Worldwide connection
Hi! We are two graduate students at the University of South Carolina going for our master’s in Speech Language Pathology. We think this thread is awesome and have a couple of questions for you!
How has connecting with others worldwide helped your experiences with stuttering? Have you noticed that different languages or cultures have different views on PWS?
Thank you!
Sam and Sarah
Hi Sam and Sarah,
I have been very fortunate in that I have some amazing connections within the stuttering community around the globe. I’ve been able to participate and help organise conferences around the world and this has given me a much broader view on stuttering and speech and language therapy. I think this has made me a better clinician – I’ve had my mind opened to the fact that services offered in different countries can differ greatly to those typically offered in the UK where I trained and practice and this has led me to explore and research different options for therapy, which has enhanced my clinical practice.
While 2020 has been a very challenging year for most of us, one benefit is the number of conferences and training opportunities that have gone online, giving all of us easier access to knowledge from around the globe. I would encourage you both to take advantage of these opportunities to learn from others and to learn about the differences in the ways different cultures can see stuttering.
Enjoy the learning opportunities!
Jenny
Whew! I could write an entire dissertation on that question. First, it is crucial that you educate yourself on how other countries and cultures view stuttering. We live in a world where people travel more, move around more and the end result is that we come into contact with different cultures. I looked around at my NSA adult support meeting one night and saw adults there from India, Spain, Vietnam, China, Brazil, Iran–and even the USA.
The culture where a child is raised impacts their experience and has implications for the cognitive and affective aspects of treatment. Learn about your client’s culture, attend NSA (which is a bit of a misnomer because people from all over the world attend,) read about the experiences of the people on this forum. It is a rich opportunity to broaden your knowledge.
Good luck in your program and thanks for your question,
Rita
Sam and Sarah, This is a great question! Connecting with the stuttering community on the worldwide level has been huge! I tell my graduate students all the time in the stuttering course that I teach, that I truly don’t feel that I could effectively treat stuttering until I immersed myself in the stuttering community, learned to LISTEN and soak it all in; this includes on the world-wide level. We have a culturally-rich world and not all cultures view stuttering through the same lens. You will see this in the therapy room as well, and it’s something you need to be sensitive to when getting to know the person sitting in front of you. Each person who stutters comes from somewhere and has a story to tell- just like you do. We are all human beings. Where we are from, what we have done and experienced, this is all part of makes us who we are- how we react to things, our likes and dislikes, etc. ALL of this matters in the therapy room. You asking these questions of this panel and being part of this conference is a HUGE and amazing start to the world-wide journey, so way to go! I hope that this helps answer your question, and keep getting involved! Advocate for people who stutter, educate the world nicely about the nature of stuttering- because the more people that know about the nature of stuttering in society, the better.