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Adult therapy and courses

This approach was developed by Charles Van Riper, an American speech and language therapist who stammered. The aim is not for total fluency but to help the client stammer more easily. Van Riper held the view that people's feelings and the way they see things can contribute to the maintenance of stammering. Block Modification therefore involves work on attitude change as well as communication behaviour. There are five stages to the approach:

1. Identification: of what you do when you stammer and when you avoid stammering. Also identification of your feelings and attitudes to stammering.
2. Desensitisation: reducing fear and sensitivity about stammering.
3. Variation: experimenting with change and different ways of tackling a problem.
4. Modification: aiming to help you stammer more fluently.
5. Stabilisation: maintaining the changes you have made.

The stages of the approach will not necessarily he taught one after the other. Your speech and language therapist will engage you in those parts of Block Modification best suited to your needs

Article

Intensive Experience at the City Lit in London A review by a student at one of the regular four-week intensive group courses for stammerers.

Practitioners

Very many speech and language therapists, including NHS therapists, use block modification as at least one of their approaches. Contact the BSA Information and Support Service for your nearest therapist.

The City Lit A training institute for stammerers in London. Information and courses.

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