| Cindy S. Spillers, Ph.D. | Spring 2011 |
Working Theory of Etiology of Stuttering (60 points) Feb. 9
This paper gives you a chance to explain what you understand about the cause of stuttering and how you currently put all of the pieces together. It describes what you understand now, knowing that you may understand things differently in a few years. Your paper needs to provide a plausible explanation for the cause(s) of stuttering, accounting for predisposing, precipitating, and perpetuating factors, constitutional and environmental factors, and the basic facts of stuttering such as the sex ratio, high recovery rate, and presence in a variety of populations around the world. Review the information on causes of stuttering and fit it together in such a way that you can use it as your foundation for talking to families about what causes stuttering. Use the first few chapters of the Guitar text, your undergraduate text and notes, and the links to the short SFA articles for your sources. Your grade will be based on the plausibility of your arguments, how you address the facts of stuttering, and the clarity and accuracy of your writing. Include a reference list. This paper will probably be about 4-5 typed, double-spaced pages. Remember to use appropriate APA style throughout the paper and check your spelling and grammar.
Those of you who did your undergraduate studies at UMD wrote a similar paper for the undergraduate fluency course. You may NOT use that paper to fulfill this assignment. You are older, more educated, more experienced, and hopefully have a deeper understanding of stuttering and its etiology. Plus, using that paper constitutes academic dishonesty.
Position Paper on Treating Early Stuttering (50 points) April 13
This position paper gives you a chance to weigh in on the debate about whether it is ethical to treat young kids beginning to stutter, given the high chances that they may recover without intervention. This paper represents what you believe now, knowing that you may change your mind in a few years. Discuss the efficacy of treating early stuttering in very young children. State your position clearly and support your opinion with facts and research. Use the Guitar text, the 4 articles on early treatment, and any other references that you encounter. Your grade will be based on the plausibility of your arguments, the evidence that you use to support your position, as well as the clarity and accuracy of your writing. Remember to use appropriate APA style throughout the paper and check your spelling and grammar. This paper will probably be about 4-5 typed, double-spaced pages.
Assessment Plan on a Case (100 points) March 9
This assignment gives you an opportunity to think through your philosophy and rationale behind the things you do during an assessment. Without a clear understanding of rationale, we become little more than technicians carrying out tasks. You may choose to work in pairs for this assignment. Each pair will prepare a detailed assessment plan for a client in a case that I provide for you, or for a real client to which you have access. Your plans will take the form of a well organized paper with a detailed description of what you would do in each case, a well thought out rationale for why you would do what you would do, and a reference list of sources on which you base your beliefs and practices. You must use more sources than the textbook for this assignment. If you choose your own client to use, you will need to provide me with background information about the client. These papers will probably be in the neighborhood of 7-8 typed double-spaced pages. Links to the cases appear below. Remember to use appropriate APA style throughout the paper and check your spelling and grammar. Review the expectations for written papers.
Content of the Assessment Plan:
An analysis of the pertinent supporting information about stuttering that you will need in order to plan and carry out your assessment (think Units 1 & 2).
A statement of your beliefs about stuttering and how to approach it clinically. This would be akin to your clinical philosophy of stuttering.
Your plan for the diagnostic interview. What principles (i.e. facts, beliefs, assumptions, conditions) would guide you in planning and carrying out the interview? Who would you interview and why; what questions would you ask and why; what would you look and listen for in responses and why? Some of this information will overlap with the supporting information about stuttering that you provide.
Your plan for testing and observation. What principles (i.e. facts, beliefs, assumptions, conditions) would guide you in planning and carrying out the testing and observations? What would you assess, how you would assess it, and why?
Your plan for differential diagnosis. What questions would you ask, what activities would you do, what signs would you look for in order to differentiate developmental stuttering from another fluency disorder. Include in this section identification of the most likely fluency disorder that you will need to differentiate (e.g. a 3 year old probably is not showing signs of a psychogenic fluency disorder, so that would not be an appropriate disorder to consider for differential diagnosis).
Your analysis of the obtained information. How would you analyze the information that you get? What principles would guide you and why?
Your plan for the post-assessment conference. What information would you share with the client/family and why? What questions would they be likely to ask? How would you answer those questions? What principles would guide you and why?
The cases are:
Anaka Dahlgren, 13 1/2 year old female
Claudia Schmidt, 5 year old female
Randy Travis, 2 year, 10 month old male
Alan Alda, 14 year old male
Stevie Wonder, 9 year old male
Jonny Depp, 25 year old male
Hildegard von Bingen, 19 year old female
Treatment Plan on a Case (100 points) May 11
This assignment continues on from the assessment plan and gives you an opportunity to think through your philosophy and rationale behind the things you do during therapy for stuttering. Without a clear understanding of rationale, we become little more than technicians carrying out tasks. You may choose to work in pairs for this assignment. Each pair will prepare a detailed treatment plan for the client on whom you created the diagnostic plan. Your plans will take the form of a well organized paper with a detailed description of what you would do in each case, a well thought out rationale for why you would do what you would do, and a reference list of sources on which you base your beliefs and practices. Your sources must reach beyond the textbook. If you choose your own client to use, you will need to provide me with background information about the client. These papers will probably be in the neighborhood of 6-8 typed double-spaced pages. Remember to use appropriate APA style throughout the paper and check your spelling and grammar.
