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Listening and Responding:Learning Microskills forHelping People Change

J. Scott Yaruss, Ph.D., CCC-SLPAssistant Professor, University of PittsburghClinical Research Consultant,

Children’s Hospital of PittsburghCo-Director, Stuttering Center of Western PA

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My “philosophy”of teaching

Do I have a philosophy?

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My “philosophy”of teaching

Do I have a philosophy?

Yes! I guess I do…

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My Teaching Goal

Students will develop the skills theyneed to help clients achieve their goals in treatment

Counseling is an integral part of the therapeutic process in communication disorders, regardless of the specificnature of the disorder

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My Teaching Goal

Students will develop the skills theyneed to help clients achieve their goals in treatment

Understand basic theories of counselingHumanistic

Person-centeredGestalt

ExistentialistBehaviorist

Rational EmotiveCognitive Restructuring

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My Teaching Goal

Students will develop the skills theyneed to help clients achieve their goals in treatment

Understand basic theories of counseling

Understand basic principles of counselingAttending

ListeningValuing

ProbingChallenging

Summarizing

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My Teaching GoalStudents will develop the skills theyneed to help clients achieve their goals in treatment

Understand basic theories of counseling

Understand basic principles of counseling

Understand how counseling relates to the scope of practice in communication disorders

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My Teaching Goal

Students will develop the skills theyneed to help clients achieve their goals in treatment Students

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My Teaching Goal

Students will be preparedto truly help people who stutter Confidence to enter treatment as a

partner and to take risks with their clients

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My Teaching Goal

Students will be preparedto truly help people who stutter Critical thinking skills so they can

evaluatetheir own abilities and changes in the field

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Accomplishing The GoalMultiple assignments to give students multiple perspectives on stuttering Lecture / Discussion / Participation Readings (textbook + packet) Experience Assignments In-class practice /

Case presentations Term Paper / Exams Integration with clinical practice

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How my teaching has evolved…

I have tried to move more towardgiving students the opportunity toDEVELOP anunderstanding ofstuttering, rather thanjust being taught about it

Well, it hasn’t had time yet…

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Organizing Principle (philosophy & evolution combined)

ASKING and ANSWERING QUESTIONS

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Daily Questions

Each lecture is based on a seriesof questions on a given topic

Discussions and lectures aredesigned to answer the daily questions

Students receive each day’s questions before they do the reading and they receive the answers after each lecture

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Example – Lecture 1What is Stuttering?

What are definitions of terms for stuttering? What is fluency? disfluency? dysfluency? nonfluency? stuttering? Why are there so many different terms for speech interruptions?

What are the various types of disfluencies? Why are some disfluencies called normal and others stuttered? What is the difference between stuttering events and the stuttering

disorder?

Who produces disfluencies? What is a person who stutters? What is a stutterer? What is the difference between a PWS and a PWDNS? What is the distribution of stuttering in the population?

Why is it so important for clinicians to become comfortable with stuttering?

How can we do this?

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Daily Questions

Answering questions… Helps students evaluate their

(mis)conceptions about stuttering Helps students take ownership

of their own learning Helps students find interests in the field Helps students learn to ask questions of

their clients and “lead from behind” Helps students learn to learn on their own

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One ClassIs Not Enough!

My counseling classcomplements the stuttering class to provide additional skills necessary for helping people who stutter Daily practice with counseling microskills,

such as attending, listening, empathetic responses, summarizing, challenging, etc.

Developing comfort identifying, talking about, validating, and exploring clients’ feelings about their communication disorder

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SummaryStuttering is a multi-faceteddisorder, so I teach aboutstuttering through multiple avenues Participation / Discussion Understanding basic issues and theories Experience and comfort with stuttering Experience with treatment strategies Experience and comfort with counseling Learning to ask and answer questions