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From: Ed Feuer
Date: 10/5/03
Time: 10:07:33 PM
Remote Name: 142.161.187.138
Ellen Marie said: "Would people who stutter not learn even more if technology was available to animate their fluent utterances? I think it is important to strengthen fluent behavior than to try to stop stuttering!"
The failing in what passes for stuttering therapy today is the lack of genuine and thourough desensisitization. We who stutter do violate speech mechanics; we have to know what we are doing incorrectly under commununicative stress and develop coping mechanisms (PFSP's failure is that it simply ignores the stutters' blocks); we have to, as Van Riper said, learn to touch the untouchable.
Simply trying to strengthen fluency while ignoring intensely conditioned and idiosyncratic blocks doesn't work when things go haywire as they invariably do. It's like trying to paper over a volcano. That doesn't work very well.
I do believe that technology can be used in the needed desensitization, healing and strengthening.
I believe that a coordinated multidisciplinary team approach is needed, given the nature of stuttering. For details, check out my brief futuristic essay In The Year 2025, on the Stuttering Home Page at: http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/comdis/kuster/TherapyWWW/In2025.html