“Stuttering
and autism can co-occur and when they do it presents a significant
communication challenge.” (Brundage, Whelan, & Burgess, 2013) The article I will review this week is about
a study that measured strategies and the impact they had on students with
autism who stutter. There are two widely
used methods of stuttering treatment, stuttering modification and fluency
shaping. Fluency shaping focuses on the
behavioral aspects of stuttering and the goal is to teach a new way of speaking
that is incompatible.
The
purpose of this study was to document the effectiveness of a rule-based fluency
intervention program in decreasing his stuttering. (Brundage, Whelan, &
Burgess, 2013) The participant was a 21
year old male who was diagnosed with Asperger’s disorder. The participant had a full scale IQ of 82 and
he had never received treatment for his stuttering. The participant was also taking Prozac and
Wellbutrin during the study. One year
prior to this study, the participant was evaluated for his stuttering, the
evaluation indicated severe stuttering as well as a lack of awareness of his
stuttering behavior. “To measure the
behavioral aspect of stuttering during all phases of this study, conversational
samples of 400-500 words were collected, transcribed, and coded for percentage
of stuttered words.” (Brundage, Whelan, & Burgess, 2013)
The
treatment the experiment used for this program was the fluency rules program
(FRP), which is a fluency shaping program originally developed for children who
stutter. “The FRP aims to decrease
stuttering by teaching a set of speaking rules to follow in order to speak
fluently. Examples of these rules
include: Speak slowly and Say a word only once.” (Brundage, Whelan,
& Burgess, 2013) This method of
treatment has been proven to reduce the frequency of stuttering without
changing the speaking rate or words spoken.
The participant in the study learned the rules of the program by writing
them repeatedly until he was able to state the rules independently.
The
results of this experiment were measured in the percentage of stuttered words
(%SW) in conversational speech. The
baseline of this participant averaged 14.57 %SW in conversational speech. By the end of the program the participant
maintained a low level of 2.07 %SW. The
author concluded the article by suggesting that the FRP has promise in reducing
the frequency of stuttering when autism co-occurs with it. “However, to date, no published research
studies exist that described the effectiveness of treatments for persons who
exhibit both ASD and stuttering.” (Brundage, Whelan, & Burgess, 2013)
I
chose to write about this article because I had a mild stutter when I was
younger and I always want to learn more about stuttering and stuttering
treatment. I found this article
interesting because it addressed stuttering and ASD. Another reason this article was interesting
because the participant had a limited awareness of his stuttering behaviors and
social norms. Currently, I do not work
with any students who stutter and have ASD.
However, since ASD is becoming more common among school aged children, I
believe that more speech problems will arise in time. Therefore, learning different strategies to
help with their speech is important for teachers and school staff.
Overall,
I found this article useful and I would recommend this article to teachers and
school staff. I liked that the authors
were thorough with the different variables in the experiment; such as, the
medication, age, and IQ of the participant.
Also, I thought that the author was very accurate with the percentage of
the words stuttered before and after the study.
However, this article was brief and I would have liked to read more
about the strategies and materials the testers used for this participant. Also, I think that the author could have
included sample work or activities for the studies. Other than those small criticisms, I thought
that the article was well written and the research was thorough.
In
conclusion, stuttering and autism can co-occur in school aged students and
adults. Since autism is occurring more
often with students, it is important to know strategies to address speech deficits
for these individuals.
References
Brundage,
S. B., Whelan, C. J., & Burgess, C. M. (2013). Brief Report: Treating
Stuttering in an Adult with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal Of Autism And
Developmental Disorders, 43(2), 483-489.
The "speaking rules" taught to a student who has ASD and a stutter, was very interesting. I know repetition of rules is important for those with a disability but I wonder how effective this would be for a student who is unable to write and what would be the alternative to writing. I think this study would have been better if there had been more participants. Not all students with ASD can or want to sit and write rules several times until he or she can recite them on their own. Let's face it, not all regular ed students will comply in writing rules. I think the concept is great but again, would have liked to have seen modifications and more participants.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above commenter about the limitations this offers to students with other disabilities who also stutter. I found this interesting because I don't know any strategies or interventions for students who stutter. I think it's great that you have overcome your stutter and have that personal insight to help your own students. Thanks for posting!
DeleteI think it was interesting to mention the person with the stutter was unaware of the stuttering. The video we viewed about stuttering had students discussing their stuttering on camera. The students gave tips to the teachers and also explained how they felt during stuttering. It seemed like these students were very self aware of their stuttering. I am now interested in seeing how to approach students who are unaware that they are stuttering.
ReplyDeleteBill, I also agree with the two previous comments. I found the article to be very interesting with the use of fluency rules to help reduce stuttering. I too would have liked to see a comparison with participants and effectiveness of the given strategies. I have not yet worked with students that stutter, nor am I familiar with any strategies for stuttering. I agree that it would be very important to address and support speech deficits with students that stutter and learning different strategies to help with speech would be important for all school staff to implement.
ReplyDeleteI always wanted to learn about techniques used to help students who stutter, so I was excited for this week's module. It seems that FRP could be useful for students, since I have no idea what goes on when a child gets pulled for speech I realize I should talk to our speech path when I feel that I need to. It is great that you overcame your stutter, and now you can better help and understand those students that you will encounter.
ReplyDeleteGreat article that sparked interesting comments and conversation!
ReplyDelete