Oct 1 2008
Hanging with Miss Mary
Twice a week, Nathan, Lucie and I drive to his speech therapist's office, about 20 minutes away. I usually read in the waiting room while Nathan and Miss Mary practice "easy talk." In a nutshell, he stretches out his words and exaggerates his speech to eliminate his stuttering. To make it fun, they read books or play board games while they practice.
Miss Mary is taking things slowly. After many years of working with children who stutter, she knows that this is the most effective. First, they just practiced. Now they're playing the "catch me" game. Nathan has two "escape" words he relies on when he stutters -- "now" and "um." Miss Mary occasionally uses "now" and Nathan has to catch her, and vice versa. This way he's learning to avoid his escape words.
Occasionally, Lucie will join them in using easy talk and playing games. (She's as good at it as Nathan, and has formed a close bond with Miss Mary, too.) Or she'll stay in the waiting room with me. However, I rarely participate in therapy sessions, unless it's a demonstration of a board game that Nathan is allowed to borrow and take home. Mary believes that parents should be supportive, but should not act as therapists.
I see her logic behind this. I'm allowed to gently remind Nathan to use his easy talk only a couple of times a day. I can say, "Nathan, you're having a tough time talking today. Don't you think it would be better to use your easy talk?" I rarely do even that, because of how defensive he gets. He'll stick out his tongue and get mad. Instead, I try to catch him using easy talk, compliment him when he does that, and fill in circles on his "Ice Cream with Miss Mary" chart. I can also say, "Hey Nathan, I'll play LIFE with you if we can practice our easy talk together." But I can't correct him at all.
Miss Mary says that Nathan is doing extremely well. He catches on quickly with the concepts she's trying to teach him. My frustration is that he's reluctant to use easy talk when he's not at Mary's. Any excitement or stress still triggers his stuttering. It's especially bad this week, because Paul is out of town on a business trip. Still, he enjoys spending time with Miss Mary, and is slowly progressing.
My hope was to magically cure his stuttering over the summer and have him go for the occasional follow up appointments once school starts. Now I'm realizing this is unrealistic and we'll be hanging out at Miss Mary's for many months to come.
