Certificate Program
Interventions for Early Childhood & School-Age Stuttering
Enhance your skills for helping people who stutter improve their speech fluency, their overall communication, and their lives as a whole.
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About this Certificate Program
Although many clinicians are uncomfortable with stuttering, you can master your fears about working with people who stutter! This certificate program includes a comprehensive set of courses designed to help you treat preschoolers, school-age children, and adolescents who stutter. Key topics include conducting targeted assessment of speech behaviors and the impact of stuttering on people’s lives; making appropriate treatment recommendations and setting meaningful, measurable, and objective goals; and developing individualized treatment activities that address all aspects of the stuttering disorder. Special topics include reducing negative reactions to stuttering and minimizing bullying of children who stutter.
Target audience
Speech-language pathologists in private practice, schools, and outpatient settings who work with children and teens ages 2 to 18.
Goals & objectives
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Describe the components of a comprehensive evaluation for preschoolers, school-age children, and adolescents who stutter
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Make appropriate treatment recommendations based on current evidence about who needs treatment and when
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Develop meaningful treatment goals that address each client’s individual needs in therapy
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Describe methods for minimizing bullying of children who stutter
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Conduct individualized treatment that helps people who stutter improve their communication and reduce the impact of stuttering on their lives
What’s included in the Certificate Program
Accredited Online Courses*
18 hours of online video lectures and patient demonstrations.
Case Study Interviews
Recorded Q&A sessions between instructors and practice managers.
Interactive Learning Assessments
Case-based quizzes to evaluate and improve clinical reasoning.
Certificate Program overview
Section 1
Stuttering Measurement Skills 2 ItemsIssues in the Measurement of Stuttering Course
Chapter 1: The Value of Comprehensive Evaluation
Chapter One provides a justification for considering more than just speech behavior when evaluating individuals who stutter. Dr. Yaruss also introduces the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health and discusses how the framework can be used to understand stuttering.
Chapter 2: Key Issues in Measuring Stuttering Behavior: Why and What
Chapter Two addresses the question of why accurate measurements of stuttering behaviors are important and highlights several decisions that clinicians need to make in preparing to measure stuttering.
Chapter 3: Key Issues in Measuring Stuttering Behavior: Where and When
With practice, clinicians can learn to complete valid and reliable measures of the stuttering behaviors exhibited by their clients. In Chapter Three, Dr. Yaruss answers the question of how and when measures should be collected.
Measuring the Entire Stuttering Disorder Course
Chapter 1: Real-Time Analysis
The first chapter in this course provides an overview of the process of counting stuttering behaviors. Participants will learn to differentiate between stuttered types of disfluencies and non-stuttered types of disfluencies.
Chapter 2: Real-Time Analysis of Speech Disfluencies
In Chapter Two, Dr. Yaruss addresses the question of what behaviors to count and how to classify them. He demonstrates the ability to count disfluencies in a speech sample and explains the value of making real-time measures of speech disfluencies.
Chapter 3: Real-Time Analysis of Spontaneous Speech
Chapter Three covers real-time analysis of spontaneous speech. The participant will improve their speed at marking fluent words and at deciding what words are disfluent and what types of disfluencies they are.
Chapter 4: Reliability
In the final chapter of this course, Dr. Yaruss demonstrates how to train the reliability of measurements. He presents tolerance an interactive Tolerance Check and outline steps for checking your reliability.
Section 2
Early Childhood Stuttering Therapy 3 ItemsEvaluating Stuttering in Young Children Course
Chapter 1: Early Childhood Stuttering: An Overview
Chapter 1 will review the development of stuttering and discuss how clinicians can differentiate stuttering from typical disfluency.
Chapter 2: Conducting a Comprehensive Evaluation
Chapter 2 will provide an overview of the process of evaluating stuttering.
Chapter 3: Making Treatment Recommendations
Chapter 3 will discuss the process of making treatment recommendations, including a consideration of which children need treatment and which children may simply need monitoring and follow-up.
Treating Stuttering in Young Children: Working with Families Course
Chapter 1: A family-focused treatment approach for young children who stutter
Chapter 1 will provide an overview of a comprehensive approach to treatment for young children who stutter, which includes both parent-focused components and child-focused components. The parent-focused components will be addressed in this course (part 2); child-focused components will be address in part 3
Chapter 2: Helping parents create a fluency-facilitating environment
Chapter 2 will include a detailed description of the parent-focused components of the family-focused treatment program.
Chapter 3: Helping parents help their children develop healthy, appropriate communication attitudes
Chapter 3 will include a detailed description of how parents can help their children develop healthy, appropriate attitudes toward their speech and communication abilities.
Speech Therapy to Treat Stuttering in the Young Child Course
Chapter 1: Preparing for direct therapy
Chapter 1 will review strategies for helping children make changes to their speech fluency directly, e.g, by changing speech timing or speech tension.
Chapter 2: Changing Speech Timing to Enhance speech Fluency
Chapter 2 will provide an overview of strategies for helping children who stutter modify their speech timing in order to enhance their speech fluency
Chapter 3: Changing Speech Tension to Enhance speech Fluency
Chapter 3 will provide an overview of strategies for helping children who stutter modify their speech tension in order to enhance their speech fluency.
