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From: David Shapiro
Date: 07 Oct 2008
Time: 12:43:11 -0500
Remote Name: 152.30.155.38
Hi Vincent, You’re asking a good question. Those of us who stutter often wonder what others who do not stutter experience as they anticipate speaking experiences. Stage fright seems to be common. Also, I have found that people who appear to be most confident and who are the most talented often carry around insecurities and fears that we couldn’t imagine; indeed this is normal. People who stutter, however, may become concerned (with sweaty palms and the works) when we anticipate a speaking experience; we predict that we will stutter because we have stuttered and we are stuttering. All of us predict our future on the basis of our past. To me, this means that by creating opportunities to experience fluency success (i.e., often with the guidance of a speech-language pathologist), we can change what we expect. We can come to expect fluency control and fluency success on the basis of accumulated successes. You might want to consider this. Also, you might consider talking with your teacher outside of class about stuttering and how it is handled in class (e.g., volunteering answers rather than waiting to be called on by the teacher, participating in smaller group activities, engaging in active listening, etc.). I bet you and your teacher can come up with a number of suggestions that could be of benefit to all. Good luck. David Shapiro