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From: Shelley Brundage
Date: 18 Oct 2006
Time: 10:58:51 -0500
Remote Name: 128.164.247.162
Hi Sarah: Thank you for your questions. I reprinted them below with my answers below each one. (1) what are some responses from those who have tried VR – as in those who helped gather data for the program? Do they believe that they can be “cured” over time using this approach? Answer: The outcome is not to cure stuttering, and none of the participants so far have said they thought VR would do that. Many HAVE said that they thought it would help them to become desensitized to similar situations in the real world if they practiced in VR over time (this is a testable hypothesis that we are currently investigating). Participants have also remarked on how real the environments look. Some of these comments appear in my paper in press at Journal of Fluency Disorders (available on line now, and in paper soon!). (2) as far as your approach to fluency in the classroom (as a professor), what approach do you follow in teaching your students (i.e. we are learning about the synergistic approach – how do you feel about this method for teaching fluency? Answer: I think that any approach that gets you thinking about the affective, behavioral, and cognitive aspects of stuttering is a good one. I was fortunate to have three mentors when I was first learning about stuttering (I went to three different universities!); these three mentors (Nan Ratner, Dick Martin, and Lois Nelson) had different approaches to research and treatment in stuttering, and this allowed me to see stuttering from a number of different perspectives. Because I learned a lot from seeing different perspectives, I try and bring these to class and explain them, so that my students get a well-rounded idea of what stuttering is...and of what it is not. Hope that answers your question! Shelley