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From: Leys Geddes
Date: 17 Oct 2008
Time: 03:41:05 -0500
Remote Name: 86.163.200.31
You are very kind, Carla, and I empathise completely with everything you say, because I had some useless therapy as I child and a load of prejudice at work. I certainly haven't become a tough nut as a result, but I'm very capable of holding my ground, although I still feel I need to try harder than other people. So I have come around to thnking that the most important thing about therapy is not necessarily teaching patients to re-speak, but it is helping us to have the confidence to achieve that vital 'coming out' process. Very few mature PWS will recover completely, but if we can deal with our feelings of shame, or whatever it is, then we are much more likely to be able to deal with our speech, particularly in difficult situations. Yes, it sound like your son-in-law will not get out of his own private Stammering World by himself, so the risk is that he will be stuck in there for life, unless someone helps him to see things another way. If I was you, I would stop trying to ask your daughter for 'permission' to talk to him and, next time you see them and you all have a meal together, try to be natural and just start talking about 'what happened at work today' and make this point about there being no 'cure' but how 'coming out' will always help. But I know that even that won't be easy. Incidentally, a friend of mine in the States has a grown-up son with autism and now she has seen it in the first grandchild from her other son, but everyone is pussyfooting around and she is worried about being practical, and encouraging her daughter in law to do something about it now, because she fears she will be seen as a pushy, know-it-all granny! So I kind of know how you feel, especially as, in this situation, you really are qualified to help.