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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 01 Oct 2006
Time: 16:05:14 -0500
Remote Name: 71.252.204.114
Hi Amy - and welcome to the ISAD conference! ..... The "speech correction camp" I attended was really a wonderful experience - except for the fact that it didn't help my stuttering. I pretty much grew up there, and it was full of wonderful people and amazing "summer camp" experiences. However it was in the 1950's and people back then had no concept of the stuttering iceberg and the unbelievable impact that emotions can have on your speech. (See my paper on the stuttering iceberg at http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad6/papers/hicks6.html .) It just never OCCURRED to anyone back then that you couldn't cure stuttering by focusing solely on the speech mechanics. I certainly don't blame them - they simply didn't know. ..... My formal therapy continued for several years at home, but it always just repeated the primitive fluency shaping material I had learned at camp. It wasn't until I joined the NSA in the 1980's that I learned about the psychological/emotional components of speech therapy. I never had any formal therapy on that new approach because I began to be surrounded by people who were experts in the stuttering community. Therapy by osmosis, I guess you could call it. <grin> ..... I still can be 100% fluent (yes, that's right) by using all the fluency shaping techniques I learned back at camp. But I sound like a slow speaking robot! And it doesn't last long either. It takes BOTH psychological/emotional therapy PLUS fluency techniques and practice to become a "normal" speaker. Right now I'm very happy where I am and have little interest in simply improving my fluency. Stuttering has done soooo much for me and opened soooo many doors for me that I truly consider it a unique gift in my life. ..... Continue to enjoy the conference, Amy. There's GOLD in them thar hills! <smile> ..... Best of luck to you in school! .... Russ