The Importance of Multimodal Intervention to Address Bullying in Children Who Stutter

Thank you to Tricia Hildick Hedinger for the opportunity to create a video for her presentation "Public Stigma, Self-Stigma, and Bullying: Dismantling the Trifecta to Help Kids Who Stutter." The presentation will be this Friday, April 1, as a part of University of Tennessee's Sol Adler Memorial Conference. Visit my YouTube channel, “Infinite Horizon Speech and Language Services,” to watch the video!

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Here is a transcript of the video:

"As an SLP, I know that many children who stutter experience teasing and bullying. Bullying is a complex problem that requires time and dedication to tackle. That’s why I am so excited about today’s talk. We need to involve everyone in the child’s life to stop bullying, from empowering the child to respond appropriately, to teaching the parents how to support their child, to working with the teacher and school staff to foster a safe and positive environment for all students.

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But we can go even further. By addressing the stigma surrounding stuttering, we can reduce the public and self-stigma attached to it. It is exciting to see these movements to reduce stigma happening today! From the neurodiversity movement, to STAMMA’s No Diversity Without Disfluency campaign, to the World Stuttering Network’s 2022 Bully Campaign, change is happening!

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Our society seems to have a predisposition to “tips and tricks” and “quick fixes” to problems. What I would really like to see is a shift towards slowing down – slowing down to take time to understand, to slowly but surely implement concrete, lasting changes, and to gradually reach true resolution to problems. That is why I am so excited to learn about the multidisciplinary intervention procedures to tackle bullying today! We have within us the determination and resolve to patiently and persistently work through complex issues. Now let’s get started!"