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From: Youngmee Hahn
Date: 11 Oct 2009
Time: 14:40:01 -0500
Remote Name: 67.246.121.96
Hi Dr. Loriente, Thank you for your fascinating article. I am a graduate student studying to become a speech-language pathologist and I think you make many important points. I have a few questions regarding your suggestions for demedicalizing stuttering and moving towards a model of transfluency. 1)You recommend self-help groups rather than speech therapy, and I think this is a very interesting idea with a lot of potential. Could you speak in some more detail about how you recommend that self-help group sessions proceed? I realize that each group and each session will be different depending on the needs of participants, but what are some examples of specific measures that could be taken in this setting? Should the focus be on participants supporting each other emotionally and discussing their experiences with coming out? Should the emphasis be on encouraging participants to take specific actions, or is it more important to simply provide a safe place to share experiences and develop confidence among peers? 2) It seems to me that in order to really change the way that society views stuttering, people who do not stutter would need to be educated about the notion of transfluency as early as possible, that is, during their childhood. Can you suggest any specific ways of going about doing this? I think the most effective means of education is simply exposure and familiarization; for example, a child who does not stutter who has a friend who stutters confidently and uninhibitedly is likely to construct the idea of transfluency on his own simply through spending time with this friend. But what about children who do not happen to have acquaintances who stutter? 3) Let's imagine that the revolution you are proposing does take place, stuttering is demedicalized, and there is no more social stigma associated with stuttering. What if, even in that situation, an individual who stutters still experiences discomfort due to stuttering (for example, an individual who dislikes experiencing intervals of physical tension and feeling "stuck" during speech) and would like to reduce that discomfort? Would you still consider it unethical for an SLP to work with that individual and teach him techniques such as easy onsets, not for the sake of increasing fluency but for the sake of providing him with strategies to reduce physical discomfort? Thanks very much for your time and participation in this forum. Youngmee