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From: David Shapiro
Date: 04 Oct 2007
Time: 16:54:19 -0500
Remote Name: 152.30.155.38
Hi Olga, Thank you for your kind words. What good questions! My own achievement of fluency and communication freedom was a bit of a nontraditional route. Indeed, I needed to address the ABCs (i.e., affective, behavioral, and cognitive elements). But my own journey was mostly self-directed. To get a glimmer, you may want to take a look at ‘A Way Through the Forest: One Boy’s Story With a Happy Ending’ (http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/PWSspeak/shapiro.html However, today I am so glad that there are many qualified guides to help others with that journey. I have thoroughly enjoyed and continue to enjoy being one of those guides in my work as a speech-language pathologist for over 30 years. In fact, I think I am as excited about my work today as if it were my first year on the job. And I do not think that being fluent is a necessary part of being real. Some of the most real people I know continue to face an assortment of real challenges and experience real victories along the way. Being accepting and forgiving yet striving to make even better the way things are – that is being real. Who does not face that real challenge every day? And by the way, I think you chose a great career; I hope you are enjoying the class on fluency disorders. Thank you for sharing. David Shapiro