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From: Peter Reitzes
Date: 11 Oct 2010
Time: 17:27:17 -0500
Remote Name: 76.15.239.95
Jackie, thanks for writing and for your kind words about my paper. I think it is wonderful that you try and put yourself in roles such as the role of the parent or person who stutters. You may want to check out a wonderful paper by Robert Quesal on “Empathy Based Practice” (http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad8/papers/quesal8.html You ask, “do you have any thoughts/suggestions in having parents of a child who stutters engage in the Fluency Challenge?” Great question. At its core, the Fluency Challenge is an appeal or a reminder to be specific in how we talk about stuttering, therapy, our goals, our thoughts and our experiences. Parents, like professionals and people who stutter, will sometimes use vague terms such as fluency, control, manage, etc. I do like to explore with parents their expectations and the language they use. If a parent says, “I want you to help my son become fluent” I feel it is important to speak with parents about what this means. As I said in a previous post though, I am always careful when talking to parents because many parents blame themselves and feel guilty and responsible for their child’s stuttering. The last thing I want to do is to accidentally suggest or imply that the parent’s word choice has somehow harmed their child.