[ Contents | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Ellen-Marie
Date: 10/12/03
Time: 8:52:29 AM
Remote Name: 172.156.206.237
Ed,
Your persistence can be put to good use, perhaps, by lobbying foundations established to meet the needs of people who stutter to at least conceptually establish models of possible teams in terms of membership and function to share this information with the professional community and the general public. Maybe, you are already doing this.
If you haven't already begun that sort of committed work, I personally think you do need to carefully examine your premise and develop a convincing case that the evaluation and treatment of stuttering is comparable to the evaluation and treatment of a medical condition say, cleft lip and/or palate, since you seem to be looking toward the medical community concept of what a evaluation/treatment team should be.
In the public schools, by the way, children with special needs are provided treatment via a team of necessary and appropriate personnel including their parents/caregivers. You might want to become acquainted with that policy and the expression of it. As for adults, I'm not convinced a team would provide what you are looking for. But I, of course, am just one person.
The way I see the argument you have presented me is that you want others who have little to no informatiion about the effects of stuttering on a life to recognize how a stuttering problem can cause havoc. You want those without the problem, especially professionals, to be more understanding and, therefore, more compassionate toward those who have a stuttering problem. I certainly understand that. So do I. That is why I became and have been a speech pathologist, and that is why I have authored Jason's Secret.
I wish you luck working with and helping others also committed to public awareness of stuttering and the treatment of stuttering problems and, in the process, I hope you remember a saying/belief impressed on me in my study and practice of transactional analysis: "The power is in the patient" and do all you can to empower people with stuttering problems.
Ellen-Marie Silverman