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From: Ed Feuer
Date: 12 Oct 2011
Time: 00:55:30 -0500
Remote Name: 207.161.157.111
Tricia, yes this is certainly a big question. What do I think students should question? Well, for starters there's clinic-room fraud, token therapy; short-term quickie fixes that focus only on one element of a multi-faceted problem; distractor devices; the false hope of the pink pill; and many SLPs not qualified to treat stuttering but who claim otherwise, flawed research where we're not differentiated according to age, severity, gender, over, covert and before and after intensive programs; ASHA's failure to establish a dedicated ombudsman for stuttering; lack of independent third-party assessment of outcomes over time; and failure by SLPs to give "multidisciplinary interaction" (it's on ASHA's SID4 page under "professional issues") anything more than lip service. Many large issues about stuttering still lie unresolved but within the profession, there appears to be a surprising and disappointing lack of ferment, dispute and debate — the time honoured ways advances are made in science. Fluency disorders students should be front and centre in challenging the status quo. But if their profs have convinced them things are just peachy, they won't be a force for change. Teaching them how to think critically and speaking out accordingly rather than going along to get along is certainly needed. I know that I have been talking about these problems for years but so far I've seen little indication of students picking up on these ideas. Of course, who stutter (some of the time) have also been remiss. I quote Jim McClure, NSA board member and consumer representative on the ASHA specialty board of fluency disorders, who stated the following on Stutt-L on Dec. 20, 2010: “Consumers generally get what they demand if significant numbers of them are organized and persistent enough to make their presence felt in the marketplace and legal arena. So far, unfortunately, people who stutter have been less than demanding.” Indeed. — Ed. edfeuer@mts.net.