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From: Nora O'Connor
Date: 10/22/02
Time: 11:58:17 AM
Remote Name: 208.32.238.2
Gisele, Thank you for your interest in learning more about woman and stuttering and for taking the time to particiapte in the ISAD online conference.
Good questions you asked!
Being able to overcome the fear of stuttering can often be a life long process. Fear develops when a stutterer experiences negative consequences when speaking ... when this continually happens and the stutterer does not have the tools to deal with these situations this frequently results in being a very fearful person. Often people who stutter develop dozens of secondaries to deal with their fear of stuttering. To work through the fear a stutterer must face all of their secondary behaviors, which can be very frightening. The secondaries have often been very heplful with managing speaking situations. To let go of a crutch it must be replaced with an equally positive and helpful tool -- or it makes it hard for the stutterer to let go of their secondary behaviors ...
I continue to work through the fear of stuttering by talking. The more talking I do the less I fear stuttering and my stutter. I continue to not allow my stuttering to gain power or control over me. When I feel myself giving in to the fear of answering the phone, I have to start answering the phone more. If I find myself not contributing in work meetings or classroom dicscussions I know I must push myself to have my voice heard ... even if it's only a couple sentences.
As I was able to create a better self image of myself I also was increasing my self esteem. I can also say as I worked on self esteem my self image was getting better and better.
Self esteem issues with people who stutter must be dealt with seriously, especially with children and young people who stutter. All children struggle from time to time with self esteem issues, clearly more girls are faced with this issue ... So imagine the child who is different (having a stutter, learning disability, vision or hearing impairment, being over weight) and having to work with self image and self esteem issues. MOre effort must be maee to reach these children.
Please remember this is my personal experience and opinions ... continue to talk with other people who stutter and those who work with people who stutter to understand the many facets of this communication disorer. Thanks again for your interest.