Can drama be used as a tool to increase the confidence and communication skills in young people who stammer, aged 4 - 18? A study including the creation of a handbook for use by speech and language therapists with young people who stammer.

This dissertation explores what stammering is and how drama can help to boost the confidence and communication skills of young people who have stammers. It explores other ways in which drama has been used as a technique to achieve this through a number of different organisations. These include the British Stammering Association, the Irish Stammering Association Youth Theatre and the Our Time theatre company. The research taken place feeds back into the development of a handbook which comes attached with this dissertation. The handbook is designed to be used by speech and language therapists, teachers and parents of young people who stammer. It features a sample of drama exercises organised by difficulty levels, allowing for it to be flexible in who it is taught to. Learning outcomes and flashcards have been provided along with the handbook but these need not be used if they are not wanted. It is accepted within this study that time constraints have restricted the scope of what can be done and further development of the handbook should take place in order to properly fill the gap in the field. The sole purpose of this dissertation is to provide young stammerers with a voice that they didn't know that they had. List of abbreviations: BSA - British Stammering Association FCEN - Fluency Clinical Excellence Network ISAYiT - Irish Stammering Association Youth Theatre OT - Our Time (Theatre Company, based in New York) PWS - People Who Stammer SLT - Speech and Language Therapistba_dapunpub1554_ethesesunpu