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From: Gunars
Date: 10/6/00
Time: 1:16:16 PM
Remote Name: 12.13.226.15
Ken,
I agree that we can view spontaneous recovery as a result of something that the subject does. I believe that the operant factor in spontaneous recovery is the change in attitudes that the child undergoes either a) due to his own observation of reality, b) due to rethinking of reality as a result of the stimuli from the environment, such as casual advice from adults or friends or the provision of a less demanding environment for the child with less pressures, and c) due to therapy and therapist induced changes, such as demonstration that a child does have some control over his speech, that he can cope with his problem, and that he is unconditionally acceptable whether he stutters or not (Rogerian unconditional positive regard). When the therapist de-awfulizes and de-catastrophhizes stuttering, I hypothesize, he demonstrates to the parents and the child that does not make the "tyke" is some type of deviant, but a lovable, warm human being who is able to cope with stuttering and calmly work himself out of his problem. The recovery, thus, is not "spontaneous" but "evolutionary" and often "indirectly" directed.
I think that the study of these "evolutionary" and "indirectly directed" recovery examples would yield some very, very interesting data. My hypothesis is that the self talk of the child would be something like, "I like me. I can learn to cope with many things. Stuttering is just one of these, that although bewildering at times, does not make me a bad person. The degree of struggling and forcing can be minimized."
What do you think?
Gunars