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From: Steve Hood
Date: 10/2/00
Time: 3:42:50 PM
Remote Name: 199.33.133.50
I think the tone of the message is more important to children than the actual words. The so-called suprasegmental features of melody, inflection, pitch and loudness are key elements. I think you partly answered youw own question, Gunars, but what you wrote in your second paragraph. Above and beyond the "lable" -- When people over-focus on the speech, with constand reminders to take a breath, speak slowly, etc, then this is giving the messsage that stuttering is bad, wrong, dirty, nasty, terrible, awful, etc. Then when this happens and the child is older, we need to work as Bill Murphy says, to "de-awfulize" and "de-terriblise" it. I think it would be better if the child realizes that "some bumpy speech is o-k."
We also need to be cautious of the "conspiracy of silence." If we make such a big deal out of not using the terms "stutter" or "stuttering," then the child is apt to conclude that stuttering is pretty bad, so it should not be discussed.
Steve