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From: Peter Reitzes
Date: 09 Oct 2006
Time: 10:54:19 -0500
Remote Name: 69.22.238.4
MS undergrad – thanks for the kind words. You bring up a very interesting point about report writing. When working with a young child who is still at the point where he or she may either spontaneously recover from stuttering or may move through a period of stuttering with the help of a speech pathologist, I would not use the term “stutterer.” With such young children, I would go with terminology such as “child who stutters” or “child demonstrating a high percentage of stuttering-like disfluencies that puts him [or her] at risk for persistent stuttering.” For older clients I think you need to use your best judgment. I know that might not be the most satisfying answer, but it really does depend on the situation. One thing to keep in mind is that many people, such as myself, use the terms “person who stutters” and “stutterer” almost interchangeably.