Being a PWS as a child
Hi! My name is Savanna and I am currently in graduate school to become a speech language pathologist with the hopes of working in a school district. If you could turn back time and experience elementary/middle school again, what is something you wish someone would have said to you about your stutter that would have been beneficial to hear as a child?
Thank you,
Savanna
Hello Savanna,
In Italian schools, stuttering (like many other diversities) is not a subject that is known or talked about. And, since I didn’t have any acquaintances who stuttered, I always felt extremely lonely. I felt like I was the only child who stuttered in the whole wrld!
I would have loved it if a teacher had looked into stuttering, and told me about it, and reassured me that I was not the only one in the world. But who knows… maybe I am projecting my desires as an adult…
Andrea
Hi Savanna
I would have loved if my teachers would have addressed it with me. CWS not always go to the teacher, tell them they stutter, and tell them how they can help. It’s important teachers do this. Not silence stuttering, not think it’s OK (to whom??), and learn to spot CWS, as we’re so good at hiding. I’d wish that, when I told them I was bullied, they wouldn’t have told me to just stop stuttering and the bullying would stop. Or themselves engage in the bullying, telling me not to speak in class, or picking me to stand in front of the class, every week, just because she didn’t like my father… I’d wish they would not have kept on telling me I had no future, to not continue my studies, especially not languages, as I wouldn’t go anywhere anyway. As I did. I travelled because of my stutter. I became a teacher, to teachers. Words matter. And their words were lethal. So instead they could have told me what others told me later in life, that I’m good enough. They gave me a mirror so that I could see my skills and like myself, just the way I am, and that my voice matters. Kids in school are vulnerable and so focussed on trying to fit in. School, friends, relationships, future jobs, there’s so much to think about and even to fear. Tell them to stand out by being themselves, with the skills and the personality they have. To not identify themselves by their stutter, as they are so much more. And to show them the way to support groups and camps, where they find people just like them which can be life-saving.
keep them talking
Anita
Hi, Savanna! What an interesting question!
I would have loved for a speech clinician to tell me something like this:
“Paul, everyone in the world is different, and that is what makes the world a really interesting place. We all have different skills and talents. I know you have so many of them – in so many school subjects and in music. You should be so proud of yourself – and I know you are, and I know your parents are proud of you too. All of us have strengths in different areas of life, and some of us have challenges too. Our strengths and our challenges make us unique individuals. None of us are the same. I know you sometimes have difficulties in speaking. But that’s a challenge and a difference that you have. Many other people too have that challenge, and they speak in a different way, just like you speak in a different way. And it is okay to have a difference. We all don’t have to speak in the same way. We are not all the same. For example: I don’t play piano at all, but I know you do. I heard that you learned to read when you were 3 years old. That’s so amazing! You have excelled in so many school subjects – I certainly didn’t do as well in school when I was your age. Okay, so you speak differently. So what? We all have our differences. And we all respect you so much for the wonderful human being that you are!”
(No clinician told me that. But I wish someone did!)