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From: Brian Humphrey
Date: 10 Oct 2007
Time: 22:34:44 -0500
Remote Name: 75.74.131.143
Randi wrote: You had mentioned that you did "self-help" treatment on yourself to increase your fluency- was all your speech knowledge intact and usable memory? 1. My long-term memory was intact. I am told that in the hospital I gave detailed explanations to visitors of my feeding ans swallowint and communication issues. I was also curious if it was difficult for you to implement those strategies on yourself since you knew the anticipated long-term outcome you were working towards. (Were you able to keep paced or did you want to rush the process towards fluency along?) 2. I understood from working with people who stutter that I was looking for strategies to help me be more fluent and a more effective communicator. I was not trying to cure my stuttering. I was working on developing a new way of talking. Lastly, did you learn more efficient ways to treat clients who stutter as a result of having stuttered yourself? 3. I think i became more comfortable asking clients what their stuttering feels like when they do it. I am now able to talk about what my oeown stuttering has felt like. Were the exercises you did in the past just as useful as you originally thought or did you gain a different perspective of them after implementing those techniques on yourself? 4. Fluency shaping techniques were helpful for me. I gained a personal insight about why stuttering modificaton techniques would not work well for me personally. My strategies for treating others were confirmed, not changed. When I treat teen and adult clients I often demonstrate a variety of treatment approaches, let them try them and let them help me decide what to try first. (Also, did you find instances where you underestimated a technique prior to stuttering, but found that it was worthwhile afterward?) That didn't happen. I knew what my options were and accurately predicted what would be helpful. BH