Courting Courage

One of the founders of our field, Charles Van Riper, once said, "Stuttering is everything you do trying not to stutter." What does this actually mean and what are the implications? There is a growing divide between SLP's who specialize in stuttering on whether we should change the way a person who stutters talks (fluency shaping) or accept the stuttering, but modify the way the person stutters (stuttering modification). Fluency shaping, specifically the prolonged speech approach, is frequently adopted by many school-based SLP’s. It has a large evidence base and is relatively straightforward for SLP's to implement without having an extensive knowledge base of stuttering. It makes sense - connect each syllable, word, and phrase together, so that it becomes physically impossible to stutter. Fluency - check. But take this technique into real life and it often fails. Why? Because the answer is not what we think the answer is. It’s actually quite counterintuitive.

Dear fearful 15 year old self, I wish you wouldn't worry so much. I know you can't see it now, but everything will be okay. I know, no one understands you. You feel alone and misunderstood. Look around, those guys who laugh now, the ones you think are bigger and stronger than you, in 10 years will be the ones looking up to you for your strength and confidence. Class presentations are your nightmare. But keep on listening to your fight song "Hero" by Mariah Carey, "When you feel like hope is gone, look inside you and be strong. And you'll finally see the truth, that a hero lies in you." Because in ten years, believe it or not, you'll speak in front of 800 people. In ten years, you'll be teaching a group of teenagers how to be brave. In ten years, you'll finally have the courage to just be yourself.  Fly birdie fly, now you are fearless.