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From: Dave Williams
Date: 18 Oct 2008
Time: 13:54:47 -0500
Remote Name: 71.228.93.115
In 1945-46 at the U. of Iowa Speech Clinic, we used to go out in pairs and speak to people on the street orin stores and practice "faking" (voluntary stuttering). We would decide beforehand just what and how we would do it. It was helpful because we were "doing the thing we feared" and this helped to desensitize us. It was scary at first, but we got used to doing it and it could be fun. Sure, in the beginning our faked blocks would turn into real blocks now and then, but this simply meant that we needed more practice and desensitization. It was important that nonstuttering students training to become speech therapists should practice "faking" because they should never ask a client to do spomething that they were afraid to do themselves. The good citizens of Iowa City became used to being accosted by "stutterers" (real or phony) on the street!