Hi, and welcome to another episode of Stuttering the mystified and beyond This is Lori Melnitzki your host. I just wanted to talk about some things that are on my mind. I actually just got back from Florida visiting my parents who are older and I was just thinking as I was there and I was meeting a lot of different people how much I had to speak and say my name and what I did and where I was from and and you'll hear me say often that my father studied also not really anymore and he's in his mid 80s and he is the wind beneath my wings. I had him to inspire me. I knew that more fluency was possible. I knew how much confidence and positive affirmation really mattered in life so today I really wanted to talk about these three tips that I think for parents of teens young adults that really help me really keep going on the journey to get help and it was hard when I was younger because there was not a lot of help out there so positive affirmations positive talking, positive thinking, positive mindset not always accepting where you are at this point in life and understanding that where you are at this point in life my you know at the age of 1415 might not be where you are later on so I'm just to talk. The number one thing well I wanna also say that I have so many teens and young adults on Zoom. They do not need in person therapy if if their attention span isn't there, then they probably aren't candidate for in person or zoom, but you don't know that until they try so number one it's important to praise children young yet it's young adults young adults for what they do for what they are so if you hear them stuttering, even if they're in therapy and they're really trying praise what you hear them really trying to do they know they're stut. They don't need to be reminded if you have to remind someone to use strategies then they're not at the right point to use them and people can't use strategies all day. Some people are more mild and it's a lot easier on them and if they're more severe, there's so much more involved so always praise what you see what they do how you feel what they say manners number two it's it's hard to ask parents because I'm a parent. I have two older daughters and it's hard to ask kids sometimes about things that are really bothering them because they know you want to fix it. They want to give you the right answer and sometimes they get defensive so that's so we we always have to sort of make more comments. I would avoid talking about stuttering a lot not that you can't and if they come to you absolutely but just always remember if you're finding it hard hearing it they're finding it even harder because the days when I couldn't say my name and had to push words out were very painful and very anxiety provoking number three if your child teen young idol comes to you and they want help that's a sign that they are motivated understand that not everyone is me the same not everyone speaks the same not everyone takes the same amount of time for therapy, but definitely get them help because they're telling you that they're struggling and good for you for getting them to help that they need Zoom is great for them. They have a lot going on in my case I'm just going to tell you these are the states that I do zoom online New York New Jersey Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Florida. I think I forgot one and California if the timing works out it's much easier for them. They don't have to spend time in the car. It's their world. It's 45 minutes. This is this is not like zoom school during Covid. This is 45 minutes and it's really the same and it saves time and then really it's helpful and again praise your kids. Remember they're struggling if they're stuttring, they're struggling and they're speaking different than the real world is that's a fact of life and some people handle be different better than others and it's important for them to have somebody to speak to. www.allislandspeech.com