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From: Stephanie M.
Date: 14 Oct 2006
Time: 17:31:36 -0500
Remote Name: 207.237.51.190
Hi Mr. Hicks- I am taking a course in Fluency Disorders at NYU for the MA program in SLP. We were assigned to read an article posted on this site, and your story happened to stand out to me. I found it interesting how you stated in your first sentence that your stuttering has never really caused you to be discriminated against. It was great to read a story about how stuttering actually helped you to succeed in so many ways, in addition to providing you with numerous opportunities that may not have been possible if you didn’t stutter. While I couldn't even imagine how difficult it must be to stutter, it was refreshing to hear such a positive story related to the effect stuttering has on your life. It’s not often that you hear success stories such as yours, and I have a lot of respect for you in taking such an optimistic approach in dealing with your stuttering. Public speaking seemed to have such a positive effect on you. Do you believe that this may be a way for others who stutter to improve on their fluency? You stated that you had always known that you would never and could never get involved in public speaking and spent a big part of your life avoiding speaking. Now that you are such a successful public speaker, do you think that by holding back from speaking, stuttering may actually increase in severity? Is the end result of public speaking more ‘relaxed and open’ speech? If so, I could imagine this would be a great way for many to feel more comfortable about their stuttering.