Before listening to the stories of “Recovered” People who Stutter (PWS), I thought I had a basic understanding of what stuttering was, the feelings that pertained to stuttering, and the treatment techniques that Speech-Language Pathologists used in therapy. The following speakers, I chose to listen to, were panelists at ASHA Conventions through the years 1996-2011: Kristin Chemela, Barry Guitar, Lawerence Molt, William Murphy, Lois Nelson, and David Shapiro. Listening to these panelists greatly changed my outlook on stuttering, specifically in the areas of recovery, understanding experiences of PWS, and paths toward recovering from stuttering. While listening to the panelists, I began to notice an overwhelming trend of commonalities
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My definition of stuttering was derived from Molt’s, Nelson’s, and Murphy’s explanation of stuttering. I would explain stuttering as a widely encompassing disorder that is characterized by three main components that include: disfluencies, secondary characteristics, and emotional components. Each person who is diagnosed to have a stutter experiences varying levels of the three components. As Nelson described in her presentation, stuttering behaviors are personalized to the individual (Nelson, 2003). Each of the panelists spoke for 15-20 minutes about their experiences with stuttering as well as their experience with therapy. I anticipated that the panelists would describe basic techniques such as easy onsets, chunking, continuous airflow, etc. Imagine my surprise when not one of the presenters spoke about what I assumed to be the gold standard of fluency treatment. Instead, therapy approaches of acceptance, eliminating fear and anxiety, and education of stuttering were a part of every panelist’s speech. The first panelist I listened to was Guitar. He explained being accepted by his Speech-Language Pathologist was the most helpful therapy technique for him (Guitar, 2003). Acceptance of stuttering develops trust between the client and clinician …show more content…
Guitar shared an experience where he was assigned to ask 10 people, whom he did not know, “how are you doing.” By completing his assignment, he was able to “put himself out there” to reduce the fear of whether he stuttered or not (Guitar, 2003). Similarly, Murphy described a technique that he used to help eliminate fear and anxiety of stuttering. He explained self-disclosure was how he dealt with his stuttering (Murphy, 2004). He did this by firstly explaining to his college students, auditoriums he is speaking to, or a meeting with someone new that he is a person who stutters before he completed his thoughts on another subject (Murphy, 2004). I was most impressed with the panelist Lois Nelson. As I listened to her speech, my fingers typing on my keyboard were not able to keep up with the wealth of information she had on clinical ideas to use with PWS. Each of her ideas was concrete, clear, and educational. Nelson explained that the best way to treat stuttering is to give the client knowledge about fluency and the act of speaking as well as hands on experience (Nelson, 2003). I laughed, in agreement, as she explained it was odd that Speech-Language Pathologist’s keep the knowledge behind stuttering to themselves not sharing with the
My definition of stuttering was derived from Molt’s, Nelson’s, and Murphy’s explanation of stuttering. I would explain stuttering as a widely encompassing disorder that is characterized by three main components that include: disfluencies, secondary characteristics, and emotional components. Each person who is diagnosed to have a stutter experiences varying levels of the three components. As Nelson described in her presentation, stuttering behaviors are personalized to the individual (Nelson, 2003). Each of the panelists spoke for 15-20 minutes about their experiences with stuttering as well as their experience with therapy. I anticipated that the panelists would describe basic techniques such as easy onsets, chunking, continuous airflow, etc. Imagine my surprise when not one of the presenters spoke about what I assumed to be the gold standard of fluency treatment. Instead, therapy approaches of acceptance, eliminating fear and anxiety, and education of stuttering were a part of every panelist’s speech. The first panelist I listened to was Guitar. He explained being accepted by his Speech-Language Pathologist was the most helpful therapy technique for him (Guitar, 2003). Acceptance of stuttering develops trust between the client and clinician …show more content…
Guitar shared an experience where he was assigned to ask 10 people, whom he did not know, “how are you doing.” By completing his assignment, he was able to “put himself out there” to reduce the fear of whether he stuttered or not (Guitar, 2003). Similarly, Murphy described a technique that he used to help eliminate fear and anxiety of stuttering. He explained self-disclosure was how he dealt with his stuttering (Murphy, 2004). He did this by firstly explaining to his college students, auditoriums he is speaking to, or a meeting with someone new that he is a person who stutters before he completed his thoughts on another subject (Murphy, 2004). I was most impressed with the panelist Lois Nelson. As I listened to her speech, my fingers typing on my keyboard were not able to keep up with the wealth of information she had on clinical ideas to use with PWS. Each of her ideas was concrete, clear, and educational. Nelson explained that the best way to treat stuttering is to give the client knowledge about fluency and the act of speaking as well as hands on experience (Nelson, 2003). I laughed, in agreement, as she explained it was odd that Speech-Language Pathologist’s keep the knowledge behind stuttering to themselves not sharing with the