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From: Woody Starkweather
Date: 10/15/01
Time: 9:21:19 AM
Remote Name: 152.163.197.186
My statement that SLP's are taught little or nothing about treating the emotional aspects of stuttering is based on my experience, first in my own program, but also in a number of programs for which I was a site visitor over a number of years and from what I have heard from my colleagues at other institutions. True, in courses on stuttering that are well constructed, there will be some mention and discussion of the emotional aspects of stuttering, but they can't possibly do more than scratch the surface. There just isn't enough time.
As for the emotional involvement of the stutterer being a prognostic sign, I am unsure. I don't believe there is any research that bears on that subject. My own experience is that those stutterers who have a lot of emotional involvement recover faster and more completely than those who have relatively little, or at least report having little emotional involvement. But of course, the way I treat stutterers includes a component designed to treat the emotional side as I was trained to do. So, my personal experience is not really relevant beyond my own practice.
Woody