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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 11 Oct 2006
Time: 01:02:25 -0500
Remote Name: 71.252.204.114
Hi Jessica, ..... OMG, where do I start - without writing an entire book? I can only speak for myself here, but I do understand those feelings in other people. If the SLP was truly incompetent in spite of all the literature, training, CEU's, etc. available to her, then yes, I might agree that some negative feelings may happen. In the medical profession that's called malpractice. Cutting off a person's leg when he went in for an appendectomy. Geeezzz... no excuse for that! An SLP has GOT to know what she's doing, no question about that. ..... In my own case, however, that was NOT the case. I went to camp in the 1950's - when the earth's crust was just cooling - and the speech "correctionists" as we called them 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 for details of this. The iceberg - one of the most fundamental breakthroughs in understanding stuttering in the last 50 years - wasn't even conceived until about 1970 and wasn't really publicized until nearly 2000. They were clueless on the emotional/psychological baggage beneath the waterline of the iceberg so they never even thought to treat it! No wonder my therapy failed. But it wasn't their fault. It wasn't anyone's fault really. We just didn't know. ..... I had the most amazing speech correctionists in the world in camp. One of them left camp for a week to go home and become Miss Pennsylvania in the Miss America Pageant. She and the rest of them were some of the most caring, smartest individuals I've ever seen. And I loved them all - especially Miss Pennsylvania! <grin> ..... I own the Stutt-L internet discussion group. (See http://www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/stuttlfaq.html for details on that list.) And one of my passions in life is to have student SLPs come on the list and interact with other professionals and people who stutter. Several professors enroll their entire class on the list for a short time. And I'm absolutely dedicated to spreading the knowledge on stuttering to the students. YOU are the future of the profession. You may not be able to treat an old guy like me, but you will be able to treat my children, my grandchildren, and on and on. The students are one of my reasons for being on this earth. You are amazing people, almost without exception. I LOVE speaking to classes of students SLPs and simply interacting with you at the various meetings, workshops and conferences we attend. ..... What that means goes to the very heart of the old saying "Greater love hath no man that he lay down his life for his friends." When I speak to classes of student SLPs, I always conclude by saying, "Thank you for dedicating YOUR career and YOUR life to MY cause. You are my heroes. I love you all." ..... I wish you the very best in school and in life, Jessica. Thanks for your very valuable question. I hope I answered it! <smile> ..... Russ