Coping Strategies and Adolescents: Learning to Take Care of Self and Stuttering during Treatment

The purpose of this paper is to describe coping in the context of adolescence and stuttering. Adolescents who stutter are a unique group of individuals dealing with an episodic, variable, and chronic disorder during a critical developmental stage in their lives. We provide a brief review of adolescence, coping constructs, coping during adolescence, and coping programs. We highlight the role of the speech-language pathologist is as an advocate/guide assisting adolescents who stutter develop appropriate, adaptive strategies for dealing with everyday stressors and the added potential stress associated with stuttering.