The results of the diagnostic evaluation necessary for completing the Treatment Plans will be posted after the assessment plans have been returned to you. This information is based on the actual diagnostic evaluations that the clients underwent. Keep in mind that these evaluations may have differed from what you proposed in your plans. If you find that the real evaluation results do not contain some information that you had intended to obtain in your assessment plan of the client, then you can make that information up. Make it clear in your paper what information you invented and why you invented it. You can only invent information that you planned to obtain but that did not appear in the actual results. You cannot change any of the actual results of the evaluation.
Content of Treatment Plan:
A summary of the assessment results interpreted in light of pertinent background information about stuttering (think Units 1, 2, and 4).
A statement of your beliefs about treating stuttering in general, and with the age group depicted by your chosen client in particular. Start with the philosophy you expressed in your assessment plan. How have you refined those beliefs over the past few weeks?
A statement of the treatment approach you would use and your rationale for choosing it. Include a statement of what you consider a realistic goal (spontaneous fluency, controlled fluency, acceptable stuttering) for your client and why.
A plan for working with the client on speech behaviors, non-speech behaviors, and attitudes and feelings. Include your rationale. Your plan needs to go beyond the getting started stage. Include information about steps or phases in treatment, determining readiness to move from one step to the next, and determining readiness for dismissal.
In the case of children, your plan for working with the parents regarding counseling, training, environmental modifications, etc., along with your rationale. In the case of adults, your plan for working with other family members, coworkers, etc. and your rationale.
Any major issue(s) that you see in the client's life and your role in helping the client deal with those issues - if not already addressed previously.
The cases are:
Anaka Dahlgren, 13 1/2 year old female
Claudia Schmidt, 5 year old female
Randy Travis, 2 year, 10 month old male
Alan Alda, 14 year old male
Stevie Wonder, 9 year old male
Jonny Depp, 25 year old male
Hildegard von Bingen, 19 year old female
Practice Teaching of a Therapy Strategy (20 points) April 25 &27
Quiz on Therapy Strategies (40 points)
Teaching GroupsThe general intent of this activity is for each of you to develop expertise with one stuttering treatment strategy or technique, and then teach that technique to other members of the class. This learning activity is called a "jigsaw." You should come away from this activity with an understanding of several techniques to use in stuttering therapy. This assignment will also give you an opportunity to work on your teaching skills. First, you will get to practice describing and demonstrating a specific therapy technique. Then, you will be on the receiving end of an SLP's instructions to a client, giving you first hand experience with making sense out of what we say to our clients.
This will be a group activity. Part of the activity will take place outside of class and part will take place during one class session. Here's how it works: We'll start with groups of 3 (three) people that you can arrange yourselves; these are the expert groups. Each group of three will be responsible for learning and becoming an expert on one stuttering therapy technique. All group members need to learn the purpose of the technique, how it helps, where it would fit into a treatment plan, and how to execute it. In addition, you must be able to demonstrate that technique and teach others how to use it. Each group should put together some kind of handout with critical information about the technique, including references for people to consult. You will distribute the handout to other members of the class and a copy to me.
In class, around the 13th week of the semester, we will reconstitute into larger groups of 5 (five) people -- one from each small expert group. These groups of five will become the teaching groups. In the teaching groups, each person will have a chance to teach their stuttering therapy technique to the others, and provide written information for the others to take with them. Each person will also learn four techniques from the other group members. You'll have about 15 minutes each to teach your strategy to the others. Use the full time allotted. Spend time demonstrating and giving feedback to your group as if you really are teaching a client.
You have eleven (11) techniques from which to choose for this assignment. Some have alternative names that you may encounter:
Evaluation of this assignment will be measured by: 1) the content and organization of your group's handout; 2) your individual performance on a short quiz during the next class session after the classroom event.
Reflection Papers (3 @ 15 points each) Feb 2, March 23, May 3
We will see several films in which people recount some of their personal experiences with stuttering and other fluency disorders. These media, plus some of the other content of the course, lend themselves well to reflection. Reflection gives us a chance to step back from a situation, encounter, or event and ponder our personal experience with that event. "Personal" in this case, means inward, and includes thoughts, feelings, memories, insights, perceptions, etc. Reflection invites us to move beyond the cognitive and intellectual realms, into the realms of insight, intuition, awareness, and wisdom. Reflection helps us move to deeper levels of understanding; deeper levels of understanding help us find meaning in a situation, experience, or encounter. Some helpful questions to ask oneself in reflection: How has this experience changed me? What can this experience teach me about myself, about others, about stuttering and people who stutter, or about life? Which of my assumptions and beliefs has this experience challenged?
The door is wide open for how to approach these papers. That said, reflection has the most value when we keep the topic of focus narrow. For each paper, choose one issue that the experience evoked in your mind. Begin your paper with a clear statement of the issue, theme, or notion that you plan to address in your paper. Then, go nuts. These papers do not need to be long and involved. They will probably run about 2-3 typed, double spaced pages. Although you are reflecting, this should not be a stream-of-consciousness paper. Pay attention to organization, clarity, writing style, and writing mechanics. Include proper citations and referencing when appropriate. Remember to use appropriate APA style throughout the paper and check your spelling and grammar.
The University
of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
©2011 Cindy S. Spillers. For concerns about this course contact the instructor
at cspiller@d.umn.edu