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From: Walt Manning
Date: 01 Oct 2008
Time: 17:23:30 -0500
Remote Name: 141.225.97.59
Pam, you have had some helpful responses and I agree with what's been said. As Klaus said, many people who stutter have many covert aspects and, unfortunately the more successful they are at hiding the greater the problem in many ways. Of course, many people who are "covert stutterers" never show up at the SLP's office so asking for assistance is the first step in approaching the problem. As you suggested, attending support groups such as NSA and Friends is empowering and is a wonderful step in the right direction. I believe the most important thing an SLP can do to promote and effective therapeutic alliance is to demonstrate their UNDERSTANDING about the experience of stuttering and be willing to do the things they ask their client to do. Breaking the link between out of control/helpless and stuttering is essential for any adult who happens to stutter but especially so for a highly covert form of stuttering. Once you have "permission to stutter" especially in an easy manner you can begin to experiment with your stuttering and even begin to have some fun with it. It is difficult to do but moving away from the problem (any problem)generally makes it worse (more restricting and handicapping) while approaching the problem often makes it better (and less handicapping and mysterious). For people who are highly covert in their stuttering a sure sign of progress is more stuttering that can be altered into good stuttering . . . and often into speech that is fluent. Hope this helps.