A Few Questions
- Has your stutter faded over time or is it as strong as it’s always been?
- How did your stutter affect you growing up?
- What are the biggest challenges you faced dealing with your stutter?
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A Few Questions — 1 Comment
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Stuttering goes up and down, day to day, moment to moment, but also in different stages of life. I started stuttering at the age of 9. The reactions towards my stutter made me stutter a lot. So I became quiet and became a covert PWS. Than I met the stuttering community and started to realize I was ok, so I let my stutter out and I stuttered way more. I started to challenge myself and got a job as a teacher, and my stutter became way less, at least in front of the class, but my stutter increased when f ex talking on the phone. I got ill and am at home a lot, so I don’t talk much, and thus don’t stutter much. Than corona showed its ugly head and with all zoom meetings I stutter a lot more. But the advantage of growing older is that we don’t care as much, as we’re confident within yourself.
So I’m sincerely interested to hear how you would grade my stutter or my fluency. Is it when I have less stuttered words, or when I stutter more but care less. ?
The problem with research and old-fashioned treatment is that stuttering is rated and treated according to the amount of stuttered words, where fluency is the goal. To me, being a PWS my measurements come from the words uttered (no matter how), how I communicate, and the way I feel about my stutter, as these outcomes tell me about my quality of life and the quality of therapy.
So, to answer your question, my stuttered words get less the older I am (apart from all the zoom meetings during this pandemic ;-)), and the part below the iceberg has almost melted completely. (See my paper in this conference https://isad.live/isad-2020/papers-presented-by/stories-and-experiences-with-stuttering-by-pws/there-are-no-failures-just-life-lessons-anita-blom/.)
Stay safe and keep them talking
Anita