 "Photo: Albert Ramirez")
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Josh Sniderman, age 14, has been going to speech therapy since age 3. He has improved his stuttering from severe to unnoticeable, said Elaine Sniderman, his mother. With the techniques taught at camp, he was able to improve his speech and self-esteem.
"My stuttering was very intense and horrible," Josh said. "It was sometimes hard for me to talk with other people, and I was shy."
He will graduate from weekly therapy after this October. However, Josh will likely need therapy intermittently for the rest of his life, she said.
Two summer camps offered by the UT Dallas Callier Center for Communication Disorders this summer are giving children the tools to reduce speech difficulties due to conditions such as stuttering and cleft palettes.
This camp provides techniques and therapy to speak smoother and clearer for children and adolescents ages 3-16 who stutter. The kids work on self-esteem as well as their speech and bring home progress reports and homework each day to their parents.
The participants receive individual therapy from graduate students, small group therapy with other children in their age range and then the whole camp combines for large group therapy with the two clinicians who supervise.
The twenty graduate students are responsible for assessing the client, creating goals and working with them. These students are required to complete 400 hours of working with clients to graduate and take classes in preparation for the camp.
Scientists are not sure whether stuttering is caused by genetics or neurological problems, but speech pathologists have tools to combat it, said Shannon Raby, Callier Center clinician and camp director.
"The class obviously prepares you, but to actually see it is different. You can understand what you learned and memorized so much better," said Maggie Jashinsky, communication disorders graduate student.
When considering colleges, her aunt suggested that she do speech therapy. After a personality test listed Jashinsky's first match as speech pathology, she changed her career aspirations. Jashinsky said it was her first time working the camp after completing two semesters of graduate school.
"I really like it, though. After I changed my major, I took an intro course and I loved every second of it," Jashinsky said. Josh has been mentoring other kids at camp and said he inspired one boy to believe that the camp could help him too.
"(I have) been having a lot more fun with life and thinking more positively," Josh said.
Adult stutterers visited the camp and spoke about problems they encountered. One man said when asked what career he wanted a major in, unable to say architect due to stuttering, instead he said banking. He said he has been a successful banker to this day.
"When they get out of this program, their view on it is no longer negative and sad, they're not frustrated. It's more of they've turned it into a positive thing on how to deal with it and be able to relate to other people who are having difficult times," Raby said.
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