The people who come to CTI for treatment reflect the character of the stuttering community. They are of all ages, cultures, economic status, professions, levels of intelligence or any other criteria you could think of. We do have more male than female clients. This would be expected, because there are about 4-5 times more males than females who stutter. There is, however, a common denominator among all our clients. They all are processing speech with too much control and effort, and they all have the potential to change the way they speak.
When CTI began over 20 years ago, we treated only older children and adults, but as we gained a greater understanding of the speech production system, we were able to adjust the therapy procedures so that the therapy was also suitable to very young children. Now in our mortar and brick clinic, we have treated people from ages 3 to over 70.
At stuttering online, we treat people from the age of 14 – adult. Although the therapy goals would benefit anyone who stutters, we do not yet have the computer software that would be appropriate for younger children. During online therapy we use the Dynamic Stuttering Therapy Workbook. This book was written for teens and adults.
Although we do not actually treat children online, we do consult with parents so that they can help their child develop the normal processes for speaking. We also offer consultations to SLPs who would like to use the speech processing approach with their clients.
Stuttering severity is not a consideration for determining suitability for Dynamic Stuttering Therapy. We treat people who are in the 99th percentile for stuttering severity, people who stutter very mildly and at all levels of severity in between. Dynamic Stuttering Therapy is also highly recommended for people who have been described as “covert stutterers”. By this, we mean that their struggle to speak is internal and not usually perceived by listeners. The person who stutters covertly is not using the normal processes for producing speech and often has a great fear of being “found out”. Since Dynamic Stuttering Therapy does not focus on the stuttered speech, treating people who stutter covertly is in essence the same as treating those who stutter overtly and every bit as beneficial.