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From: Ellen-Marie Silverman
Date: 10 Oct 2006
Time: 17:27:54 -0500
Remote Name: 64.12.116.131
Kendra, Well, let me start by saying that if what I wrote helped you see stuttering and stuttering therapy a little bit differently I am glad. That is why I write: to offer my perspective, which, by virtue of the fact it comes from my experience will be somewhat different from the next person's. So, I'm glad that you found what I write helpful in chalenging your current thining on those matters. >>>> Now let me ask you a question before I touch on several of the ones you asked me. What do you think is the mechanism underlying speech therapy for stuttering problems? Exclude the use of external devices, please, for this example. Reflect a moment on the goals and methods. After doing that, do you see that it is the use of mind to change behavior? We set and sequence goals after carefully considering what perceptions and behaviors can be altered in the present time frame. Once therapy begins, we self-observe and self-reflect. Well, you know the rest. We use our mind to change, i.e., reduce and/or eliminate. perceptions and behaviors we no longer wish to continue and substitute for them new beliefs and new behaviors that we believe will bring us to where we want to be. As speech therapists, we use our knowledge and percceptions, our assessments and expectations to help guide clients to change their beliefs and behaviors as seems reasonable and necessary. >>> Now to respond to your remaining questions about the neurological and genetic contributions to stuttering. I need to begin by saying that I distinguish between stuttering, which is just one member of a class of motor behaviors, such as manual communication and musical performance, that can be disrupted by stressors, and stuttering problems, which are the disturbances in speaking and relating that can be attributed to an attempt to avoid the actual stuttering. We don't really know why we stutter (by the way, recent research findings on cell biology suggests that individual cells, rather than DNA itself, is responsible for our well-being, which, according to this theory of cell biology implies that environment, specifically our perception of environment, rather than inheritance, determines our well-being), and I say "we" because I think we all have or all will on at least one occasion, but not all of us struggle against stuttering after our first experience with it. I view those who do whatever they can to avoid stuttering as people who have stuttering problems. The rest of us just stutter from time to time. A somewhat appropriate but not exact analogy would be the difference between eating and eating disorders, sleeping and sleeping disorders, for instance. So, I think a helpful approach to treatment for people with stuttering problems is to learn to not to struggle against stuttering. Please read my paper, Shenpa, Stuttering, and Me, that I presented at least year's ISAD Conference, which can be accessed online through The Stuttering Homepage, wwww.stutteringhomepage.com, and you will see one way that can be done. The process highlights acceptance of the urge to stutter rather than an effort to struggle against it, to conquer it. I think you might want to give some more thought to the difficulties that therapies that encourage "conquering," "beating," and that sort of aggressive adversarial thought and related behaviors can have for someone whose problem stems from those very attitudes of resistance and repression. >>> The response I made to Ashley B. in this discussion a few days ago, may interest you. She, too, seemed to think mind over matter was too simple an approach for effective stuttering therapy. >>>> Well, I hope I have been of some help. I appreciate your thoughtful comments/questions, Kendra. Regards, Ellen-Marie Silverman