Section 3
School-Age Stuttering Therapy 3 ItemsEvaluating Stuttering in School-Age Children Course
Chapter 1: School-Age Stuttering Therapy: An Overview
Chapter 1 will describe the nature of stuttering in school-age children. The chapter will specifically focus on the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning Disability, and Health (ICF) as it applies to the stuttering disorder. The primary message will be that speech-language pathologists need to consider more than just observable speech fluency when working with those who stutter.
Chapter 2: Conducting a Comprehensive Evaluation
Chapter 2 will provide an overview of the process of evaluating stuttering in school-age children. This involves following the components of the ICF model to ensure that the entire disorder is considered. Thus, the evaluation will examine observable speech disfluencies (impairment), reactions to stuttering by the child and environment (context), and adverse impact of stuttering (activity limitation and participation restriction).
Chapter 3: Making Treatment Recommendations
Chapter 3 will discuss the process of making treatment recommendations, including a consideration of which children are ready for treatment and which may need more time before they are ready to benefit from intervention. It will be argued that children who are not ready should not be forced into stuttering therapy and that clinicians should take care to prepare students carefully to ensure that they achieve the greatest possible success in therapy.
Setting A Foundation For Therapy & Packing The Stuttering Toolbox Course
Chapter 1: Building a Strong Foundation: Learning about Speaking and Stuttering
Unless children understand how their speech works (and how it does not), they will have difficulty making the types of changes required in stuttering therapy. Chapter 1 will describe strategies for educating children about the speech mechanism and stuttering.
Chapter 2: Packing the Speech Therapy Toolbox: Strategies for Modifying Stuttering
Chapter 2 will describe strategies for helping children modify the moment of stuttering so it is less severe and less disruptive to communication. This will be accomplished through a discussion of stuttering modification strategies, such as cancellation, pullout (easing out), and preparatory set (easing in). In addition, this chapter will include a review the purpose and benefits of voluntary stuttering and pseudostuttering exercises.
Chapter 3: More Tools for the Speech Therapy Toolbox: Strategies for Modifying Fluency
Chapter 3 will describe strategies for modifying speech timing and tension to enhance fluency. These strategies, including reducing speaking rate, implementing pausing and phrasing, using light contact, and employing easy starts, will be presented as a way of increasing fluency while maintaining naturalness of speech.
Addressing the Reactions of the Child and the Environment Course
Chapter 1: Addressing the Stuttering “Iceberg”
Not surprisingly, many children who stutter feel bad about their speaking difficulties. Chapter one will discuss the negative reactions that children who stutter are likely to experience within themselves as a result of stuttering. These strategies will help children come to terms with the fact that they stutter so they will be less likely to feel bad about the fact that their speech is different.
Chapter 2: No Child Is an Island
Children who stutter live in an environment that does not understand stuttering. Chapter two will describe strategies for educating parents, teachers, and peers about stuttering so they will be less likely to react negatively to the fact that the child stutters.
Section 4
Minimizing Bullying for Children Who Stutter 2 ItemsMinimizing Bullying: Working with the Child Who Stutters Course
Chapter 1: What is Bullying?
Chapter one will describe the problem of bullying and explore why how it affects children who stutter, including looking at who is involved in bullying and how it affects children.
Chapter 2: Helping Children Cope With Stuttering and Bullying
Chapter two will describe the process of desensitizing children to stuttering so they will be better able to withstand the negative comments of bullies.
Chapter 3: Helping Children Respond To Bullying
Chapter three will describe strategies for helping children who stutter respond to bullying in ways that can reduce further bullying behavior.
Minimizing Bullying: Working With the Environment Course
Chapter 1: Helping Students Educate Peers About Stuttering and Bullying
The more other children understand about stuttering, the less likely they are to engage in bullying behaviors. Chapter one will present several strategies for educating peers about stuttering.
Chapter 2: Helping Parents Create a Supportive Home Environment
Parents provide the “first line of defense” for helping to insulate children who stutter from the effects of bullying.
Chapter 3: Helping Teachers and Administrators Create A Supportive Educational Environment
Teachers can play an important role in creating an environment where it is okay to stutter but not okay to bully other children because of stuttering (or anything else). Chapter three will review specific ways in which teachers can help to create a supportive environment and help the child who stutters in the classroom.
Instructors
J. Scott Yaruss
PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-F, F-ASHA
CEU approved
18
total hours*
of accredited coursework.
Medbridge accredits each course individually so you can earn CEUs as you progress.
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Browse PlansFrequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about Certificate Programs.
Accreditation Hours
Each course is individually accredited and exact hours will vary by state and discipline. Check each course for specific accreditation for your license.
When do I get my certificate?
You will receive accredited certificates of completion for each course as you complete them. Once you have completed the entire Certificate Program you will receive your certificate for the program.
Do I get CEU credit?
Each course is individually accredited. Please check each course for your state and discipline. You can receive CEU credit after each course is completed.
Do I have to complete the courses in order?
It is not required that you complete the courses in order. Each Certificate Program's content is built to be completed sequentially but it is not forced to be completed this way.
How long do I have access to the Certificate Program?
You will have access to this Certificate Program for as long as you are a subscriber. Your initial subscription will last for one year from the date you purchase.
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