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From: Mike
Date: 10/20/00
Time: 7:33:49 PM
Remote Name: 198.164.200.231
Deanna,
Thanks for your positive comments.
After that day, no, I did not begin receiving speech therapy. Again, I go back to the title, "Loss of Innocence." It was I who lost the innocence, not my parents, my teachers, my friends, etc. Until that day, I thought that I spoke "almost as well" as everyone else. That occasion was when I lost my innocence about my speech. As for therapy, there was precious little available in those days...I can remember seeing an: elocutionist, hypnotist, psychologist, psychiatrist, and just about every other "ist" you can name. To my mind, the elocutionist had the most positive effect. Given this history, it is not surprising that, while I daily promote parents having their stuttering child evaluated by a speech-language pathologist specializing in stuttering, I am not personally convinced of their effectiveness. Remember, in my work I speak with stutterers of all stripes just about every day. Some of the most still-severe-stutterers to my ear, claim to have been "cured" by SLPs. Some of the most fluent "claim-to-be-former-stutterers, either say that they have had no therapy, or that they have undertaken one or more of the programs usually under attack by the so-claimed "experts."
It is my experience that stuttering is very much "different strokes for different folks -- what works for one may not work for another." Thus, my role has been to expose our membership to a wide range of choices so that they can make an informed decision about what they think MAY work for them.
As to whether I went to the Fall Dance... I truly don't remember. As a guess, I'd have to say: Yes, I did. At that age, I can't remember EVER passing up a chance to dance! Speaking of dances, I am still amazed at the oxymorons of a stutterer's life (By the way, it is "stutterer," not any other foolish politically correct label such as "PWS" that self-important idiots attempt to impose), during the same time that the incident with Judy occurred, I was routinely the "Disk Jockey" at the same kind of dances that I wished to invite her. A stuttering disk jockey?!...Sure, if you're bold, brash,... and young! But avoid situations, certainly I did -- and continued to do so until much later in life, perhaps until I was 50. With age comes the knowledge that words can't kill and the wisdom that they don't even matter!