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From: Gene
Date: 10/20/03
Time: 3:42:28 PM
Remote Name: 24.233.173.179
Dear Robert:
Yes,Robert, there is a Chronic Perseverative Stuttering (CPS)syndrome. It resides in the mind, body,and soul of all those individuals who,, no matter how much energy,time, and effort they expend in their pursuit of fluency, find that fluency, as most individuals experience it, continunes to elude them.
Indeed, Robert, it is a fabrication (as are the Developmental and the Remediable Stuttering syndromes) as surely as is love, longing, purity, honor, duty, and all those other constructs that, because of their complexity, defy frequency counts as measures of their potency. It is, of course, a hypothetical construct. Created to assist those concerned with stuttering in conceptualizing the complexity of the problem with which they are confronted,the CPS syndrome will continue to evade measurement as the bean counters are wont to do. Yes, the ABCs (affective, behavioral, and cognitive components)of stuttering are indeed difficult to measure but, particularly in recent years, in no small part due to the focus of ASHA's Fluency Division's on such matters, we have been making significant strides in doing so. I say "pooh" on all those who demean such efforts.
Data supporting CPS's existence abounds. The too-numerous-to-mention reports of relapse (we prefer the term "re-emergence") following repeated attempts at therapeutic intervention abudantly attest to the syndrome's existence. The volumninous data-based research indicates the significance of not only the behavioral aspects of the disorder (yes, including even disfluency counts of dubious reliability) to defining stuttering, but of the affective and the cognitive components as well. Unfortunately, a small number (but still far too many) of our colleagues have lost sight of the forest because of the frequency-count tree (ah, the "frequency fallacy" again). Would that all of those nonbelievers be forced to attend and National Stuttering Association's annual convention. I suspect their numbers would shrink significantly. Data they need? Before them in the convention rooms are data far more powerful than all the frequency counts ever completed supporting the notion that the CPS syndrome is very much alive and well. The CPS provides comfort, alleviates guilt, and with the recognition that CPS can be conquered (if not "cured"), it enables the client and clinician to set realistic and attainable treatment goals. And as you well know, for nearly 40 years, we (Crystal and myself) have set the "feeling of fluency control," as being the end goal of out treatment programs rather arbitrarily determined frequency-of-stuttering counts whose validity and reliability continue to plague us all.
Yes, Robert, there is a CPS. We may not be able to count it, weigh it, hear it, or see it, but it exists as surely as goodness, mercy, and all the other constructs that enable us to communicate with others.
With love,
Gene