Stuttering Tools and Resources for SLPs Working with Parents

Marisha (00:01.39)

Hello there and welcome to the SLP Now podcast. We are continuing our stuttering series and I'm really excited because we have Jessica Hudson with us here today. She is the owner of Stuttering and Speech Therapy of Arizona. And she's licensed in several states and has a really cool wealth of knowledge and experience. And today we're going to be chatting about

like working with parents of children who stutter and some different strategies around that communication. But before we dive in, welcome, Jessica. So excited to have you. And before we dive into all of the content, I'm just curious a little bit more about your story, like what led you to start your private practice and kind of build such a wealth of knowledge in this area.

Jessica Hudson (00:41.378)

Thank you.

Jessica Hudson (00:58.785)

Yeah, of course. So speech therapy is not my first career. I actually didn't know what I wanted to do when I grew up and through a very roundabout way found speech therapy and didn't even know that it was a career and decided once I was already married and had a life to go back to school for speech. So in grad school, Patty Walton was my supervisor and teacher of the course and of the stuttering course. And she

lit a little fire under me in the world of stuttering. And I said, ooh, this is it. This is where I'm supposed to be. And my first client at the university clinic was a person who stutters. And I was just in love. I was like, this is it. This is what I want to do when I grow up. So I kind of was a little bit older and more established. And I did my CF year and kind of

got through that and quickly started my own business. I have actually this year, October of this year will be 10 years of my company, which is so exciting. So I've been doing almost exclusively stuttering for over 10 years. And I love it. I love it so much. So it's my life.

Marisha (02:18.068)

that's amazing. And congratulations on 10 years. Yeah, I love that. And so I guess we could dive into maybe before we start talking about strategies and tips and all of that, what are some potential challenges that we might come across when working with our students' parents or clients' parents, depending on the setting?

Jessica Hudson (02:21.162)

Yes, thank you.

Jessica Hudson (02:42.762)

Yeah, of course. So you just said something that I think is one challenge right there. We're all in different settings and a lot of speech therapists are in the school setting. And so that in of itself is, it can be a challenge because a lot of SLPs who are in the schools do not have access to parents or they don't have maybe as easy of access to parents as a private practice or a clinic based SLP. So, that's a challenge right there is just the setting.

And I think we're going to talk about it a little bit later of how to maybe work through some of these challenges, but trying to find some maybe out of the box ways of communicating with the parent if you're in the school system. And we can talk more about that as we go through some tips and strategies. One of the other big challenges that I find no matter what setting you're in is the

disconnect between perspectives and expectations of parents compared to the SLP, compared to teachers, compared to the child. So maybe everybody having different expectations or even different ideas of what stuttering is and what progress looks like and, you know, the basics of stuttering, like what's the cause of stuttering. Sometimes parents really have no idea and

Maybe they've read something on the internet or they've heard somebody say something. Sometimes there's cultural differences or beliefs of what causes stuttering. So all of that comes into play when parents make up their ideas and minds of what stuttering is and then also what the progress is going to be and what the therapy plan is going to be like. So that can really be challenging.

Marisha (04:39.874)

Yeah, that would have a massive impact on communication because if we have completely different beliefs and we're like, yeah, that could make for a lot of confusion, yeah.

Jessica Hudson (04:50.432)

Yeah. Sometimes I've experienced quite a few times actually where a child maybe doesn't really care that they stutter. They are saying everything that they want to say. They're really confident. They're doing sports. They're part of student council. They're doing all the things and they really don't care. And the parent...

is the one who really cares and they're the one who's really worried. And there's such a disconnect of what the parent thinks and wants compared to what the child thinks and wants. And that can be a real challenge for therapy because then what do we even do in therapy if the child doesn't care or maybe it's not impacting them?

Sometimes they care a little bit, but it's not impacting them and they're doing everything they want. And so that is, I've seen that a lot.

Marisha (05:52.738)

Yeah, and then, because every challenge that you're mentioning, it's like, I want to talk about the tips and strategies. But I think it's kind of like put the different challenges out on the table and then we can go through them. But are there any other big ones that you've seen or experienced?

