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From: Bobby Childers
Date: 10/22/01
Time: 6:37:08 PM
Remote Name: 216.234.195.233
Dawn:
One thing I learned many, many moons ago is that you don't give up trying, until you quit breathing, and since I'm still breathing, I will keep trying to improve my speech, my attitudes towards my speech and life in general.
Like most other adult PWS's, I have tried probably everything under the sun, everything made by mankind, and a few I'd swear that were made by aliens from "Borg". None have worked for any extended amount of time, some because they were too much work to use, others because of bulk, or whatever thought hit my fancy at the time.
I personally think that the biggest part of learning to stutter less deals with the inner person first. One of the things which my student clinicians began teaching me at the onset was how to adjust my attitudes towards my speech. I used to call my stuttering "lack of speech". I had called it that for many years, strictly out of habit lately, but it started when I was very young. My student clinicians and their faculty supervisor would throw things (hard, heavy ones) at me when I said that, so I began to modify what I called my stuttering, and it began to change my feelings about it also.
Once I began to accept my stuttering, (still working on it though), it began to ease up a little bit. As I do things now that I previously wouldn't have thought about doing (giving class presentations, etc), I still stutter, and sometimes do it very badly. But I don't have the feelings of shame or embarassment that I used to have.
I know now that if I have a really bad day, and can't seem to talk to the wife's useless cat, I can get on the stuttering listservs, and find numerous people who can empathize with me as they have been in the same boat themselves.
Teaching someone to use the techniques is not hard, teaching someone to accept their speech and use the techniques, there is the challenge.
Once you do start working with stuttering clients, spend some time with them and discover what they really feel about their speech. Tell them about the various techniques you have learned in school, and see how they react. Then you make a judgment call, and try some. The actual technique doesn't make that much difference, but the way you approach and the you teach it does.
Good luck
Bobby