Question
Hi! My name is Morgan and I’m an SLP grad student. From what I’ve learned in class and from the testimonies of PWS, many people have negative experiences associated with stuttering during childhood, such as bullying at school or an adult making an ignorant comment, which contribute to negative feelings/fear with speech. Today, the neurodiversity movement is growing, and social media has normalized discussions of disability and mental health and allowed people to inform others about their experiences. Do you feel the experience of being a child (and ultimately a person) who stutters has become easier? Do we still have a long way to go in terms of acceptance and understanding of stuttering?
I think that being a young person who stammers in the current climate has become somewhat easier.
There is still a long way to go but I feel like we are slowly getting there.
Stuttering is becoming more well known, through social media and other media platforms and if stuttering is becoming more well known then I would hope that how to treat a person who stutters is becoming more well known.
This might mean that a young person who stutters doesn’t feel like they have to advocate for themselves as much.
I feel that, overall, the world is becoming a more accepting and understanding place and people of difference are rising up and getting louder and that’s really exciting.
It’s a bit of both.
It’s easier to find others, but it’s also easier to get bullied online by trolls. And even after all these years, I still hear stories from YPWS that it’s hard to talk about it with teachers, school mates, even with parents. There’s still fear and shame. And this is why we need to keep talking and pave the way for the next generation. For even if we’re slowly moving away from stuttering being something “bad”, especially in third world countries, but even in countries where stuttering is accepted on paper, there’s still so much to do. In some countries stuttering is “Wrong” and there is a huge lack of proper treatment, in other countries it’s so accepted, there is no treatment at all! We, who’ve found/taken our space and feel secure no matter how we talk, have yet a lot of awareness raising to do. I hope you can help. 🙂
Keep them talking
Anita