What should a future SLP understand when it comes to a PWS
Hi, my name is Destiny Ibanez, and as a current student in the Post-baccalaureate program for Communication and Science Disorders aspiring to become a future Speech-Language Pathologist, I have learned so much new information from textbooks and lectures, and I have always wanted to ask a person who stutters, “What do you wish everyone understood about what it is like to stutter”? I would love to learn more about your perspectives and experiences so that I can help apply this when I work with someone who stutters in the future.
Thank you for the question.
I wish everyone would understand ,about us- the people who stutter is -how much of our ‘mental space’ our speech takes up, espcially when we are talking in a group. The speech does not come naturally to us (I mean the accepted ‘fluent’ speech where one can communicate what they want to say, or , crack a joke with a drink in hand with 5 people listening to you at a party), so it takes a lot of planning, the breathing, the awareness that how many people are expecting us to crack that joke fluently and laugh! The awareness that my kid is watching me talking in a group of moms, and if I fumble or get stuck in a bad stutter, all the kids would look at me and my kid would be like, what is happening. I am sharing real life examples here. Not the ones you read about ‘stuttering confidently’ etc, but what happens when you wish you would pass through that block OKish and you do not.