Jessica Hudson (05:59.277)

I mean, we can.

Jessica Hudson (06:07.029)

Yeah.

Jessica Hudson (06:13.676)

Sure. I think another one, I sort of touched on this when I was talking about expectations and perspective, is maybe some misinformation that parents find out on the web or maybe even somebody that they really trust has said something to them about stuttering. Like a pediatrician, I've had lots of families tell me our pediatrician just told us to wait and see, or they said, they'll grow out of it. It's a normal...

development. And now the child is 10, 11, 12, maybe even a teenager and they haven't grown out of it. so just the misinformation that is out there about stuttering can definitely be a challenge because then we're sort of backtracking and having to share, okay, this is the current research, this is actually what we know about stuttering.

And along those same lines, think parents sometimes, maybe not just parents, a lot of people, adults, teachers, SLPs too, sometimes we oversimplify stuttering and they maybe only think about frequency of stuttering events. And so they're saying, they will come in and they'll say, I just want my child to stop stuttering or stutter less.

And that's really oversimplifying stuttering because as a lot of your previous guests have talked about stuttering has so much more to it. Not only does the stutter itself have more to it, like it's not just the frequency, it's the type of stuttering, the length of the stutter. I mean, there's so much more to the stutter, but also those impacts of stuttering. how people...

feel about it, how they're reacting to it. That is the really, I think probably the bigger part of stuttering. And parents don't always see that they just want less stuttering and they think that will fix everything. So again, I think all of this really ties into mindset of stuttering, perspectives of stuttering and just their expectations of what therapy might look like.

Marisha (08:38.466)

Yeah, absolutely. then, so what do you think, like, what are the tips and strategies that you have to kind of address that and facilitate?

Jessica Hudson (08:50.378)

Yeah, so I think this might be difficult in certain settings. So the school setting is going to be different. So we can kind of talk about maybe how to navigate the school setting. But one thing that's just so important is for us to really hone in on our counseling skills as SLPs.

which no matter what setting you're in and no matter which population you're working with, we all do counseling of some sort, right? Like sometimes I think SLPs are like, no, I don't want to do stuttering therapy because there's counseling. And I'm like, but if you think about it, you're already doing it and you're already really good at it, I'm sure, because you're an SLP. So honing in on those counseling skills, because not only are we going to use those for our

client or our student, we're going to be using it with the parents as well. And one of the biggest tips I have is to just listen. As SLPs, sometimes we like to talk and explain a lot and remembering to listen and to really listen with no judgment and no expectations or no

coming in with our own ideas and beliefs, but really just hearing their stories and where they're coming from and using those counseling skills of asking them follow-up questions to really get to know why they feel like they want less stuttering as an example or what they find important in therapy and why they feel that way. So.

for any SLP in any setting, really trying to listen and be prepared for some counseling with the parents. So that's for anybody in any setting. And so thinking about the settings, one of the things I was thinking about was for the, I'm not in a school, so I have the luxury of seeing parents all the time.

Jessica Hudson (11:09.206)

But I will say that some parents don't feel comfortable being in sessions or sometimes the child feels better being in the session without the parent. And so they don't always come into sessions, but I at least get to see them before and after. So one of the things I was thinking about for schools is having some sort of communication that's actually coming from the student directly to the parent.

So a few little ideas would be something like the child writing a letter to the parent. And maybe it's, what is helpful when I'm talking? What's not helpful when I'm talking? And really, to be honest, it might not be just the parent. It might be a whole family unit. So siblings can cause some difficulty sometimes.

Or they could be really part of the support system and really helpful for our students too. So it might be a letter to the whole family, our grandparents or cousins or whoever's in that family unit. But that's an idea of having, if the child feels comfortable writing a letter of like, what's helpful, what's not, let me teach you about how stuttering feels for me. So it's coming out of the child's...

mouth and how they're really experiencing it. And then the parent can't say, that's not factual because it's coming straight from them. Another thing that I've done with some clients is, and they think this is so fun, we'll create a quiz for the parents to take or a test. And so we have things on there like how many people in the world stutter? What's the cause of stuttering?

