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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 22 Oct 2006
Time: 00:47:06 -0500
Remote Name: 71.123.208.188
Hi Jennifer, ..... Thanks for your kind words. They mean a lot to me. ..... It's good to talk with a fellow southerner! Yankees just don't understand the joy of good Cajun food! Laissez les bons temps rouler! <grin> ..... You asked, "... why did you feel that the camp in Michigan did not help?" It was simply incomplete therapy. 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. ..... You also said, "I believe that in order to help my client’s I need to work on what’s most important to them whether it be their speech or attitudes towards their speech problem." Yes indeed. That's exactly right! Sometimes you'll need to read between the lines though. They may say "Make me fluent," but what they MEAN (even though they themselves don't recognize it) is "Help me communicate more effectively so I can lead a more successful life." ..... You also asked, "What do you think would have helped during your time in speech therapy?" I wish they would have known what we know today - especially about the iceberg. But they didn't. Nobody did. Hindsight is always 20/20. But we DO know about it today! So it's up to YOU and your fellow students to use what you've learned to help your clients in the future. Good luck! As a future SLP, you'll have more opportunities to affect other people's lives than you can possibly imagine. The bad news is that you probably won't even hear about 99% of them. But the good news is that the 1% that you DO hear back from will make everything you do all worthwhile! ..... I wish you the best, Jennifer. Come see us in Dallas sometime! ..... Russ, my email is russhicks@mail.com