Helping adolescents who stutter focus in fluency

Perhaps no other time in the life of a person who stutters is more frustrating than adolescence. Van Riper (1971) maintains that problems for youngsters who stutter redouble during adolescence. In discussing the self-concepts of adolescents, Van Riper adds the following: Adolescents are often the clinician's toughest cases. They cannot bear to confront their stuttering deviancy long enough to do anything about it They resist being singled out They want the security of peer group affiliation with an intensity which is almost overwhelming. (p. 207) Couture (1982) suggests that the last thing most adolescents want to do is to touch, see, feel, and discuss (with a speech- language pathologist) that which is most trouble some-especially personal aspects of their fluency and speech productio n. Experienced speech-language pathologists would agree that many adolescents are sensitive and are among the toughest clinical cases. Like their adolescent peers, students this age who stutter fill their days with a ABSTRACT: This article recommends that structure and consistency in treating adolescent