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From: Steve Hood
Date: 10/17/02
Time: 3:55:56 PM
Remote Name: 199.33.133.50
Hi, Mary....
This may be a poor play on words, but I'll take a stab at it anyway. In view of your wonderful work with the Canadian Association for People Who Stutter" (CAPS) it is I guess fitting and proper that Judy Kuster select your paper to "cap off" this year's ISAD.
I think one of the things that makes your paper so neat is the fact that the points you raise are really universal and apply not only to persons who stutter, but SLP's who try to help them.
Normally fluent SLP's also have concerns in areas such as self-esteem, fear or rejection, and taking things personally. I think that there is a tendency for many persons who stutter to think that it the stuttering which causes them to have concerns in these three areas; but to the contrary, I think the concerns are not due to the stuttering per se, -- but rather, to the fact that these three feelings are distinctly human feelings. They are uniquely human emotions. There need not be a cause-effect relationship between stuttering and poor self-esteem, or between stuttering and a fear of rejection, or between stuttering and taking things personally."
Moving beyond these fears can be uplifting. And even if the fears are not reduced down to a zero level, they can be reduced to the point where the resituals are tolerable.
Maybe this is what you gained from the 1995 Chicago Conference where the theme was the 'gift of stuttering.' Maybe this is also what Russ Hicks is talking about in his ISAD conference paper this year. Maybe this is what normally fluent SLP's need to understand in order to "get it" (as Bob Quesal might say.)
Thanks for sharing !!! I'll see in you Nashville for sure, and possible also in Toronto.