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From: Karen Lewis
Date: 10/25/00
Time: 5:03:21 PM
Remote Name: 216.68.45.171
Wendy, I'm Karen, the nurse from Ohio. Thank you for your question.
The only speech therapy I have ever had was for a few months in the 9th grade in the school system I was placed in speech therapy.
I was fortunate to have a therapist who was very knowlegeable about as much as was known about stuttering at that time. I do believe her sincere and common sense attitude were influential in helping me form an attitude that I could pursue that dream. She knew I wanted to go into nursing, and her method of dealing with me was that I would go ahead and do that. She never mentioned my stuttering might be a problem.
One might wonder there if perhaps she should have alerted me, but I tend to think, looking at the age I was then, and very negative attitude about my speech, she was using good psychology to help me view myself as going on with nursing. Had she begun at that age and point in my life outlining what I might face, I would not have handled it as I did when the Director of Nursing Education several years later, after I had taken the requirements and been accepted.
To answer what I think you are asking, that is the only speech therapy I have ever had. The fact is until I became part of my online support group, I was not aware of speech therapy for stuttering for adults for stuttering.
Of course, I work with speech therapists for patients who have had the speech center in their brains insulted neurologiclly, but just never thought about it for PWS now.
Sincerely, Karen