What does stuttering feel like? So just some different questions. And then the parent has to take the test and the kid gets to grade it, which they are always so excited about. So they get a red pen and they grade their parents and they say, you got an F. But it helps to teach the parents some information about stuttering that they may not have known in a fun way, right?

Jessica Hudson (13:30.336)

And that's not the SLP having to talk with the parent because again, if you have the school environment, you might not get that physical time with the parent, but it's still a way of communicating with them. And then the other thing that I was thinking is sending parents or having the child do a like a journal and they can even write or

draw pictures depending on their level of what they did in speech therapy that day. And so then the parent is involved in knowing what's going on. think I've heard from a lot of parents who say that they don't feel like they're involved in the therapy process sometimes at schools just because of the nature of the schools. And so any way they can feel involved I think would be helpful for them.

So those are just a couple of ideas of that setting challenge that I was thinking of.

Marisha (14:35.34)

Yeah, I love that. like when I, like as a school based SLP, like in my experience, a lot of times like sending home papers, like I would always find them at the bottom of the student's backpack all crumbled up. But these ideas are amazing. Like I love the letter, the quiz, the journal, like those are fabulous ideas. And

Jessica Hudson (14:48.858)

Yes.

Marisha (15:01.154)

Like maybe having, if they have a designated folder or something where the papers can stay like in together, that's, that has been a great solution for me. But then also using different communication apps. So a lot of times schools will have apps set up and you can just send a picture of whatever they produce during the session and have that. And it's, yeah, it's amazing how like,

Jessica Hudson (15:06.815)

Yeah.

Jessica Hudson (15:26.173)

Exactly.

Marisha (15:30.894)

like calling a parent, I would call certain parents like 10 times and have no answer, but then sending them a text through the platform and they respond within seconds. So it's always interesting how that.

Jessica Hudson (15:41.739)

Right. And I have that too, and I'm in private practice, but I have the same thing where some parents will text me back immediately, but if I call them, I'll never hear from them. Or even in the lobby, don't want to, like they're so busy and they need to get out, get out. And so I think it's just a communication challenge as a human, right? And we all have our preferences of how we communicate.

Marisha (15:47.361)

Yep.

Marisha (16:07.832)

And I think text is really easy because you can be out and about and just be able to do a quick response and all that. So yeah, but I love those ideas. then, and I don't, so do you have like, I'm just trying to decide where we wanna go. Do you wanna share more strategies or?

Jessica Hudson (16:16.778)

Right.

Marisha (16:32.558)

Because I think it'd be helpful, maybe we can do this at the end to go through an example of what it might look like, like with the example that you gave of.

like a parent who has the goal of wanting to decrease stuttering, kind of going through like what, and you did, you shared some examples of questions, but I'm curious kind of what an example of like what the follow-up could look like. But I'll let you decide, do you want to do more strategies or walk through?

Jessica Hudson (16:45.344)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jessica Hudson (16:58.848)

Sure.

Jessica Hudson (17:03.43)

Let's talk about that. I might have the talking to parents about expectations and what their beliefs are about stuttering. think, I mean, I talk, it's a huge, huge, huge part of what I do every day, especially during an initial assessment. So it might be during that IEP meeting or in private practice after your evaluation.

having those conversations with parents. And I think that it's an ongoing conversation and everybody's coming in at a very different place. And so kind of meeting them where they're at. so I'll give some examples, but remember that everybody again is coming in at a different place and maybe they've had previous speech therapy, maybe they haven't. And of course the age of the child. So there's lots of variables here, but.

