til å gjennomføre behandling over nett, i dette blogginnlegget.

Om man som logoped vil gjøre oppfølging via videokonferanse må man forholde seg til direktoratet for e-helses retningslinjer. HELFO har samlet all informasjon du trenger her. Norsk logopedlag oppdaterer også regelmessig sine sider om anbefaling til logopeder. På nettsiden Stuttering Therapy Resources finnes det en samling tips som er lure å tenke på i oppstarten av digital oppfølging. 

Statped har samlet tips til logopedisk oppfølging via nett her. De anbefaler blant annet appen Book Creator som et fint verktøy å bruke for å jobbe med informasjon om stamming til barn. På Kahoot finnes mange eksempler på morsomme quizer barn kan være med å lage om stamming og arrangere for lærere eller foreldre over nett (søk på Stuttering under Discover). Michael Palin senteret har følgende film til lærere som har elever som stammer, med dertilhørende ressursark som er oversatt til norsk her. Informasjonsfilmer til barnehageansatte og foreldre til barnehagebarn som stammer finnes her, og kan lett deles over nett.

I et nylig seminar om bruken av digital hjelpemidler i oppfølgingen av stamming til barn og ungdom beskrev Glen Tellis det å lage memes som en passende aktivitet for ungdom. Her er inspirasjon i den retning. Se også denne fine filmen, “'What Not To Say' to someone who stammers!" laget av BBC. Her er to ulike forslag til arbeidsoppgaver som kan brukes med ungdom i forbindelse med å se filmen Kings Speech som kan leies her. Stuttertalk har også flere episoder om oppfølging til ungdom som stammer, og i Statped nyes artikkelsamling er både gruppeoppfølging av barn og ungdom, samt oppfølging til skolebarn, tema. Frambu arrangerte akkurat et webinar om gjennomføring av grupper på nett her.

En systematisk kunnskapsoversikt over studier som bruke såkalt telemedisin i oppfølging av stamming kan også være interessant å lese nå. 

Våre beste tips for kompetanseheving i Koronaens tid

I disse dager er mange logopeder hjemme fra jobb. Mens noen nå har gått over til oppfølging med barn og voksne over nett, bruker andre tiden til å ta igjen rapportarbeid. Noen opplever kanskje at de endelig har tid til å lese seg opp på temaer av interesse. I denne bloggposten har EST teamet samlet sine beste tips til ressurser for å lære mer om stamming og oppfølging til personer som stammer.

SE: The Way We Talk

På tross av å ha vokst opp med en bestefar, mor og en bror som stammer, har filmens hovedperson og filmskaper Michael Turner, som også selv stammer, aldri snakket nevneverdig om stamming. Den selvbiografiske dokumentarfilmen følger ham i det han ønsker å forandre på dette. Fra de første samtalene med familiemedlemmer, til møter med logopeder, medlemmer av støttegrupper, og forskere. Denne lavmælte og varme filmen om veien til selvaksept er å anbefale for alle som interesserer seg for stamming, og livet for øvrig.

Filmen kan kjøpes eller leies her. I anledning filmens lansering intervjuet Stuttertalk filmskaperen. Episoden kan høres gratis her.

LYTT: Podcast

Med podcasten Stuttertalk får logopeder forskere, klinikere, og personer som stammer over hele verden rett inn i øret. Ikke tid til eller tilgang til forskningsartikler? Hør en episode podcasten i stedet. Her finnes overraskende mange navn som vi kjenner fra forskningslitteraturen, så vel som utallige beretninger om stamming fra foreldre til barn som stammer og ungdommer og voksne som stammer. Av favoritter kan vi nevne Episode 550, What Is Stuttering, om skillet mellom stamming og naturlig ikke-flyt, med Nan Bernstein Ratner, og episode 535 med Michael Boyle og Chris Constantino om stigma assosiert med stamming 

Her på bloggen har vi tidligere tipset om podcasten Crowd science sin epiosde «Can my stutter be cured», med ESTs egen Linn Stokke Guttormsen. Den finnes gratis her.

LES: Artikkelsamling

Vi har tidligere på bloggen omtalt Statpeds nye artikkelsamling. Samlingen er gratis tilgjengelig på Statpeds nettsider. Her kan man blant annet lese om kartlegging av stamming hos barn og voksne, oppfølging for barnehagebarn som stammer, og skjult stamming, for å nevne noen.

Hva er dine beste anbefalinger å se/ lese / høre om stamming? Fortell om dem i kommentarfeltet under.

Klitgården part II - Including closing the multidisciplinary survey and drawing the winners

The EST-team started the new year with high ambitions for quite a few publications, such as following through the Cochran review in process, analyzing the multidisciplinary survey data and not the least, to continue the RCT protocol planning.

