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From: Bob Quesal
Date: 10/12/01
Time: 12:37:06 PM
Remote Name: 143.43.201.169
Hi Maureen:
Good comments! You're the type of student we need to prevent the "death" from occurring.
I want to reiterate that I don't think there is a more qualified profession to treat stuttering than speech-language pathology - when I suggest "other professions" or "other professionals" taking the lead, I mean a splinter group led by SLPs - not some group led by someone from some other profession.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, the lack of clients should not dictate a disorder's importance. Places like Mankato and Macomb will always have fewer stuttering clients available for students to work with, but that doesn't mean we can't educate students about how to effectively treat stutterers. (In fact, my talk at the Special Interest Division 4 Leadership Conference in Toronto last May addressed that very issue.) You are very lucky to have Judy Kuster as your instructor. Lots of other students are lucky to have comparably talented and dedicated professors in fluency disorders. Unfortunately, the trend suggests that there will be fewer and fewer of these professors in the future.
Specialty recognition may be the answer - I also have mentioned that we will have to wait on this to see what the ultimate "good-bad" balance is. Unfortunately, a student entering the major as a freshman would have to wait about 12 years to start to become a specialist (4 years UG + 2 years Master's + CFY + 5 years post-CFY) - the challenge may be to keep the student interested that long. Even a Master's student like yourself has about a 7 or 8-year wait. Can you hang on that long? ;-)>
Stuttering is not THE most important disorder, but it is one of many important disorders that SLPs are called upon to treat - and treat WELL. We can’t let peripheral issues allow "the power that be" to decide that is not the case.
Thanks for your comments.
Bob Quesal