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From: Cortney Newman, CMU Student
Date: 10/21/03
Time: 3:17:00 PM
Remote Name: 141.209.28.219
Hi Mr. Badmington-
I very much enjoyed reading your article. I think it's great that you've come so far...and it sounds as if it has all been self-motivation that prompted you to accomplish everything you have accomplished. Using the telephone, talking to complete strangers, public speaking, and everything else you now do a lot of, are all situations that PWS dread the most. I am not a PWS myself, but I would hope that after reading this, PWS would be motivated to follow in your footsteps. I do have a question related to this paper. You stated that, by working on other areas of your life, your speech has continued to improve as a bi-product. Are you basically saying that, especially when you first started "expanding your comfort zone", you stuttered quite frequently in these situations, yet it was the fact that you were conquering your fears that made you feel good, even if you were stuttering? If this is true, I believe you are saying that you were accepting yourself as a PWS, and you weren't afraid to show it to the world, because you were finally being the person you had always wanted to be. I guess I just want to clarify my understanding of what you are saying in your paper. Also, have you been through speech therapy throughout your life? If so, what approaches did the therapist(s) use, and how do you feel about those approaches in comparison to the "therapy" you are putting yourself through now by expanding your comfort zone? For example, some approaches focus on the motor aspect of stuttering, which is a completely different approach than is a more functional approach, such as the one you are using.