What are some of the biggest challenges that PWS face in the social or professional setting, whether it be in relationships or the workplace?
Hello, I am Gayle Taylor, and I am currently an undergraduate senior at CSUF majoring in communication sciences and disorders. I am curious as to what the worst struggles that PWS have to go through in both settings. My peers and I in our fluency class had just recently done an assignment that required us to partake in voluntary stuttering in several different scenarios out in our communities, and had some pretty tough experiences ourselves when doing the task. After doing that assignment, I would like to know more from PWS themselves what those challenges are really like and how they overcome or cope with them. Thank you!!
The biggest challenge I think we face is bias and false assumptions about stuttering. I find this to be most true in workplaces. Many employers unfamiliar with stuttering often assume there is something wrong with us, that we can’t do customer facing work or phone calls and that maybe we should do something in the back – essentially reduced to trivial work that we weren’t hired for.
Employers are often afraid their image will be tainted by employing someone who stutters.
I find education if the best way to go. That stuttering fits perfectly into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs that the employer likely already has in place. I also like to educate about the strengths stuttering brings into the workplace – grit, resilience and perseverance, not to mention managing adversity.
It’s important to point out that stuttering is just a different kind of conversation.
Pam