In this episode a 17 year old female who is a senior in high school completed The let’s Talk Fluency Program with Lori Melnitsky on zoom. From stuttering to Fluency and confidence. Mia talks about her stuttering journey and how she came to All Island Speech and Stuttering Therapy. Mia wants to be a nurse. Listen to her words, strategies, self talk and confidence. Mia worked with Lori Melnitsky virtually twice a week for 6 weeks. For more info please visit Lori@allislandspeech.com

If you stutter there is hope. Your voice matters.

Listen to Lori explain easy onsets and what role they play in stuttering therapy. Lori explains why they are used. She is a speech pathologist who stuttered severely herself. She also explains using ends of words and gives you real life examples in her own speech.

www.allislandspeech.com

This is about how adult speech therapy changed my life.

It is important to intervene early and be positive. Listen why?

www.allislandspeech.com

www.allislandspeech.com

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

First we start working on to learn easier ways I'm breathing from our diaphragm and we also work on a lot of the emotional components of building confidence on the phone calling up a restaurant saying our names so I really and there is some home practice involved. I really believe that the people who have committed to this program it is life changing. I spoke to a parent yesterday of a ninth grader who took my program last year. He actually stayed longer because he wanted to make sure that he got the skills and she said now in ninth grade he pretty much uses his strategies in a more natural manner and he's a much more comfortable and confident speaker he can like do a little presentation in class. I mean to me public speaking is hard and I and I um I always feel bad for especially you know anyone who you know has not taken a public speaking class or it's just hard to all of a sudden get up whether you stutter or not and just speak to anybody you know and I don't know about you like I'm not great on the spot like if I and this is nothing to do with stuttering like if I go to a meeting or something and they say okay, you know, let's go around the room and talk about your feve animal or talk about where you want to go on vacation you know like these icebreakers I'm not very good at them and I start to get very nervous because I don't. It's a car for me to just think on the spot and so my heart always goes out to people who after all of a sudden zoo public speaking and you know in school accounts as an academic grade or at work you know it counts as whether you're going to move up in the company or not so it's something we work on in our other groups also, but I'm just very excited about the let's talk fluency program. It's something I developed I believe nobody knows what it's like to stun it unless you stutter yourself most of these programs are done virtually, which is so much easier for everybody so we don't have to spend time traveling and it gives us more time to do some practice at home so if you're interested, please reach out to me. My email is LoriRI at all island speech.com I really my goal is to help people and offer hope where you might have had therapy like once a week in the past for a half an hour and it wasn't really working. It just isn't enough to change motor patterns in school. Many of the students don't qualify anyway, not all speech pathologists specialize in stuttering and they' just isn't this the expertise or the specialty to work on it so I will keep talking about it. Feel free to email me most of these intensive programs are out of network because there is such a emotional component. There is a coaching component and it's just impossible for these programs to work you know in the medical model of what most insurance companies will pay in network, but you know please contact me for more information and you certainly can use a flex spending card if you need to so I hope that information helps. you can also no let's email. I was gonna say text me but sometimes things get a little bit lost in it texting you know what I'll put my number 516-776-0184 Have a wonderful day if you started there is hope there are many people who tried to knock me down and tell me I wouldn't be able to attain a higher level of fluency and they were 100% wrong and the more they told me the more I put back you can do this. You don't have to be 100% fluent. You don't even have to be you know 90 you can be what what whatever you want but you want to say what you want to say you don't want to feel like you can only say things that you have to push out of your mouth so there is hope I can't wait to tell you more and have on my guests and I can't wait to hear from you. Have a wonderful fabulous day your voice matters you matter to me.

Sometimes children are not eligible for school speech therapy. Other times no one specializes in stuttering therapy. Understanding the difference of an academic speech model vs private specialized therapy.

www.allislandspeech.com

Lori@allislandspeech.com