Children
Here are some children doing the first stage of the work I do to help relieve their stammer.
Click on the videos to see the them in action
In-Rhythm Case Study 2007
The first thing we talked about was identifying the times A had difficulty speaking, for example at morning register in class. Last year he devised his own way for dealing with this by covering his mouth with his shirt and repeating under his breath what he had to say, rehearsing the line, " good morning Miss J," saying that ten or more times until it was his go to say it for real. This is an example of the way children deal with their stammer when they are on their own with it.
A was eager to learn the In - Rhythm technique as he further described a number of times when he couldn't say what he wanted. For example, when A was in Jamaica, A wanted to say something at his relative's funeral but felt too anxious over the experience of knowing he would stammer and consequently became embarrassed. The words of affection he wanted to say, never got said.
We got to work. We sat opposite each other with a conga drum. It was explained what was going to happen. We were going to have a conversation about anything we wanted and beat the drum for each syllable of each word we spoke. We did just that, speaking and striking the skins of the drums for every syllable of every word for about five minutes, talking about football and A's recent trip to Spanish Town, Jamaica and the experiences he had there. A hardly stammered. His speech was clear and precise.
It was pointed out to A that he had not stumbled over any word. He knew it and felt good about himself. It was explained to him that we were applying the rhythmic approach to speech that is, for example, found in rap music.
We then put the drums away and I told A to start patting his leg whenever he felt a stammer coming on. This he did and found it had just the same effect as when using the drum. As long as he remembered to pat his leg he could say the difficult word clearly.
A's homework was to pat his leg in five different situations whenever he felt he was going to stammer. We ended the session by playing the drums for fun.
A. reported back the following week with good news. He had used the strategy of patting his leg in morning register and it had helped him say " good morning Miss J," without stammering. He said he didn't mind patting his leg. It was not embarrassing to do and he did it subtly enough for none of his classmates to notice. He also said that he used the technique at home when an adult came round to help him with his maths and she didn't notice either. The best thing was that A knew it helped and that he was learning something very useful to him in his daily life at school and at home.
We then talked about how we could take the " patting" further by reducing it to a small squeeze of the fingertips of one hand. A tried that and it worked, helping him to speak free of any stammering.
It was then suggested to A that we were something like machines with the ability to programme ourselves to do different things by a touch of a button. A could control his speaking voice by tapping on his leg, activating the " touch pad" needed to change the way he spoke. He seemed to take this all in his stride, tapping his leg throughout our time together whenever he felt he was going to stammer.
We finished the session by going back to the beginning and doing the In-Rhythm strategy with the drums. It felt like we had come quite a way but doing the technique with the drums reinforced the progress A had made. His homework was to use the technique of " patting " in as many different situations as he could.
