[ Contents | Search | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Charlie Healey
Date: 08 Oct 2009
Time: 06:52:45 -0500
Remote Name: 76.84.105.147
You are doing exactly the right thing Pam in approaching the disclosure of your stuttering. Self disclosure is very hard to do for some people who stutter and as clinicians, we encourage our clients to do so. Some feel comfortable doing it and others don't. Waiting to see if the moment is right to disclose your stuttering is also a good approach. I did a study recently on listeners' reactions to a person who stutters disclosing his stuttering at the beginning of a story he was telling and in another condition at the end of the story. Listeners saw no need for the PWS to disclose at the end but did find it helpful to know at the beginning of the story that he stuttered. The other interesting finding was that many listeners didn't find disclosure of stuttering that important so we concluded from that finding that the value of self disclosure is for the PWS, not the listener. So, if it helps you to disclose your stuttering, do so and it's neat that you also are not letting negative listener reactions affect you and are dealing with that effectively. Good for you!