SLP Spotlight- Martha Horrocks

Written By Nicole Kulmaczewski

Happy Tuesday!!


I’m excited to share Martha’s blog submission with you all!

Martha Horrocks is a Maine-based speech-language pathologist. She is the owner of Martha Speech & Stuttering Therapy, a private practice providing speech/language teletherapy for school-age children. Martha is passionate about working with people who stutter, and shares the latest research, treatment ideas, and resources with people who stutter, speech-language pathologists, educators, and parents on her Instagram page.

Promoting Acceptance in our Therapy Rooms

Martha Horrocks, MEd CCC-SLP

When I was an elementary school teacher, I participated in a training about classroom community and received a little laminated triangle of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I kept it in the top drawer of my desk and thought about it frequently. I often wondered whether I was fostering a learning space that met the needs of my students. 

For those unfamiliar, Maslow’s hierarchy can be visualized as a pyramid. The bottom two tiers represent basic needs - the base is physiological needs, like food and water, and the next tier represents emotional and physical safety. The next two tiers represent psychological needs - social relationships and belonging, and self-esteem. The final tier of the pyramid is self-actualization.

For our purposes, I like to think that every child has their own, individual hierarchy of needs. Sometimes, the order is in a different sequence or each tier is weighted differently. 

Generally, a child who has their basic needs met, who feels safe and seen, and is celebrated for who they are, experiences greater personal fulfillment (or individual communicative success). 

Children who stutter enter the therapy room with basic, psychological, and/or self-fulfillment needs that aren’t being met. They may share experiences where they felt a lack of physical and/or emotional safety as a person who stutters. They may not feel that they belong and may be lacking self-esteem due to stuttering. They may not feel effective as communicators.

How then can we support children who stutter to self-fulfill their individual needs?

Here are five suggestions that I use in my own speech room:

Examine Your Perspective on Stuttering & Communication

We can do a whole lot to cultivate a comfortable physical and emotional therapy space - but, if we do not accept stuttering as a valid form of communication, children who stutter will not feel a sense of safety and belonging in our rooms. As Nina Reeves puts it, “Stuttering is verbal diversity.” To support examining your own understanding and perspective on stuttering, check out these resources:


Promote Active Listening & Waiting

Active listening and waiting is often the first thing we suggest to parents of children who stutter, but practicing this as clinicians is crucial to promoting acceptance in our rooms. It underscores that stuttering is included and accepted, particularly in this space. Give children who stutter the “floor” in your therapy room, and give them the wait-time they need to say what they need to say.

  • Utilize this handout for Teachers & Parents - Listening Tips - Stuttering Association of the Young (SAY)

  • Identify Areas where you can Build your Own Skills - Active Listening Techniques - Positive Psychology

Collaborate with Your Students/Clients

Each child who enters the therapy room is going to have a different set of experiences with stuttering and needs as communicators. Perhaps they feel physically and emotionally safe as people who stutter in one aspect of their life, but not another. Perhaps they feel they belong in their classroom, but struggle with how they feel about themselves. We, as clinicians, can’t support them adequately without understanding where they need reinforcements. In my room, we work together to create goals and objectives and to determine our session plans. Here’s some resources for creating goals and objectives:

State that Stuttering is Welcome

Often, children who stutter come to my speech room with reinforcement that their stuttering is not welcome in a space (or spaces). For some children, explicitly stating that they can stutter in the therapy room is crucial to promoting acceptance. I might say, “You’re welcome to stutter here!” or “I noticed you changed your word there - going forward, I want you to know that stuttering is welcome in this space!” I don’t want my clients to feel that they have to talk a certain way in the therapy room (stuttering or not), so this is not something I overemphasize. Ultimately, a quick statement suffices and it is up to the child how they would like to communicate in our sessions.

Include Stuttering Voices

As a person who does not stutter, I want to make sure that my clients are represented in my speech room. Hearing other people who stutter in the therapy room is essential to fostering the needs of safety, belonging, and esteem. I like to share videos and audios of people who stutter discussing various topics in my sessions. Here are some resources I like to use:

As speech therapists, we sometimes overlook the idea that the therapy room environment can be therapeutic (or, conversely, detrimental) in and of itself. Our spaces are the first opportunities, before structured activities or other aspects of our lesson plans, to support the needs of children who stutter. 

How Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Explains Human Motivation. (2022, February 14). Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-4136760

Reeves, N. (2020, November 6). Stuttering is Verbal Diversity [Social Media Image]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CHQrJGEhrXK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Nicole Kulmaczewski

Deputy Executive Director and Head of Community Outreach

M.S. CF-SLP, TSSLD

nkulmaczewski@myspeechapp.org

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