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From: Alan Badmington (to Kristin)
Date: 19 Oct 2005
Time: 16:13:50 -0500
Remote Name: 81.77.249.148
Hi Kristin, I have personally known many PWS who have a perfectionist trait. Maybe we feel that we are flawed because of our stutter and should please others? Maybe we believe that we have to be perfect in order to be liked and accepted? I know that I felt that I had to compensate for my speech difficulties by excelling at everything I did. When giving a presentation, I felt that I had to dot every 'i' and cross every 't'. Today, I couldn’t be more different. I just deal with whatever arises without any fuss or bother. I was watching a television programme a few days ago where a well-known presenter was interviewing a politician here in the UK. Although I only managed to view the last few minutes, I noticed that the highly paid interviewer was extremely dysfluent. In a very short period, he commenced his questioning with "There's a, there's a, there's a, there's a..."; "You, you, you, you, you..."; "You say, you say, you say, you say...". Yet, he did not pay any attention to his repetitions - they didn't even appear to register with him. It's obvious that the public accept such speech, otherwise he would not be employed in that position. He is not uncommon – there are many others within the media who speak in that manner. Maybe we should take a leaf out of their books and become less conscious of how we speak? If only it was as simple as that ;-) Thank you for taking the time to respond to my article. I wish you every success with your studies and future career. Kindest regards Alan