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From: Steve Hood
Date: 10/10/03
Time: 11:15:28 AM
Remote Name: 199.33.133.50
Hi, Shelley
Yes-- accentuating the positive is important. We still need to help the PWS accept the fact that even though there is a long, hard road ahead, progress can be made. And it certainly helps when the clinician has a positive attitude.
It will be hard for the client to be positive and enthusiasic if the clinician is negative or pessimistic.
Clinicians need to believe in what they are doing. Elsewhere in this ISAD conference, people are writing about the "fear of stuttering" and the fact that many clinicians are afraid to work with PWS. Unlike childhood language and phonology/articulation, where "mother nature" is a good clinician who helps supplement the maturational process, this is not usually the case in the areas of voice and fluency-- where things can and often do get worse.
I hope you will make it a point to attend some regional and/or national workshops on stuttering treatment, and I hope you will also attend a regional or national support group convention from an organization such as the National Stuttering Association. And when you do, try to encourage some of your clients to attend along with you.
Best wishes,
Steve Hood