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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 09 Oct 2006
Time: 23:54:16 -0500
Remote Name: 71.252.204.114
Hi Rebekah, ..... You are absolutely correct. 99% of people who stutter and who are coming to therapy for the first time are looking for the magic cure. And you have to be honest with them, there IS no magic cure. First I would strongly advise them to seek treatment from an SLP who specializes in stuttering. One who does not can easily do more harm than good. See the website http://www.stutteringspecialists.org/ for a list of those specialists. Accept no other. Then I would advise them to contact the National Stuttering Association at http://www.WeStutter.org and if possible join a local support NSA group. Being around other people facing the same difficulties can make life a LOT more bearable. They can also join internet discussion groups like Stutt-L. See http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/stuttlfaq.html for details. ..... Once they have a reasonable grip on the problems they face I would encourage them to join Toastmasters. See http://www.toastmasters.org for details. Toastmasters is for ANYONE who wants to learn to improve their communication skills, certainly not for just people who stutter. ..... Stuttering is probably the quintessential disorder that one size does NOT fit all. Fluency is more important to some people than it is to others. In my case, fluency is really not that important. Others may quite willingly spend a lifetime chasing the fluency god - and a very rare few may actually catch him! As with any form of human characteristics, everything is on a bell shaped curve. And even though 99.9% of chronic adult stutterers will never achieve near perfect fluency, some of them at ten sigma off the mean actually will. I've seen it happen. But those instances are extremely rare. I'd rather try out for the NBA - you have a better chance there! However most people who stutter are quite capable of being good communicators despite their disfluency. Fluency and communication are different concepts. You can stutter and be a good communicator, and you can be fluent and be a lousy communicator. In MY opinion good communication is FAR more important that near perfect fluency. But everyone is different, and you must recognize - and respect - those differences. ..... Should they consistently seek good therapy? My speech therapy was lousy, but it was because the therapists back then simply didn't know what we know today, especially about the stuttering iceberg. See my paper on the stuttering iceberg at http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/isad6/papers/hicks6.html . Yes, they should generally seek good therapy, at least at first. But the WORK in therapy is up to THEM. The therapist will not be able to "fix" them. And even good therapy will be of value for a limited time. Anything after a couple of years (or so...) in my opinion is a waste of time. The goal of a good therapist is to give the client the ability to become his own therapist. And if the client can participate in the stuttering community via the NSA or some good internet discussion groups, he will be able to keep up with the advances in applicable science so that his own therapy can last a lifetime. ..... If a person who stutters will do all that, I believe he will develop a positive attitude towards not only his stuttering, but his life in general. Once he learns to have confidence in his ability to communicate well, the sky's the limit. ..... I wish you the best of luck, Rebekah! I hope you are enjoying this wonderful conference. ..... Russ