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From: Alan (to Victoria)
Date: 23 Oct 2009
Time: 17:28:45 -0500
Remote Name: 84.68.54.162
Hi Victoria, Thank you, so much, for taking the time to read my paper and participate in the threaded discussion. I am always heartened to receive feedback from SLP graduate students as I believe that such interactions are to our mutual benefit. You pose the following questions: “Did you receive any type of speech therapy before 2000, and if so, do you think the therapy played any role in your acceptance of your stutter? Let me begin by explaining that I am no youngster – I was born at about the time the wheel was invented. :-) I understand that I commenced stuttering at about the age of three. I’m told that I received some form of therapy when I was very young but, due to the time lapse, I can’t recall what it involved. ;-) During my early schooldays, I don’t remember too many problems, probably because I spent 7 years in the company of the same nucleus of teachers and fellow pupils. I suppose it became a huge comfort zone. Everything changed when I entered the grammar school (high school in the US) at the age of 11 and I have vivid memories of struggling to give my name and address at the initial registration in front of 100 pupils with whom I was not familiar. Reading aloud was a nightmare and I would invariably opt out. I never asked, nor responded to questions in class for fear of looking a fool. I knew the answers – I wanted to participate – it was SO frustrating. As a result of the difficulties that I experienced, I recall attending speech therapy for about 12 months. My recollection is that it involved reading aloud in the clinician’s office for about 20 minutes every couple of weeks. I soon became accustomed to the therapist and did not experience any great difficulties. Once again, it became my comfort zone. Did I say therapist? Well, I actually saw several therapists in the above period because they changed so frequently. There was no continuation or common approach. At the end of the 12 months, they discharged me – saying that there was nothing further they could do. I did not submit myself to any form of therapy for another 10 years, or so. By this time, I had joined the Police Service and was experiencing considerable difficulties. Once again, I displayed little hesitancy in the safe clinical environment but could sustain that degree of control when I returned to the outside world. That was the last mainstream therapy that I received. In the mid 1970’s there was a significant breakthrough when I acquired a small prosthetic device known as the Edinburgh Masker. This never made me fluent but it gave me the confidence to do many things that I know I would have avoided, thereby allowing me to gain useful interpersonal skills. When I sought the assistance of the stuttering management programme in 2000, it was the final piece of the jigsaw. Everything fitted into place. The rest is history, as they say. With regard to acceptance – I guess that I must have developed a degree of acceptance along the way otherwise I would never have survived as a police officer. Although, having said that, up until the time I joined the stuttering management programme, I was heavily dependent upon avoidances, particularly word substitution. The programme encouraged complete acceptance, including the use of voluntary/pseudo stuttering and greater openness, including revealing the fact that I stuttered to complete strangers. This had a hugely desensitizing effect. Victoria, I very much regret that I must draw my response to a conclusion at this point, as the ISAD Online Conference has ended. You may wish to learn more about the many paths that I trod by reading some of my other online articles: (1)STUTTERING IS NOT JUST A SPEECH PROBLEM http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/Infostuttering/badmington.pdf (2) STEP OUTSIDE: Why expanding comfort zones can improve our stuttering and lead to more fulfilling lives http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad6/papers/badmington6.html (3)HOW I CHANGED MY STUTTERING MINDSET http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad8/papers/badmington8.html (4)TECHNOLOGY: A FRIEND OR FOE OF SOMEONE WHO STUTTERS http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad9/papers/badmington9.html (5)TWO THINGS I WISH I’D KNOWN ABOUT STUTTERING WHEN I WAS YOUNGER http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad10/papers/messages10/badmington10.html Victoria, I wish you every success with your studies. Kindest regards Alan