Stuttering Well: The Clinician's Use of Positive Language

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Re: Positive Language

From: Peter Reitzes
Date: 22 Oct 2006
Time: 13:33:00 -0500
Remote Name: 69.22.238.4

Comments

Karyn, thanks for writing. I must say right off that not much about stuttering is “easy.” In fact, stuttering is often very hard for most everyone involved. You ask, “Do you ever think that changing the approach to what you have described is almost too simple? Do people ever wonder is it really that easy?” Well, from my perspective, clinicians and clients are going to talk about stuttering and speech in some manner. So, our language choices basically include positive, negative, neutral (which may actually be positive) descriptive, non-descriptive language, and in some cases, avoidance language. So, it seems that many people’s starting point or default point is negative language. I see no harm in challenging this default language starting point. Let’s try and use positive language and see where it takes us. Is it easy? Not always. Can positive language help some clients and clinicians talk openly about stuttering and reconsider how stuttering is considered and managed? Absolutely. Peter


Last changed: 10/22/06