Testimonials
- Dr. Susan Fosnot - Our Family's Experience
When she was four years old, our youngest daughter abruptly began to stutter. It started with just a few words, but within two weeks she was not able to speak even a simple sentence without huge effort. Over the next year we visited a number of speech therapists whose multiple weekly sessions and hours of "homework" produced no improvement. The lowest point in that year was a well recommended expert who believed in a "whole family" approach. Although she held out little hope for our daughter regaining fluency, she urged us all to attend yet another weekly session geared towards helping us adjust.
And then a friend from back East mentioned our daughter's case to her brother who is well connected at the University level to the world of fluency research and therapy. He promised to find us the "best person in LA," and within a week we had Dr. Fosnot's name.
I was surprised to learn that we would only be attending one session per week, and that there was little follow-up work to be done at home. The sessions centered around simple stories about talking animals which illustrated various concepts such as bumpy or smooth speech. The heart of the program was Dr. Fosnot's one-on-one work with our daughter. Although the setting was casual (she would often bring in her dog; there were lots of games) this work was intense. During the sessions Dr. Fosnot, while interacting warmly with our daughter, kept detailed notes analyzing nearly every word. Her corrections were so precise that our daughter could readily grasp what she needed to do. This same precision helped her see her own progress and build upon it.
After the first few sessions, Dr. Fosnot told us that it should take about 3 months for our child to stop stuttering. To tell the truth, after all the frustration of the previous year, I did not quite believe her, but I was wrong. Within 3 months our daughter regained her fluency. She is 12 years old today and she has never had a relapse. As a side note, I would like to say that she is a child with unusual faith in her own abilities. I think this comes at least in part from having conquered such a huge obstacle at such an early age. I honestly don't think she would have done it had Dr. Fosnot not been there to take her hand and guide her through.
R. B.
Malibu, Ca. - As you know, I have two children who were diagnosed with oral and verbal apraxia and another child with a voice disorder. Suzi, you worked miracles on all three of my children! Your experience and expertise far surpassed the dozens of speech therapists we were introduced to. Suzi, you were the only speech pathologist to insist these speech problems could and would be corrected. We are truly grateful for all of your efforts and feel fortunate that people like you are available. Thank you Suzi, L.
- Dr. Suzi, congrats on your good work. We look forward to seeing Paulie. Congrats and much thanks for your work and guidance with out son David. Guess what. David hasn't stuttered at all over 5 years! Getting mostly A's with his work. Quite a confident young 12 year old if I say so myself! Robert, Carla, David, Michael, and Linda (had to have a girl).
- My best friend is my speech doctor, Suzi. We went to Disneyland. She taught me how to talk right. We play games and hike together. She has two dogs and a parrot. She is a good friend. Sam R.
- Suzi, Happy Mother's Day to someone who cares for children with all her heart, Love Bea.
- Holiday Greetings! We think of you often! Emily continues to be smooth! She is now in the 2nd grade and 7 1/2 years old. Her language skills are amazing and she is reading above the 6th grade level. We continue to be grateful for an early intervention with you. Happy holidays to you and Joe! Sincerely, Lindy.
- Dear Susan, I want to again say thank you for helping all the children and for being such a compassionate person. I hope 2005 brings you the very best! Dr. B.
- Dr. Fosnot, We want to let you know that D is doing well at school. Thanks for making it possible! Karen.
- Dear Dr. Fosnot, Thank you for all your care and concern. I know you always have Steven's best interest in mind, There are few professionals in this field who care as much about "their" kids. We feel very fortunate to have you in our lives. Love the B family.
- Dear Dr. Suzi, Greetings from the T family! I thought I'd write and let you know that Joey's speech seems to be coming along beautifully. He was recently at a magic show at a library and was picked by the magician to come up front and be an assistant. I felt a teeny bit of only anxiety when Joey went up, but he has answered all the magician's questions (name, age, etc.) and he said the magic words, "Reading is magic!," clear as a bell. I was very proud of him. Thank you so much for all your great work with him. I just marvel at his progress when I think of where he was when school started last year. Last year I was worried he wouldn't be able to communicate with his teachers or his friends. Last year he still said "cohts" for "elephant." I have no worries about his teacher's understanding him this year and Joey and his pack of boy buddies communicate just fine. So thanks again. Joey is a bubbly, happy, talkative kid and he might have lost some of that confidence if it weren't for you! Say "hi" to the dogs! Lynette
- Dr. Fosnot - Just a thank you note for giving me so much useful info on helping Mandi with her speech. I hope we are able to reproduce your ideas and tools to get Mandi on her way! Thanks-you are a wonderful person! Lisa
- Hi Suzi, it was great to finally meet you! We really enjoyed our stay in California. Al and I want you to know how very much we appreciate your time and expertise. We learned more from you about "Our Ryan" than ever before. We are anxious to get this program started for him. By the way. Ryan is responding extremely well to our lessons at home. He really understands that we are trying to help him. If you ever find your way to New York, please let us know. We would love to see you again! Karen, Al, Ryan, Michael, and Kathryn Grace.
- Dear Susan, I can't believe I never sent you a videotape of Shanna as I promised I would. I did have good intentions, but terrible follow-through. Shanna is completely fluent now. You had said when you first saw us that I was speaking at an appropriate rate and was not interrupting, but when you reviewed the videotape it was apparent that I was not allowing enough time for her to finish her response before I commented. My husband and I made an effort to give her more response time before we responded. I don't know whether or not this helped, how much it did, or whether she had simply completed enough linguistic growth to have the competence to voice her thoughts easily, but she did stay fluent! I would also like to ask you to send me any information you have about therapists using your method of evaluation and treatment of disfluency in the DC area. A friend's 5 year old son is very disfluent and I would like to refer her to the person you recommended in the DC area. However, I can not find that name and number. I'm sure you are swamped with things to do, but I would appreciate it if you can find the time to send me any names. If you are ever giving any seminars in this area, I would love to attend. I'm not practicing right now and don't get any information, so let me know if you'll be here!. Again, thank you for your help on Shanna. Ruth, SLP