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From: Bobby Childers
Date: 10/22/01
Time: 7:02:48 PM
Remote Name: 216.234.195.233
Susan:
Well in one way the doctors were correct. I am in jail (between 5-7 days a week), but they didn't know that I would have a set of keys to open the doors with either.
As for my "expertise" in the area of communication studies. This is a sticking point where I tend to argue (and lose) with Judy Kuster, Dr. Linda Leeper, and my student clinicians, that I have no "expertise" in the way of book knowledge. My student clincians taught me more about my stuttering than I thought possible.
I only know the internal portions of stuttering, the parts that you feel while it is occuring, and the parts that you feel after it occurs. I may be an "expert" on my feelings about my speech, but I still profess to have no "real expertise".
I do feel that the mixture of my age, life experiences, and the determination and wonderment of my student clinicians really helped me to start seeing myself as a person with something to say. Sometimes it takes me a bit longer to say it than "normal" people, but I say it anyway.
I salute you and all the other student SLP's on this online conference, by joining in you have picked up new thoughts, theories, and insights to the stuttering public. Take this newfound knowledge and pose pointed questions to your professors, start a support group at your university to help people with all kinds of communication disorders. You can teach them how to communicate with greater ease, and they can teach you what it feels like to be on the outside looking in. But now with your help, the door to them is ever so slowly opening up, and the light on the inside is you.
Thank you
Bobby