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From: Mike Hughes
Date: 14 Oct 2004
Time: 18:17:36 -0500
Remote Name: 69.195.243.125
I jokingly say that I've seen every kind of "ist" there is: elocutionist, psychiatrist, psychologist, hypnotist, speech therapist, etc. Of them all, only the elocutinist seemed to provide any help. Because of my work, I have been in contact with literally hundreds of people who have had school therapy, part-time stuttering therapy (public and private), intensive therapy of one sort or another. None of the results have been particularly impressive. The only true and lasting improvement I have seen has been in those who read extensively on the subject -- as I definitely have -- eliminated the absurd and impractical -- and de veloped a personal approach that seems to work for them. There seems to be an oxymoron existing about current stuttering therapy: Stuttering programs invariably train the stutterer to allot an intensive amount of time to studying their speech/stuttering patterns and habits -- when this very attention serves to make the stutterer extremely aware of his stuttering and seems to worsen the problem. To be perfectly honest, I am not at all a big supporter of stuttering therapy. The first approach that made any great and lasting improvement on my life was the discovery of an electronic device to alleviate stuttering. In my case, the Edinburgh Masker. It was definitely the first major leap in my path to sustainable fluency.