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From: Jaan Pill
Date: 10/8/02
Time: 11:10:15 PM
Remote Name: 209.29.100.216
I found the article highly inspiring.
As a person involved with the international self-help movement, I've often reflected on the fact that some stuttering treatment programs (such as at ISTAR in Edmonton) are updated constantly, on the basis of research around the world, clinical experience, and ongoing dialogue among colleagues concerning treatment strategies and options.
At the other end of the continuum are approaches that in essential features appear to have remained unchanged since the 1970s or earlier, but are in some cases presented to (often highly receptive) graduate students as leading-edge solutions.
In my day job, as an educator, I often reflect upon the fact that, if a teacher's career starts off with a focus on continuous improvement in one's work, and ongoing reflection and dialogue about teaching strategies, then it's easy to stay fresh and envigorated over the many decades of a teacher's career. But if those concepts aren't clear from the start, it's not easy to master them later in one's career.
My impression is that, among many speech-language pathologists, the experience in graduate school, with regard to how to address stuttering, is something that in many cases stays with a person for life. Whatever one learns, or doesn't learn, at that first impressionable stage tends, so to speak, to become part of one's religion or worldview.
The article is also inspiring because it addresses topics such as standards and competency in a non-judgemental but open manner.