The role of support groups and stuttering therapy

Support groups for individuals who stutter provide an opportunity for consumers to incorporate emerging or newly learned fluency skills in speaking situations outside of the speech-language clinic. One major theme of this article is to promote the idea that support groups can be utilized by clinicians and consumers as an important adjunct to fluency therapy. In addition to addressing feelings and attitudes associated with stuttering, the supportive environment of such groups serves to provide individuals who stutter with opportunities to work on improved communication skills with several different communication partners. For many, this is an important step in the successful transfer of fluency skills from the clinic to the "real world."