Self Advocacy and Support
Hello! Our names are Jessica, Anna, and Corrie, and we are graduate students studying to be SLPs. What are some ways to promote self advocacy and support a PWS in clinical practice? Also, If you received speech services – what would you have changed looking back if anything?
Jessica, Anna, and Corrie, hello!
Thank you for your question.
Looking back, I would have enjoyed speech therapy more.
Growing up, I saw speech therapy in the same light as school — feeling obligated to attend. While I do feel that I got some important points out of therapy, I do wish I put in more of an effort overall and didn’t take it for granted as much as I did.
As for promoting self-advocacy, encourage your clients to look online to stuttering advocates and organizations to see what type of things are being said. You can also screengrab posts and comments on social media (black/blur out names for privacy reasons).
After all, what I’ve noticed online in recent years is a large influx of PWSs accepting, even embracing, their stutters, saying that it’s a part of them. Look at famous people who stutter: George Springer, Bryan Rust, Emily Blunt.
This is something that was not the case when I was growing up in the 90’s.
Back then, stuttering had a proverbial black cloud over it — it was a “problem”, needing “fixing”, not a good thing. Those attitudes have changed drastically.
I hope this helps and good luck!
Hi and thank you for your important question.
I wish I was told I am good enough, just the way I am, not judged by my speech. That I have lots of skills, a nice personality, and that my stutter doesn’t change that. That fluency is not the goal, but speaking is. That there is a whole world in between stuttering and fluency, with focusing only in fluency and the rest being wrong or bad caused me to be silent, wanting to leave this planet.
I wish they told me I was not alone. I had to live in shame until I was 27 and found the stuttering community that changed my life and the way I look at life and myself.
I wish my SLPs would have listened and asked, instead of assuming. That I would have been giving options, a smörgåsbord with different things to try, including non-therapy varieties, such as theatre, art, Mindfulness, singing, yoga, or getting a dog.
I wish my SLP would have educated my teachers. That teachers asked me what would help me to show my skills, instead of assuming I was a failure. And that there would have been PWS talking in my class to show me you can have a great life with stuttering and all.
And that maybe, just maybe, stuttering wasn’t the problem, and I shouldn’t have to be taught to speak fluently. But society that should learn how to simply listen. 🙂
Keep them talking
Anita