I'll give more like a general what I hear a lot and what I experience a lot is parents will come in and they'll say, so I'll do the evaluation maybe. And then at the end, we'll talk about what treatment looks like. And I usually ask parents, what are your hopes? Tell me your hopes for your child's communication. And I usually phrase it in that way.

of like really just what do you, I hope that they're thinking more like, what do I hope not what are my goals? Sometimes goals can be very like, okay, a goal on an IEP is I want to decrease stuttering. Don't write that goal, don't do that. But sometimes we see those, right? And parents might think that. So that's why I phrase it with the hopes. And I also say communication rather than stuttering.

because it is everything. I mean, you can be an excellent communicator and stutter. You can be a not such an excellent communicator and not stutter. And so that's why I use communication. So I will ask, okay, what are your hopes for communication for your child? And from there, I will find some things that they say. So maybe they'll have some key words in there that they've said that I can

Jessica Hudson (19:28.736)

then give them a little bit more information about. And a lot of times parents will say something like, well, I have a few things parents often say. They'll say something like, well, I just want them to stop stuttering, or I want them to stutter less. And from there, I might say something like, well, what would be different if they stuttered less? Or how would their lives be different if they stuttered less?

and then they'll answer. And I think that starts their wheels turning of like, well, what really would be different? So at least sometimes we don't get to a place of saying like, okay, fluency is not necessarily the goal during the evaluation or the assessment. But I have some ideas from there of where maybe we'll go in sessions to help that parent.

Maybe shift their perspective a little bit. Another thing that I get a lot is parents will say words like good or bad. And they'll say, my child's stuttering was really bad last week. Actually, this happened to me yesterday. During an evaluation, she said,

Oh, well, her stuttering was so bad last week, but then of course we made this appointment and her stuttering is fine now. It's so good this week. Like she's not having any problems. And so I will even ask parents or even clients too, how do you define good and bad or better and worse? Because it's so subjective. And I might even

use an example like, okay, well, what foods do you think are good? And maybe they'll list a couple of foods and I say, well, I don't like this one, this one and this one. So I think those foods are bad. And so those words are hard to use when we when we talk about stuttering. So it's helping parents to start to reframe how they're thinking about stuttering and questioning them in a, again, non judgmental way, but a way that's

Jessica Hudson (21:45.121)

just giving them a little push of, what about this? Did you ever think about this? So just guiding them on a journey that they're already on, but helping them to understand, again, we're not trying to eliminate stuttering necessarily for most kids. I had another thought, but then I lost it.

Marisha (22:10.914)

No, and these are such great examples. I think this, so in episode 208 with Wendy Taylor, we talked about parent input as well. And this was just related to more of a conversation around like legally compliant IUPs and stuff like that. But a lot, so I'm, when you were sharing some of your examples, I was like, I've heard this. So what, and for anyone listening, if you want a little bit more.

Jessica Hudson (22:21.761)

Mmm.

Jessica Hudson (22:27.581)

yes.

Marisha (22:39.938)

like more examples of what this could look like. Episode 208 would be helpful to look at. But it is such an important part of the process in like asking those questions and understanding like what the parents' hopes are for their child. And that can help with just being on the same page when it comes to something like stuttering. And then also just the plan for the

Jessica Hudson (22:57.238)

Mm-hmm.

Marisha (23:09.312)

child in general. And I think that applies regardless of the setting. It's just important to have that open communication. But this also helps us with better IEPs at the same time. But yeah, so and this was a, I loved your examples of different things that we can ask and just some other scenarios. Yeah.

Jessica Hudson (23:14.198)

Right.

Jessica Hudson (23:17.836)

Mm-hmm.

Jessica Hudson (23:21.343)

Yes, yeah.

Jessica Hudson (23:33.143)

There's one example that I sometimes give parents that because a lot I for me, I get a lot of people who come who are either already in school based speech therapy or maybe who have had previous speech therapy. And because I work a lot with older kids and adults, a lot of times they've already had some experiences. So then they're really coming in with those

ideas and they've already had some experience. And so maybe they know about tools or strategies or techniques, like the ones that we always hear about are things like easy onset or light touch or things like that. So they may have learned about that in previous speech therapy. And sometimes parents will come in and they will tell me

well, my child's just not using their tools that they're learning in XYZ therapy at place XYZ. And I really want them to use tools and you specialize in stuttering. So I know you can get them to use tools. I'm like, well, you may be, let's think about it. So one of the examples I like to give parents is I want you to tell me about what you had for breakfast or lunch.

