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From: Ed Feuer
Date: 15 Oct 2008
Time: 23:32:10 -0500
Remote Name: 66.38.153.249
Gary, I attempted to get discussion going in this section last year on the more salient failings of the SLP profession regarding stuttering therapy. Apart from one guy who quickly went to ad hominem attack, none of the many professors here wanted to talk about the continuing travesty of clinic-room fraud; token therapy; short-term quickie fixes; distractor devices and some SLPs peddling these devices; the false hope of the pink pill; flawed research methodology in which subjects are not differentiated according to severity, age, gender, overt, covert, before or after intensive treatment; school boards paying SLPs unqualified to treat kids who stutter; and other SLPs not blowing the whistle in such situations; ASHA not enforcing standards; and the absence of genuine multidisciplinary interaction. That silence was instructive. Stuttering is by no means solved and one would think there would be a great deal of spirited discussion and disagreement. Not so. That's why from what I've seen here and in other places, it's so easy to conclude that misguided professional solidarity and a code of silence limits the vital exchange of differing opinions one sees in other disciplines. I advocate enlisting relevant experts from other disciplines who have expertise that SLPs don't have to work with SLPs in a a coordinated multidisciplinary team approach in the treatment of stuttering. Once SLPs realized I wasn't talking about a Lone Ranger, sole practioner "eclectic approach," many of them became hostile. Others preferred to remain silent. Tell me, Gary, what would happen professionally to someone with the three C's who advocated what I do? Care to speculate? Would they suddenly find they can't get their work published in peer-reviewed journals? Would they find they don't get invited to present at SLP forums? Would they get hired in your university departments? Would those who now work in academia find the road to tenure blocked? Enlighten us. -- edfeuer@mts.net