How do you support students who stutter with oral exams & presentations ?

5* GOOGLE REVIEWS FOR STAMMERING THERAPY WITH THE SPEECH NETWORK

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This was my first time seeking Speech Therapy as an adult and it truly changed my life. Alison is an attentive, patient and caring therapist and she helped me beyond measure. Would highly recommend to anyone!! - Lauren

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‘Alison is an excellent speech therapist, over my course of sessions she helped me to unpack why I had a stammer and ways to deal with it. Alison also has a big focus on normalising stuttering which I feel was very helpful in my journey to stuttering less in situations where it is of upmost impostance. My speech and confidence have both greatly improved during my time with Alison and continue to do so. I would highly recommended Alison from the speech network if you want to improve your speech and self esteem’ - Harry.

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‘Alison is super super helpful, responsive and responsible. She shared a bunch of useful resources with me and helped me to see stammer in a different way. I really appreciate how much she values her client and her work. I do feel we really connected. You really did a good job Alison!’ - Yucho

In an episode of the weekly podcast ‘This American Life – Made to be broken’, Poet Jerome Ellis explained “A time limit assumes that all people have equal access to time through their speech. For me, stuttering is unpredictable and I do not know how long it will take, until I have to say it”

For a Person who Stutters, performance on timed oral assessments at university can impact on a persons ability to demonstrate their knowledge. Examples of these might be presentations, oral exams or the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).

Is stuttering a disability?

Stuttering can be viewed as a disability for a person if it ‘has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities'. (Equalities Act, 2010).  ‘Reasonable adjustments’ are ways that the university can prevent disabled people being put at a disadvantage. Reasonable adjustments are changes that the university can make to reduce the impact of the stammer that are specific to you.

How can online Speech Therapy support students who stammer with oral exams?

Some universities require medical evidence about your stammer. We have supported students by completing an assessment and a provided a written report suggesting ways for the university to support students who stutter in their studies. This might be by recommending extended time, identifying barriers, and recommend strategies to make these examinations easier.

How might extra time in oral exams help me?

A recent medical student shared what he gained from a block of Speech Therapy

 “I'm much less anxious when participating in group discussions. Additionally, when talking to people I haven't met before, I'm not bothered by their perception of me as a stammerer than I used to before starting therapy sessions. When slowing down my speech, I stammer much less. This technique has really helped me, especially in harder situations such as public speaking and group discussions”

Despite changes of how he felt about his stutter, and having strategies to make talking easier in certain situations, he requested support for his upcoming OSCE exam and explained why having extra time would be helpful:

“I'm requesting extra time for the OSCE (objective structured clinical examination) exams to ease some of the time pressure off of me. An OSCE exam is essentially a simulated clinical environment where I can be asked anything from performing a medical examination to taking a history from a model patient. Since this is a timed exam, I'm naturally under pressure to speak quickly in order to complete the task in the allocated time. I've completed several practice runs of OSCEs before, and most of the time I finish on time.  However, there were instances where I ran overtime and I would have benefited from the extra 25% that's granted for those with extra time. The extra time would allow me to take things a bit slower and would really ease the pressure off of me, hence contributing to a bit of extra fluency”. 

After he was given extra time he explained how it was helpful:

He felt that having the extra time reduced his nerves since he knew that he had more time to complete everything and that he wouldn't need to rush through the exam. He felt that he stammered less as a result. He felt it made huge difference and he passed his OSCEs with flying colours.

How can Speech Therapy for Stuttering help?

We can provide therapy to improve your confidence, help you manage difficult thoughts and feelings about stuttering to help you with oral exams and presentations.

Our Clinical Specialist Speech Therapists are Specialists in Stuttering. Book a free 15 minute consultation or email thespeechnetwork@hotmail.com