Online 1:1 Course For People Who Stutter
We held our last online course for 2021 for Central Europe (Germany+BeneLux Region) with one new student. This was the McGuire Programme’s first one on one (1:1) intensive course, totally dedicated to one person and it was hugely enjoyable and successful.
We didn’t require lots of coaches, but we did have enough coaches to get a different voice and coaching style throughout the 3 intensive days. Having a small but lively and committed coaching team was essential to give our new student a sense of community and support. If we didn’t do this, it would only be the instructor who was teaching and coaching at the same time.
The coaching team was made up of 2 (almost) full-time coaches (besides the course trainer) for the duration of the coach. And that’s 12 hours per day! We invited 4 other coaches to take over the coaching role to relieve the 2 full-timers and give them some time off as it’s always good to recharge the batteries and to get some well-deserved rest from coaching and from the screen.
Our new student got to ask lots of questions throughout the course and we could change the planned schedule at any given time to adjust in order to concentrate on a particular topic or to focus on something new that suited the session at hand. This gave us lots of flexibility and we will use this format for future courses if any new enquiry wants a one-on-one course.
The 1:1 course made the check-in process quick, attentive and clear and didn’t take up too much time. The 1:1 version of the intensive also allowed the new student to share their hopes and concerns, in a safe environment; as well as enabling more balanced, mutually active conversations more than usually.
Communication effectiveness rests on the ability to coordinate joint attention, which becomes far easier when speaking alone in a pair. Giving our new student our full attention demonstrated our investment of time, energy and knowledge in them.
The 1:1 version also allowed for lots of feedback from the coaches and the instructor in the same space at the same time (this time the Regional Director). And this made it easier to get a feeling for how the new student was doing in each and every session and how to adjust accordingly to their needs.
Our full-on group intensives work at the same level, working 1:1 in breakout rooms with different coaches. The course instructor will drop in and view breakout room sessions but is relying on the coach to give feedback at the end of a session block to get the full picture of how the new student is doing and what needs to be adjusted or revisited, techniques wise. The 1:1 allows for adjustments to the course content, as the new student is always with the instructor at all times throughout the course.
As we’ve witnessed to date, the online intensives are working really well and the introduction of a 1:1 course is a great addition to our course arsenal.
There will be more online courses both group and 1:1 in 2022
There will also be face to face courses coming back in various regions throughout 2022, so best to check in with us here on our official website for details.
If you are interested in hearing more simply drop us a quick message, here are a few options to contact us:
BeNeLux (Belgium+The Netherlands+Luxembourg): https://mcguireprogramma.nl/
Germany+Central Europe: https://mcguireprogramm.de/
Official website: https://www.mcguireprogramme.com/en/contact-us
See you in 2022
