From: Gina
Date: 10/5/00
Time: 8:14:19 AM
Remote Name: 148.88.17.28
Hi Judy
Thanks for your kind comments :-)
Role model qualifications... I don't really know where to begin. I better start by saying that different kids look for different qualities, as I'm sure you know.
One of the main things I find, with my own experience of therapy, is that the SLP is viewed as being there to improve your fluency, nothing more. When I was about 15 I wasn't going to therapy to make friends, I was going because I wanted to be fluent. I didn't know that usually, this isn't possible... and that SLPs CAN help an awful lot on a personal level.
John just made me feel like it was okay to stutter, to be scared, to have all the negative feelings I was having. Now I think about it, he never actually gave me any tips regarding speech - he dealt with feelings. Just talking about certain experiences, good or bad, helped our friendship. I had some issues with my family's denial of my stuttering, my own self-esteem, and the fact that I was scared to seek out help. He made me talk about these things even though I was initially scared to tell anyone.
I'm not 100% sure if, as an SLP, you persue this kind of thing or not. Maybe once in a while, you can throw out those textbooks, leave the psychology, leave the speech techniques, and just talk - and, of course, listen. The more a kid who stutters trusts you, the more they will open up and hidden issues will start to come out.
Feel free to email me at Ginatalking@hotmail.com if you wanted to chat about this further. I hope this helps a little.
Thanks again,
-Gina :-)