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From: Vince Vawter
Date: 19 Oct 2011
Time: 09:04:47 -0500
Remote Name: 67.187.126.12
This is the $64,000 question. Indeed, one of the reasons I fought speech therapy so hard in my teen years is that, above all, I wanted to be normal. And going to therapy meant I wasn't normal. I don't have any brilliant answers. In my case I only embraced therapy (20 years later) when I knew I had to reach a certain level of fluency to progress in my profession. I replaced "I want to stop stuttering" with "I want to grow in my profession." Essentially, I replaced a negative with a positive. Obviously, I was not aware this is what I was doing at the time, but it had the effect of making my stutter secondary. How do you do this with a young person? Maybe you call the sessions "speech growth" or "speech training" instead of "speech therapy." Maybe you look into the aspirations of a client and try to find that positive outlet. I'm reminded of the story of the golfer, Ken Venturi. He learned to play golf because that's where could be alone on the golf course and practice range. He didn't gain freedom from his stutter, however, until he knew the only way he could continue his career in the golf world was to excel in the broadcast booth. I go back to the concept that stuttering is what you do when you try not to stutter. The negative rules the positive. I wish I had a better answer for you.