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From: Harry Dhillon
Date: 19 Oct 2010
Time: 08:11:09 -0500
Remote Name: 163.166.8.14
Hi Ben, thanks very much for your questions. You asked - "if someone had approached you in your teenage years, and referred you to a speech language pathologist do you think you would have gone?" Absolutely! I would have jumped at the chance. I wasn't shy, but my stuteer made me appear as if I was. "Also, did your peers try to engage you? If so did they do it in what you'd consider a good way?" Yeah, I had friends in school - some close and very good friends, and to be honest, I had very little bullying or tauting as a result of my stutter. I guess I was lucky! It was only as an adult the stutter became more of a problem - people at work would mimic, and promotion was out of the question. "How much benefit do you think educating people who don't stutter about stuttering could benefit current young people who stutter?" I think it would help both the stutterers and the general population. The stutterer would feel a lot of the pressure for fluent speech disappear, and which in turn would probably improve their fluency; the general public would benefit as they would be better able to understand the stutterers needs, and talents and gifts and this would allow the stutterer to really flourish. Most of us with a speech impediment feel that we are not living to our full potential, and this is the sadest side-effect of having a stutter. Aworld where the 99% of the fluent population is educated and accepting of the 1% who stutter would be a glorious world to live in. Take care. Harry