Educating Communication Partners
Hi all,
As a current graduate student in speech-language pathology, I would enjoy understanding how to better educate communication partners of PWS. What advice do you have in situations where the individual who does not stutter (i.e. family member, friend, other professional) is defensive or resistant to receiving tips about how best to interact with people who stutter?
Any tips are greatly appreciated!
Hi
It’s a difficult question, since how does one give advice to someone who is resistant about receiving it?
I feel that we – PWS and our allies such as yourself – need to be somewhat assertive, and confident is our belief that we have a right to speak and to stutter, even if it makes someone else uncomfortable. We need to explain, even briefly, what stuttering is, what the source is, and how to best behave when speaking with a PWS.
The Stuttering Foundation has good resources that I suggest you consider. Among those are:
– Stuttering Myths, Beliefs and Straight Talk.
https://www.stutteringhelp.org/content/myths-beliefs-and-straight-talk
– 6 Tips For Speaking With Someone Who Stutters.
https://www.stutteringhelp.org/6-tips-speaking-someone-who-stutters-0
People should also be told that stuttering has a neuro-physiological source. Check out this source:
https://westutter.org/what-is-stuttering/
I hope this helps
Hanan hurwitz