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From: Gunars K. Neiders, Ph.D. www.stuttering-therapy.com
Date: 9/30/00
Time: 9:12:35 PM
Remote Name: 206.63.34.164
Y'all,
Dr. Wendell Johnson, a General Semanticist, was aware that we frequently developed our self image, as children, according to a label which was attached to us. He, and his mentor in General Semantics, Korzybski, knew the danger of defining ourselves solely by a label. They argued that we are neither a butcher, baker, nor a candlestick maker, but a complex person of many varied talents, potentialities, characteristics, and things that we do. They tried to say, Joe is a person who bakes bread, who has a wife, who has a talent for playing piano, who might become a hero if fate called upon him, who loves his wife and children...
The danger they saw of defining a person by a label as "stutter" or "Person Who Stutters" (which is still a label) is that it promotes a negative image of self, since, stuttering is nothing to cheer about.:-)
This concept is hard enough for adults to understand, when stated in this abstract form. Thus, most probably, cannot be directly used with children.
Have any of you found a way to instill in a child the understanding, the feeling that he/she is more than his/her fluency/disfluency? Especially if his/her parents have started to overfocus on his/her speech and are constantly reminding him/her to "take a deep breath", "now speak slowly, dear" etc. that only calls attention to what he/she already perceives to be his/her inadequacy and the defining aspect of himself/herself.
Gunars