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From: Ryan Pollard
Date: 14 Oct 2012
Time: 20:42:10 -0500
Remote Name: 69.116.220.90
Thanks for your comments, Michele, I’m glad my paper could help you understand PWS a bit better! Just to clarify: it’s not fluent speech per se that some PWS feel is robotic or zombie-like after leaving therapy; rather, it’s the speech that is created by using the speech restructuring (i.e., fluency shaping) techniques they learned in therapy. For some people, this type of speech can have a monotonous, prolonged, “draggy” quality to it that they find unacceptable. Your comment about how it could be exhausting to constantly have to monitor one’s speech is quite true for many clients. Trying to perform any act in a different way than you’re used to takes a lot of cognitive energy while the new skills are being mastered. That constant diligence can be too much of a burden for many PWS. Those folks may find that they’d rather just learn how to accept themselves as they are, try to stutter in an easier and less noticeable way, and enjoy communicating regardless of whether or how much they stutter.