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From: Vince Vawter
Date: 05 Oct 2011
Time: 14:30:00 -0500
Remote Name: 67.187.126.12
I think every PWS has to reach that point in his or her own way. I didn't get serious about therapy until I was 35 years old. The only reason I did it then is because I knew I had to improve my speech in order to rise in my profession. I didn't get "comfortable" with my speech until probably age 50. (I'm not sure comfortable is the correct word.) Perhaps my turning point was in a three-week intensive therapy session which used 2-second syllables and fluency shaping techniques. At the age of 35, I felt a small amount of fluency for the first time. While I regressed after the three weeks (hence my passion for the importance of transfer), that feeling of fluency has always stayed with me. It was almost like someone telling me: "See, there's nothing wrong with you. You learned speech mechanics incorrectly when you were young. You can gain a certain amount of fluency if you work at it the rest of your life. If you don't, you have no one to blame but yourself." David Shapiro's piece in this year conference gave me a new word. FREEDOM. I did not gain total fluency, but I gained freedom. We each have to find that freedom in our own way.