Marisha (24:45.666)

Listen.

Jessica Hudson (24:57.428)

without using the sound S or Z or S or Z. So tell me what you had. You can do it if you want. What you had for breakfast without using those sounds.

Marisha (25:13.966)

I failed on the first syllable!

Jessica Hudson (25:15.4)

See? Okay, yes. So it is very, very, very hard. So if a parent does it, they do exactly what you just did, and they're like, my gosh, I can't do it. And I say, well, think about how much you just had to think about how you were talking, right? And it took away from your message. You now were no longer thinking I had...

eggs and pancakes and toast or whatever it was, you're now thinking, oh, I can't say the S sound. can't say the Z sound. What words can I substitute? How can I do this different? Oh, am I supposed to use a easy onset? Right. And that was just one sentence in five seconds. And so parents have a little light bulb and they're like, Oh, and I say, so if you want your child to be using tools and strategies and techniques all day, every day,

and think about all the other demands on this child during the day, that's hard. It's really, really, really hard. Not that people can't use them and not that in certain situations they can be maybe helpful. I don't want to totally bash those things mostly, but it's just a way of thinking about stuttering and the fact that it's really hard to

change how we talk and it takes so much effort and to help parents understand that in a really tangible way is sometimes a fun exercise to do either some time-long treatment or even in an evaluation and you can have everybody do it and it's kind of a you know you people get silly about it but then you get back serious and it's like okay think about it yeah

Marisha (27:05.112)

Yeah, I love that as an example because then it really puts the parents, like it helps take the perspective of the child or the student. That's great. I love that. And that's probably good for therapists too because this is still like a paradigm shift for some of us as well. So yeah, I love that example.

Jessica Hudson (27:13.174)

Mm-hmm.

Jessica Hudson (27:17.035)

Yeah.

Jessica Hudson (27:28.456)

Absolutely, it is. I mean, I SLPs have been thinking about fixing or eliminating stuttering for a long time. it does, there is a shift now that probably has always been there, but it's been lower, maybe on the priority list or not as talked about. And now it's finally people are.

realizing like, okay, we're not trying to fix somebody. We're not trying to eliminate stuttering. There's lots of other parts of this. Yeah.

Marisha (28:07.51)

Yeah, and I think most parents, if you ask them what their hopes are for their child, like most parents probably don't say, I want them to stutter less. Like they get bigger picture of like what actually mattered, I would assume.

Jessica Hudson (28:23.412)

Yes, yeah, yes. And I do, I think, especially when you're phrasing it as like, what are your hopes for their communication? So many parents do say something like, I want them to be confident, or I want them to participate, or they'll say something like, I don't want stuttering to hold them back in whatever they have in their future. And those are really things that we can create.

actual speech therapy goals around and things that we can see progress towards. I think that's another whole other thing that I talk to parents about is progress and how are we gonna know somebody's making progress because that's another word we have to define kind of like that good, bad, worse. Okay, how do you define that? Because my definition might be different than yours. How do you define progress? So that we're all on the same page.

from the beginning. So that's another one.

Marisha (29:25.1)

Ooh, I love that. I think going back to kind of the asking what the hopes are for the child's communication, even if the parent says, well, we want to reduce their stuttering, then why do they want to reduce that? Like what's behind that? And I think we can always get to the root and having that root and being able to revisit that in all of the subsequent conversations, I think is really helpful.

Jessica Hudson (29:53.333)

Absolutely, absolutely, Yes, yeah, there's always something deeper. I'm sure on some of the previous podcasts you've had, people have talked about the iceberg analogy of stuttering. So we've got the top, which is the stuttering and then everything underneath. I think parents probably have their own iceberg, right? Like they've got a lot of stuff underneath the water that we can help them.

Marisha (29:55.074)

Yeah, the why behind all of it.

Jessica Hudson (30:23.474)

work through. so it's not just I want stuttering to go away, or I want my child to be fluent or whatever. It's okay, then the why like, what would that mean for you? What would that mean for their lives and, and digging into their iceberg to? Yeah.

