What Do You Think?

Michael O Shea

The question I am posing is this, what do you the people who are challenged by stammering think of Speech and Language Therapy for Children, Adolescents, and Adults in this Country. What do you think of the attitude of SLTs towards the Stammering Community, for example do SLTS interact enough with the Stammering Community? At Conferences which they are invited too, do SLTs inform us enough on what they can do, and what is being done to support the stammering community, the same for the National Stammering Awareness Day where the SLTs are noticed more by their absence then by their attendance, both HSE and Private, surely the NSAD is an ideal opportunity for SLTs to promote what services they provide to the Stammering Community in Ireland, as is being done in other European Countries. Do SLTs prefer not to interact with the Stammering Community? Do SLTs feel inadequate interacting with the Stammering Community, if so Why? Just a few questions which you may like to comment on.

Speak soon,
Michael.
www.michaeloshea.ie

Michael O Shea

What do think of the honesty of this man? Father and Son have achieved a lot by not just looking at the physical part of stammering. www. schneiderspeech.com

Speak soon,
Michael.
www.michaeloshea.ie

Ok, I'll bite.

I've never really known that many other stammers and to be honest, when I meet them I feel often awkward and put out. I never know how to treat another stammers, I never know what to say. I want to empathise with them, but I don't seem able to.

For me, stammering is very personal - If you'll pardon the pun, I'm an out and out covert stammerer and I guess this makes it tricky to both relate and engage with individuals who stammer, let alone go to classes or courses.

Michael O Shea

Hello Zaraba,
Holding back, feelings of sensativity, feelings of rejection are part of what drives the stammering system whether overt or covert. This may be one of the main reasons why some find it difficult to speak of our challenge with stammering. To say that everyone feels this way would not be too clever as it is not the case for everyone who is challenged by stammering. An example of the holding back and sensativity can be taken from my original post, a lot of people looked at the post, yet you were the only one who replied publicy. Over sixty people replied to me in private, were they sensative to post publicly? All private replies expressed support for SLTs they did not expect SLTs to fix or cure them.

Speak soon,
Michael.

kaa

i had a stammer when i was younger....it was more noticable when i was really excited or nervous. my parents bought me to speech therapy and it has helped alot....the ODD time it might come back.

but i do have a friend with a bad stammer and she went to this speech and therapy school in wexford (i think) or something like that....cant really remember but it has calmed down an awful lot eventhough she still has it.

so i think any type of help you can get is great. and plus my mom said its not a big deal anymore if you go to speech therapy compared to when i was younger.