Clinical Guidance for Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs)

[Holding up two books] Long story short, I created a couple of books about stuttering featuring this guy [pointing to a book cover], he’s a fox who stutters named Franky Banky. This book, “Stuttering is Cool” and “Tales of Mischief and Mirth”, which is a graphic novel aimed at kids, but adults will like it too, basically, long story short again, I take all of my experiences based with growing up stuttering and I put Franky Banky through the same painful things that I went through.

Except he has more fun – he gets to go on a balloon ride. Yeah, and it’s my way of showing, you know, readers who stutter… giving them an option of what they could do when they get funny looks and when they’re in different speaking situations, ordering coffee or they get, like I said, negative reactions or dealing with the emotions.

And through Franky Banky’s actions, I also aim to spread awareness to readers who don’t stutter. Here’s how to talk to someone who stutters. Here’s what stuttering is.

And even though all I wanted to do was just have fun and draw comics, it was completely unexpected to find out from the wild, so to speak, that speech therapists have been using my comics in therapy sessions with some really great and, I have to admit, emotional and tear-jerking, great impact.

So I wanted to bring on my friends who are also speech therapists, Steff and Nicole, to come on to this video to explain how they and you, too, can use my comics in therapy sessions and make a huge impact with your clients. I’ll begin with Nicole!

Nicole: Hello everyone. My name is Nicole Kulmaczewski and I’m a speech therapist in New York. I currently work in a school and I’m preaching to the choir when I say that school SLPs, we just do not have time. I’m a frequent worksheet user and a frequent Teachers Pay Teachers user. So I joined this team to help create easy-to-use, effective worksheets that an SLP just like me can print, grab and go and use it with their students to help highlight Daniele’s work and the way that it’s supposed to be used in therapy.

Daniele: I like the foreshadowing there. Yes, we are collaborating. Creating Franky Banky stuff from SLPs for SLPs! Steff?

Steff: I’m Steph Lebsack. I’m a speech-language pathologist in Denver, Colorado, United States. I am a college instructor teaching the stuttering/cluttering course at the graduate level and I also own a private practice with which I see children and adults who stutter.

I joined this team because I am just thrilled at the beautiful effects that the Franky Banky comics have had on the clients I’ve had the opportunity to serve in the therapy room. I have used Franky Banky Comics to talk about communication situations and communication confidence. I’ve used Franky Banky comics to talk about identity as a person who stutters and what that means and growing into that identity. I’ve also utilized comics to talk about communication avoidances and children have said, “Hey, you know, Franky Banky did it so I can do it, too, right?” and I’ve seen a lot of growth in just someone’s sense of self with their lived stuttering experience with these comics.

One of my favourite memories of using Franky Banky in the therapy room would have to be when recently a young child, an elementary-aged child who stutters, really wanted to tell his friends about his stuttering and talk to his classmate about his stuttering. But he wasn’t quite ready to do it yet. And I remember speaking to him and he said, “No, I’m just not ready. I’m afraid or I’m embarrassed to talk to my school”. And he was introduced to Franky Banky and he read the comic, “The Great Balloon Race”, and all of a sudden I got contacted by his parent. And his parent said he is ready to talk to his school and I thought, I wonder what changed? Right. And so as soon as I know it, I’m receiving a video of this child speaking to the entire school at his end-of-school assembly. And the last thing that he said in his speech, which he wrote himself, by the way, was he said “We don’t have to be ashamed of the way that we speak”.

And that was just absolutely touching round of applause. I’m not sure that there was a dry eye in the room except for perhaps, you know, the younger kiddos in the room, but very, very touching speech. And when I asked him later, you know, “Hey, I’m so proud of you. What changed? What changed your mind to do that speech?”. He said that he read the great balloon race and that he said at the end of the great balloon race, Franky Banky did a speech after winning his award. “And if he could do it, then I could do it too”.

So I joined this team to show speech therapists just how impactful these comics can be in therapy with all of the different facets to treating stuttering.

Now within our practice portal here in the United States, if you look under stuttering treatment, we now have things really beyond speaking tools, right? We see information about a sense of self, we see information about self-efficacy. We help talk about thoughts and feelings about stuttering. And so as we sail into this holistic view of the treatment of stuttering Franky Banky comics and Franky Banky worksheets and tools just can be a really great way for speech therapists like Nicole who have large caseloads and who need some help to utilize these tools as a quick grab but also a very effective use in speech therapy.

So thank you for having us. We are super glad that you watched our video and we can’t wait for you to see our tools that you can use hopefully in treatment and to help you out. Also, if you need any help with treating children or adults who stutter.

Nicole: So as we see stuttering treatment move into a more holistic based therapy approach, we are so excited for you to use our worksheets that are backed by the most recent research in stuttering treatment so that you, too, can have these wonderful experiences with your clients. And we can’t wait to hear about it!

Daniele: And I just want to jump in and say, Steff, that client that you talked about and how he wrote, you know, we don’t have to be ashamed of the way that we speak. That is exactly why I draw my Franky Banky comics. So thank you for sharing that with with with me. It makes all the work and, you know, the fun –it IS fun. So it is a win-win. It makes it all worthwhile or even more worthwhile.

Steff: So our email is listed at the end of this video [https://frankybanky.com/slpsupport#letschat], If you have any questions, you have a client that you need help with or you would like more ideas on how to use Franky Banky comics in your speech therapy sessions, shoot us an email and we’ll be happy to help.

Everyone: Thank you.

Transcribed from the video. Adjustments made for clarity.