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From: Ken St. Louis
Date: 10/5/01
Time: 8:54:16 AM
Remote Name: 157.182.12.51
Dear Tara,
Well stated! I could not agree more with you that telling one's story can benefit many more people than the stutterer him or herself.
Having carried out a project for the past five years in which my students have interviewed those who stutter, used to stutter, or were parents of stutterers, I have become acutely aware of the difficulties involved in finding a forum to tell your story. I also became convinced that there was power in the stories that people told, and these stories should be shared. I believe that we need to remember that stuttering is first and foremost about people's lives--not speech defects, not fear, etc. That is precisely why I wrote the just published book that is referenced in the paper, "Living With Stuttering: Stories, Basics, Resources, and Hope." In it, there is an appendix devoted to guiding people in telling their stories.
Ken