In order to join common efforts, Kari-Anne invited the Norwegian part of the team (Åse, Linn, Hilde, Elisabeth and Melanie) as well as Silje, Karine and Hanne (two PhD students and a post doc from Kari-Anne’s other projects) to spend a week a Klitgården in Denmark. If you follow our blog, you may remember our previous stay in august 2018. Now, warm summer days were swapped for a more winter scenery, sometimes heavy storms and a quieter life in Skagen. None the less, morning swims in the sea were still tempting for some of us.

Kari-Anne, Hilde, Hanne, Silje, Melanie and Linn

On the everyday schedule, mornings were spent with writing and commenting on papers, whereas the afternoons concluded meetings and discussions across projects and groups. As part of the stay, daily walks along the beaches seem to be essential for good writing outcomes, just in line with Murakamis thoughts in his book “What I talk about when I talk about running” (2007) – one of the possible reads at the Klitgården library.  Even though we do not know if there is a direct correlation between the kilometers walked and the pages written during the week, everybody was satisfied with the production and progress. Some of us submitted revised papers, others are getting close for proof reading, such as the paper covering data from kindergarten teachers concerning stuttering and the Prospero review. Writing the paper is just one part, another is finding the best match for our different papers in the variety of available journals. This resulted in good arguments about advantages, strategic choices and reader preferences.

Hilde at work

We also got a first look at the results from our multidisciplinary survey about the support system for pre-school children who stutter, collecting data from speech-language pathologists, kindergarten teachers and public health nurses across Norway (see also previous blog posts). The survey generates data for several papers, and our main topic now was the comparison across professions considering different theoretical models and concepts. 

To thank all the participants for completing the survey, we promised having a reward lottery. Therefore, we pulled the winners of gift cards and small effects within each profession in a ceremonial session on the last evening. Congratulations to each of the winners, you will be noticed individually!

In the evening, we enjoyed some additional gatherings within the group such as “How to prepare for professorship applications” or the “Distiller help-desk” where even new words emerged just as “We are Cochran(e)ing together”.  

Åse and Hanne

Despite 10-12 packed working hours each day, the social aspect of the writing stay is just as important. Talking to each other and the other guests at Klitgården during meals around the former “Kings table” is a pleasure for mind and body, and even inspiring new ideas and co-operations across research fields.

As the week concluded, planes were made for finalizing some papers and next steps for  others. Travelling home “cross the sea” on the ferry, we really appreciated the quietness at Klitgården and are already looking forward for to come back, again!

The Cochrane Protocol is published!

Åse Sjøstrand, first author

We are so proud to announce that the Cochrane protocol for our systematic review of “Non‐pharmacological interventions for stuttering in children aged between birth and six years” is finally published. The protocol describes what our review will cover, including search strategies, primary and secondary outcome measures and risk of bias analyzes.

You can read the protocol following this link or copying this string into your preferred browser:

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD013489/fullfbclid=IwAR25PdgUndbDPr6mulA_K9uOAVT87SuGfrvK3WUcyx575vE8w0qPwBAb0g

We have spent the last year working on the protocol. This work includes writing, planning analyses, working on the comments from peer reviewers and rewriting. Getting to know the process of working on a Cochrane review has been inspiring and we have learned a lot over the last year. 

The Cochrane Developmental, Psychosocial and Learning Problems group have provided highly appreciated support during the process to enable the protocol to meet the high-quality standards. We are thankful for all comments, reviews and suggestions for improving and clarifying the protocol.

Now awaits the next step! We are motivated to start the screening process for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of all forms of non‐pharmacological interventions for stuttering in young children compared with no intervention, a waiting‐list intervention or treatment as usual. We have thousands of published and non-published studies to screen and cannot wait to dig even deeper into the field of stuttering treatment research.

Written by Åse Sjøstrand & Melanie Kirmess

EST in progress - The multidisciplinary survey

One of the working packages for the EST project addresses the development of national guidelines for stuttering treatment for kindergarten children. In order to do so, we first wanted to know the current status quo in Norway. Children at the age of 1 to 5.6 years usually attend kindergarten in Norway. Hence, kindergarten teachers are one of the professions that are very close to children on an every day base as earlier described by Hilde Hofslundengen’s blog post. In addition, health care nurses see all children at certain ages and are trained to observe typical development and to initiate follow ups if needed, as described in a blog post by Elisabeth Holm Hansen.

Illustration from Pexel

Speech-language pathologists are usually first involved after concerns have been raised, either by their parents or by those working in the profession, that that they may have a difficulty/disorder. So far so god. However, we are curious to explore what those three different professions (kindergarten teachers, health care nurses and speech-language pathologists) actually do when they meet a child that may stutter or are contacted by worried parents and caregivers.  Since there are no common guidelines today, that processionals have different educational backgrounds and that there are geographical differences in service offers in Norway, we expect a variation in practice and experience across the involved professions.

Therefore, we have prepared a multidisciplinary survey covering questions as for example, Have you met any children that stutter?, What do you do when a parent is concerned about their child’s possible stutter? and Does your workplace have any strategies or guidelines for addressing stuttering questions?

