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From: Lynne
Date: 16 Oct 2007
Time: 10:26:07 -0500
Remote Name: 68.143.177.2
Chad, Good question. There is a tendency for people to believe that someone is immature until they reach a point of full development that we call 'maturity'. Now that I'm middle aged, I much more inclined to look at maturity as a process that goes on throughout life. There is no arrival at a point of maturity, really. So, while this process is bound to have an impact on a person's ability to commit to an action, I suspect that it is more critical to talk to the client to find out what is important at their current stage of life, how important fluency is to them, how their fluency is impacting them right now, and how important changing their speech is to them at the moment. A very young person may be able to commit to making a change in their speech or a change in their communication abilities, in general, whereas an older person may not. So, it isn't necessarily a matter of level of maturity, if you will. It could simply be due to what's going on in their lives at the moment, and the relative importance of stuttering to them at that time. Regards, Lynne