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From: Jaan Pill
Date: 10/17/02
Time: 4:07:21 PM
Remote Name: 206.47.240.220
Kevin, good to read your message. I find the discussion initiated by the doctoral students' forum is fascinating, and I’d like to offer some further reflections.
I have the sense that similarities exist regarding the situation of people seeking effective speech therapy, and the situation of graduate students seeking effective training in how to treat stuttering.
When it comes to a person who stutters, a citizen in a given country would in the past have been strongly influenced by availability and type of treatment options in that country. Thanks to web sites related to stuttering, some potential clients now have access to more extensive information about treatment options. However, one faces the challenge of assessing claims about the effectiveness of competing treatment options, and the challenge of finding the financial resources to take advantage of such options (through travelling to a treatment program outside one's home country, for example).
In time, it may be possible for self-help associations to offer the equivalent of a Consumer Reports http://www.consumerreports.org/main/home.jsp rating of treatment options around the world, but that won't happen soon.
For students of speech pathology, meanwhile, I have the sense that not all doctoral programs worldwide offer the same quality. Not all approaches share the kind of labor-intensive, time-intensive, and results-oriented approach to program development seen in leading-edge programs that exist in North America and elsewhere, including in Australia among other countries.
In some fields of study, such as business, ratings similar to Consumer Reports ratings are available about business faculties worldwide through publications such as Business Week and the Economist Intelligence Unit, affiliated with the Economist magazine. It would be wonderful if such ratings were available, in the future, for doctoral programs worldwide focusing on stuttering treatment and research.
For background about the international self-help movement and its role in promoting the interests of people who stutter (interests that often but not invariably coincide with those of speech professionals and researchers), some relevant links include:
http://www.mankato.msus.edu/comdis/isad4/papers/pill.html
http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/cahn_mnsu_edu/pill/
http://caps.webcon.net/jaanarticle.html