We prepared three different surveys, one for each profession - kindergarten teachers, health care nurses and speech-language pathologists. All surveys include a number of common questions across professions as well as some profession specific questions.

The surveys were sent out in first part of November. Right now, we are both exited over every new answer we receive  (THANK YOU!) and still a bit nervous if we reach the threshold for total numbers needed to have a representative sample to.

Therefore, if you have received an invitation to answer the survey in any of the professional groups, please take the time to answer. Even though you may never have met a child that stutters in your profession, that is very important information for us about the Norwegian context. Hence, we encourage everybody to answer the survey so that we can prepare the most descriptive picture for Norway and the current situation for kindergarten children that stutter.

Illustration from Pexel

Can my stutter be cured? BBC Crowd Science

In the end of September, a stuttering treatment course in the McGuire-program was arranged in Oslo. The journalist Gareth Barlow and producer Louisa Field from the BBC travelled to Oslo to make a pod cast about this and I was one of the lucky ones that was interviewed.

This was my third time being interviewed on radio, the first time in English on a world broadcasting service. The stress level did indeed reach the ceiling! However, before I met with Gareth and Louisa I was well prepared by the rest of the EST-team, by Ane Hestmann Melle in Statped and by Lise Paulsrud Mjørlund, a senior communication advisor at the University of Oslo. That was a huge help! Additionally, Louisa and Gareth was luckily very friendly, calm and helpful.

Now, one and a half month after, the pod cast is out and Louisa and Gareth has done a wonderful job! The have managed to make a podcast filled with information about stuttering and at the same time highlighting the individual experiences of people who stutter. If you want to gain insight into the impact of stuttering, learn about the McGuire program or stuttering in general I would really recommend you to listen to this podcast! Neuroscientist Soo-Eun Chang spoke brilliantly about the neurological basis of stuttering and Hilda Sønsterud offered her insightful thoughts on the McGuire program. I was also very impressed by everyone that offered their thoughts and experiences with stuttering.

Click here if you want to listen to the program

Stuttering awareness day: Melbourne Edition!

Rich Stephens, a person who stutters, is the President of SAY: Australia, the first international arm of SAY: The Stuttering Association For The Young founded in America/NYC in 2001 by Taro Alexander. Rich and Vice-President Dr. Elaina Kefalianos launched SAY: Australia in Melbourne in June 2019. For International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD) 2019, Rich and Elaina truly brought Australia’s attention to stuttering.

Rich says “22nd October is always an important time of year for the global stuttering community. For one day of the year a ‘bright light of awareness’ is shone on stuttering. ISAD helps to educate the world about stuttering, helps to correct many misconceptions about stuttering and also lets people who stutter know that they are not alone.

During previous ISAD’s many stuttering organisations and support groups spread stuttering awareness by holding conferences, educational seminars, and social gatherings. Rich says “I had also read about the odd city showing their support for ISAD by lighting-up one or two landmarks in the international colour of stuttering (sae-green) for the evening. And that idea planted a seed in my head. I did not just want to light one or two landmarks in Melbourne……I wanted to reach every Australian, those who stutter and those who don’t, by lighting-up Australia!”

Bolte brigde

Rich began contacting landmarks in Melbourne and in other cities across Australia, such as Sydney, Perth, Queensland, Adelaide, and Darwin. Rich says, “I remember sending the first email to one of the most famous sports stadiums in Australia, the MCG, asking if they could support ISAD 2019 by lighting-up sea-green. I thought 100% they would say no! But when they responded with a resounding yes, I had the confidence to reach out to landmarks across Australia……and I kept on receiving yes’s! It was unbelievable! We had Sports stadiums, town halls, bridges, hotels, casinos, museums, etc. across all the major Australian cities! And all the while my main thought was how inspiring the night was going to be for so many people who stutter knowing that there country supports them. See the amazing pictures of buildings lit up in sea-green below the text.

On the evening of ISAD 2019, Rich showcased the Australian premiere of ‘My Beautiful Stutter’, an award-winning documentary by Ryan Gielen, which follows 5 young people who stutter from different cities across America and their life-changing involvement in SAY’s creative programs and Camp SAY. After the documentary, Rich and Elaina led the audience, involving two young people involved in SAY: Australia programs, on a tour of the lit-up Melbourne landmarks. Rich says. “Melbourne looked such a beautiful sea-green! The premiere was a huge success! The audience were already feeling warm in their hearts and inspired to spread awareness of stuttering after the movie, but seeing the city lit-up was inspiring to a whole new level! Australia, particularly Melbourne, really did do the stuttering community, here and across the world, proud on ISAD 2019! For ISAD 2020, we’ll try and double the number of landmarks so we can spread awareness of stuttering even further!

My Beautiful Stutter

Telstra tower

Rod Laver arena

Aami park

Melbourne skyline