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When Barbara was 3, her pediatrician noticed she was repeating and prolonging sounds when he talked to her. He discussed this with her mother and father and found them to be aware of it. In fact, they had been instructing her to stop and start over again when she repeated sounds. He gave them guidance about slowing their own speech rates and refraining from criticism.
When her parents brought Barbara to his office six months later, for a minor illness, the pediatrician inquired about her speech and found that her parents were frustrated by the lack of change in Barbara's speech and had begun to correct her again. Barbara herself seemed reluctant to talk to him. The pediatrician referred Barbara to a speech-language pathologist and continued to counsel the parents to ease conversational pressures on Barbara and refrain from direct correction.
A month later, the pediatrician received a copy of the speech-language pathologist's written evaluation of Barbara. This indicated that her stuttering had progressed from mild to severe, and that the parents seemed willing to change some key variables in the home speaking environment. The plan for treatment included some direct treatment of Barbara's stuttering in the speech clinic.
Several months later, Barbara's parents brought her to the pediatrician for treatment of an infected insect bite. The pediatrician noticed that Barbara's speech seemed to be the same as before. The parents indicated that they didn't see the sense in using slower speech rates themselves and have continued to try to correct Barbara's stuttering by instructions. They had discontinued speech therapy because they were unable to afford it. At present the pediatrician has given them a copy of If Your Child Stutters: A Guide for Parents, and Stuttering and Your Child: Questions and Answers, and is counseling them to continue changes at home.