Sarah, does "take a breath" have the same effect. We had a boy in toddler group who was stuttering and the playleader got down next to him and said "Take a breath...?" As if, "Here i am, i'm listening, you don't need to rush, take a breath first and then you can tell me" and it seemed to work great. Like instead of telling HIM to slow down she made sure SHE slowed down and without the rush/with the wee pause his words found him again. The focus of the phrase was on the expectative pause after "breath" like that was the beginning of her listening and not the exasperation of her wanting him to calm down. She told me after she'd been told about it by a speechie about 25 years ago and didn't know how current it was, but that it was always useful in her experience. Just wondering if that'd have made it worse for you or better?

Bx