Pre-Congress RESTART-DCM Workshop (May 15th)

Workshop Description

For the majority of children, the approach will support transient stuttering. At the end of the program, some children may still stutter mildly, but they will communicate effortlessly. RESTART-DCM treatment discriminates three treatment phases.During Phase 1 relevant (internal and external) demands are reduced.  Many children only need Phase 1, but if Phase 2 is needed, the child’s capacities for fluency are promoted.  If stuttering still persists after lowering demands and increasing the child’s capacities, the clinician will continue with Phase 3 of the treatment, working more directly on fluency. During play, the child will experience modifications of stuttering and speech behavior and how this affects ease of talking.

This introduction gives an overview of the background, and the treatment approach (phases 1-3). The introduction will be helpful for speech therapists who are considering certification for RESTART-DCM treatment (30 hours, 4 modules workshop; on venue and online).  Participants will practice explaining this approach to parents and lowering motor and linguistic demands.

Authors

Marie-Christine Franken PhD

Marie-Christine Franken is a clinical researcher who graduated in Linguistics, and certified as a Speech-Language Pathologist and Fluency Expert. Her dissertation (1997) is entitled Evaluation of Stuttering Therapy. Her current research is focused on stuttering (principal investigator RESTART study, population based studies within Generation R’ dam), and the speech and language development of very preterm children. She has been a trainer of the RESTART-DCM based treatment approach for speech therapists since 2015.

Erasmus University Medical Centre, Sophia Children's Hospital
Department of Otorhinolaryngology

Erasmus MC website ↗
Email Marie-Christine Franken ↗‍

Ellen Laroes Ba

Ellen Laroes is a speech therapist - fluency expert who graduated as a speech-language therapist (Hogeschool Heerlen) and qualified as a Fluency Expert (1986). She is a former teacher Fluency Disorders at Zuyd Hogeschool, University of Applied Sciences, Heerlen. Since the eighties, she has applied the Demands and Capacities Model based treatment. She was one of the participating therapists in the RESTART trial. She has been a trainer of the RESTART-DCM based treatment approach for speech therapists since 2015.

Partnership for Speech Therapy and Stuttering Therapy (private practice)

‍Logo Stottertherapie website ↗
Email Ellen Laroes Ba ↗

References

De Sonneville-Koedoot C, Stolk E, Rietveld T, Franken MC. Direct versus Indirect Treatment for Preschool Children who Stutter: The RESTART Randomized Trial. PLoS One. Jul 28;10(7):e0133758. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0133758.

Franken, M.C. & Laroes, E. (2021). RESTART-DCM Method. Revised edition 2021. https://restartdcm.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/RestartDCM-Method-2021_online.pdf

Smith A, Weber C. (2017). How Stuttering Develops: The Multifactorial Dynamic Pathways Theory. J Speech Lang Hear Res. Sep 18;60(9):2483-2505.

Starkweather CW. (2002). The epigenesis of stuttering. J Fluency Disord. Winter;27(4):269-87; quiz 287-8. doi: 10.1016/s0094-730x(02)00144-4. The RESTART-DCM approach is an indirect multifactorial treatment program for pre-school children who stutter, as the premise of the program is that stuttering will decrease by changing relevant motor, linguistic, emotional, and cognitive factors. Throughout the program, the clinician and the parent(s) collaborate as a team. The goal of the treatment is to balance the child’s fluency abilities (“capacities”) to arrive at optimal fluency.