Marisha (30:43.318)

Yeah, yeah, and it really doesn't have to be an adversarial kind of thing. Because I feel like I've heard conversations about like, like these parents are difficult or they don't understand or whatnot. But if we're asking those questions, like the tips that you gave would help us to really understand the parents and all anyone wants really is to be understood.

Jessica Hudson (30:50.124)

Hmm.

Marisha (31:08.256)

I think that's my perception. So if we are like listening and asking the questions and in a non-judgmental way, I think we'll get to kind of get to the root of all the things and be able to have like successful, happy, productive communication and ultimately do what's best for the child.

Jessica Hudson (31:08.257)

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Jessica Hudson (31:31.157)

Absolutely. think parents too, just the, this is, think human nature when we don't know about something or when we don't understand something or maybe when we feel out of control, we have so much more fear and we have so much more worry and anxiety about it. And so if we can help educate parents and just give them some resources, I mean, it doesn't have to be anything fancy or elaborate or,

pretty even. It's just giving them information so that they feel more empowered and educated and they understand what their child might be going through. So sharing things like the National Stuttering Association website or I know you had Nina Reeves from Stuttering Therapy Resources on in the past. Stuttering Therapy Resources has so many resources. Imagine that.

on just everything and they have videos, have handouts, they have blog posts. And so depending on how that parent likes to absorb information, you can give them all different types of things to really just help them understand. And then it really eases the parent and you can then work as a team with the families and school personnel and the child too.

They really just, they do, they want the best for their kids and it's not like they're, maybe there are some difficult parents, but I think it's because they care so much about their kids, right? So yeah, yes.

Marisha (33:13.548)

Yeah, mama there a And there's like, if we're having those types of conversations, like you've been sharing throughout this whole episode, like we really get to get to the bottom of it. And, yeah, no, these are great suggestions. And I love all of the practical examples because it, feel like it's super applicable of, like these are things that will.

definitely be singing in practice too. Do you have any other resources or suggestions that you wanted to share?

Jessica Hudson (33:43.98)

Yeah.

Jessica Hudson (33:50.379)

Yeah, one of the other resources that I love is getting parents connected with some sort of support group. And COVID was a bummer, but there were some good things that came from COVID. And that was that a lot of these support groups went virtual and now they meet monthly. And so it's just really accessible for parents all over the world, really. And it's free and they can connect with other people.

who also might be experiencing things that they are and ask questions. The three that I know of are the National Stuttering Association. So they have a parent group and Friends has another parent group that meets monthly and also Say, which is the Stuttering Association of the Young, I think is the full name. But I know they have virtual monthly parent groups. And if you just go on their website,

all those websites, they'll link to whatever days and times. And all of them have kids and teens, and some of them have adult groups too. But for parents specifically, I really encourage them to get connected through my office. Sometimes we'll have some connections, like some social groups or support groups for parents, but those are more, you know, these three that I mentioned are more accessible probably.

to parents.

Marisha (35:20.866)

Those are great. And you had a really nice Instagram post. Like I'll link that in the show notes as well. But it was just like a nice little graphic showing those different options. So we'll add that in the show notes. Anything else that you wanted to share? I don't want to.

Jessica Hudson (35:36.831)

Awesome.

Jessica Hudson (35:42.316)

I feel like I have so much, but.

I don't know. think just again, listening, listening to our clients, listening to our parents, listening to the other SLPs and just supporting one another and yeah, in a caring, open-minded way, right?

Yeah, and meeting people where they're at because everybody is on such a different path and in such a different place in the journey. So, yeah.

Marisha (36:22.19)

Absolutely. Well, this was so helpful. Thank you for being so generous with your time and expertise, And then to everyone who's listening, thanks for joining us. Again, we'll link to the show notes for all of the resources mentioned as well as Jessica's Instagram and website. But definitely give her a follow on Instagram. then, yeah, we'll see you next time.

Jessica Hudson (36:47.573)

Awesome, thank you so much.