About Fluency Friday Plus

What is Fluency Friday Plus?
By Diane Games, Coordinator

Fluency Friday Plus (FFP) is an intensive day-and one-half treatment and support program for children & teens who stutter. This project is a collaborative effort involving professionals from all practice settings in the greater Cincinnati area including university, private practice, hospital and educational work settings.  Community Speech Language Pathologists supervise the diagnostic & treatment portions of the FFP program. Graduate Clinicians from the University of Cincinnati and Bowling Green State University receive clinical diagnostic and treatment hours by participating in this program.  FFP also provides parent & family education sessions including a special program for Siblings on Saturday morning.  All materials developed for this program are made available to participants via a web page. (www.fluencyfriday.org )

The Teens and Children who attend FFP receive both individual and group treatment during this program to learn about stuttering and to share experiences and ideas with other students. Students enjoy the personal attention of the graduate clinician in Individual sessions along with group activities designed to encourage speaking and risk taking.  One of the major benefits of FFP is meeting other students who share the same challenges and experiences with stuttering.

The FFP Parent Program provides educational lectures for the parents along with the opportunity to ask questions of the “experts”.  In addition, the interaction with other parents is supportive as parents exchange ideas and experiences.  Professionals present information to the Parents on various topics.  In addition, a Teen Panel answers questions from the parents on Friday and an Adult Panel participates on Saturday.  Parents learn “first-hand” from the comments and experiences of the teens and adults.  Questions on social issues and various speaking situations are frequent in the sessions.  In addition, this forum enables the teens to speak freely to a large, “listener friendly” audience who respects the courage it takes to speak to a large group.

The Graduate Clinicians obtain supervised practicum hours in the area of fluency and fluency disorders.  In addition, FFP provides interaction with a large number of children, teens and adults who stutter.  This type of clinical experience provides graduate clinicians with diagnostic and treatment hours along with understanding the variability and range of the disorder of stuttering.  They also benefit from the Diagnostic Protocol, Individual and Group Treatment Ideas and various Handouts on the Disorder of Stuttering all available on www.fluencyfriday.org .

Siblings & Friends are invited to join the FFP Program on Saturday morning to learn more about speaking and stuttering in a small group interaction designed to educate siblings about stuttering.  This group then prepares a short presentation at the Closing Ceremony.

A major benefit of FFP is the collaboration and sharing of experiences of all participants.  The children, teens, families, professionals and graduate clinicians all benefit from sharing personal stories, taking risks and having a better understanding the disorder of stuttering.