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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 15 Oct 2006
Time: 18:02:05 -0500
Remote Name: 71.252.204.114
Hi Lauren, ..... 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 absolutely LOVED going to camp! Even though it didn't help my stuttering, the camp and the people up there were amazing. One of my speech correctionists left camp for a week to become Miss Pennsylvania in the Miss America pageant. My swimming coach was an Olympic Silver Medalist. The camp cook was a concert pianist. The camp was filled with the most remarkable people you've ever met. I grew up there. It was a totally amazing experience. ..... But those camps no longer exist anywhere to the best of my knowledge. My camp, Shady Trails in Michigan, shut down sometime in the 1980's I believe. The University of Michigan (for unknown reasons) began to de-emphasize speech pathology (probably so they could concentrate on football! Ha, ha, ha!), and the entire culture was changing at that time. My sessions at Shady Trails were EIGHT WEEKS long. We LIVED at camp, 24/7. No way today that a youngster could afford to do something for 8 weeks during a summer. Kids today are FAR too busy and life is majorly hectic. Times just change... ..... We have "camps" today but they are simply day camps offered maybe twice a week for a month. And then for only part of the day. It is nothing compared to my camp experience! But they are still VERY good. If you're interested in more details on this, contact me via email at russhicks@mail.com. ..... Yes, I certainly WOULD recommend camps like this for kids today. I've helped out at one of them and we've had a blast! But the fundamental difference today is that the SLPs running the camps UNDERSTAND a LOT more about stuttering than they did in the 1950's. And with increased understanding comes better therapy. ..... I wish you the very best, Lauren. ..... Russ