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From: Walt Manning
Date: 07 Oct 2008
Time: 18:59:42 -0500
Remote Name: 141.225.97.59
Hello April, As a clinician it will be valuable for you to understand the experience of the person you are trying to assist and to fully appreciate their story, at least as much as reasonably possible. As you indicate, PWS come to us for help with their fluency. But usually it’s about so much more. My three goals (in increasing order of importance are to help them (1) increase their fluency, (2) improve their ability to communicate and (3) develop an agentic lifestyle. You’re correct in suggesting that some people (including clinicians) don’t want to focus on feelings or explore the nature of their stuttering. There are all forms of fluency and stuttering and some are much better than others. Some people become very fluent but have not learned how to communicate (e.g., they don’t take turns, don’t organize their thoughts, don’t communicate precisely or with style). And it does little good if you are fluent but don’t improve the quality of your life and live a more agentic lifestyle. As we assist the person in becoming desensitized, support them as they accept and acknowledge their stuttering and the ways they have coped with their situation, and help them to cognitively reconstruct their view of both themselves and their situation, things usually move in a better direction. Improved fluency is an important goal (especially for younger speakers). But successful management of stuttering for adolescent and especially adult speakers is about considerably more than fluency.