Stories of People Who Stutter

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Re: Nice stories, and a question

From: David Shapiro
Date: 04 Oct 2011
Time: 17:55:03 -0500
Remote Name: 152.30.155.29

Comments

Hi Matt, You are right that success can express itself in many forms. Data and accountability are essential. However, other aspects of success are individualized and may not be reflected in the data being collected. Sometimes the actual telling of the story is the biggest manifestation of success, independent of fluency counts. You may want to note my exchange earlier with Vince who distinguished between a cure for stuttering and internalized fluency freedom. Your questions are challenging, in that they are hard to address briefly. Occasionally I have used pseudostuttering as a technique for desensitization, but I do not use this technique often. Rather I prefer to create opportunities for the client to explore and experience fluency and communication freedom. That experience leads to heightened motivation and, with it, increased confidence and self-acceptance (i.e., success begets success). I do not avoid stuttering events or contexts that might create stuttering. We build a variety of individualized hierarchies so as to move in small steps to maintain success. I work with clients to identify what they already are doing that is facilitative to fluency and help them learn how to do this even more often (i.e., affectively, behaviorally, and cognitively). This is very different than identifying and eliminating stuttering. You might be interested to take a look at the revision of my book that was just released (Stuttering Intervention: A Collaborative Journey to Fluency Freedom, 2nd ed., 2011, www.proedinc.com). It addresses how I design individualized treatment for each client, focusing on collaboration, success, and fun. Feel free to follow up in any way. Thank for sharing your thoughts. David


Last changed: 10/04/11