Grade School Support
Hi all, I am currently a speech language pathology graduate student working as an assistant in the school system. I work with a few students who stutter. If you received services when you were in school, what was most positively impactful on your life with stuttering? If you did not have a positive experience, first of all I am sorry and I am grateful for you contributions to the field now! Second, what did you need as a child who stuttered?
Hi Crystallooney34
I went to school twice. As a child and as an adult. When I was a child I received no help whatsoever. On the contrary. I was told I was a hopeless case and that it was up to me to stop the bullying and the bad grades if I would only stop stuttering. When I went back to school in my 30s, simply to beat my dragons from the past, I got amazing support from teachers as well as students. They supported me, we talked about stuttering and found ways to make things easier (f ex present to a smaller group, raise my hand in a different way if I knew the answer but didn’t want to talk, to record myself instead of presenting in front of the class, etc). This gave me so much confidence, I winded up being a teacher myself. 🙂
What I would have wanted as a child was for my teachers to talk to me. Ask me about stuttering, what worked and what was hard, and how they could help. Also for them to find a person who would talk to my classmates and teachers (an SLP or even better a PWS), for them to understand what stuttering is about. As bullying often comes from lack of knowledge. And to ackowledge stuttering through the ISAD and the International Day of People with Disabilities (3 Dec), to normalize it. To tell me there are others, that there are support groups and camps, groups and great role models on social media, etc. All to make me realize I’m not alone and find others like me. And of course to grade me for my knowledge and skills, not because I’m not fluent. You don’t tell a blind student to read a normal book, or a student in a wheelchair to run the field. We’re not fluent. That’s all there is to it.
Keep them talking
Anita