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From: Anita
Date: 03 Oct 2007
Time: 16:03:05 -0500
Remote Name: 81.233.61.122
First, let me THANK you for all your questions, as that's what this conference is all about! And with your interest in stuttering, you're going to be an SLP we all want to come to. :-) Yes, I couldn't hide my stutter. I tried to though. By changing my voice, my name, my personality, my attitude, I even closed my eyes, pretending my stutter hadn't occurred. But I couldn't hide my stutter, as it stuttered a lot. I was told I was stuttering to get attention. Well, there are many more fun ways to get attention... I tried to tell people, but they either told me to just stop doing that, or simply turned their backs on me. So I stopped talking about it, as it apparently was hurting and embarrassing to all to talk about it. When I was young I was not angry. (That came later...) I was sad and couldn't understand what it was that was so wrong in other people's eyes. I wished for a fight rather than to be ignored! Some people just waved it off by saying they didn't know, as I repeated, blocked, cramped, held my breath and was discouraged to go for my goals. To have your voice stuck inside yourself, while you're screaming inside is something that's hard to understand for people. And that's why I don't have hard feelings towards anyone. And that's why my cruisade to talk about stuttering! If I had gotten the opportunity to talk about it, meet other PWS, to realize this is something I DO and not something I AM, life would still have been hard, as the words got stuck anyway, but at least I could share my frustrations. As don't we feel great after a good cry, mentally as well as physically? And to share both problems and happy moments? My advice to teachers would be: take the student apart, acknowledge you have noticed the stutter and ask what you can do to help. This can be simple things like sitting more in the front, so that others don't have to turn their heads and you can speak in a lower voice, do your orals in front of the teacher or friends only or why not record it? Encourage the student to talk about it, do a project about it. Ask for the local group and/or an SLP to explain more about stuttering. Learn about stuttering. Get information material. Join a chat group. Read this year's and previous year's online conferences. But the expert on the student's stutter is the stutter him/herself. So talk about it and let the student do the guiding. Note that I come from the Netherlands and that many years have passed since my stutter occurred, so I'm not sure id the situation is better in Sweden, or if it's because times have changed. I don't think the location of my upbringing affected my stuttering, but my family (am the youngest of seven), my upbringing itself with oral demands and the people around me most definately did. You wrote: "I apologize for the numerous questions but as a student I believe the best way to learn about stuttering and what people who stutter feel and go through is by talking about those with real life experiences with stuttering." This is the best thing I've read so far! :-) So keep asking questions. I'll try to answer all, as long as they're not too private. :-) Keep talking! Anita