Another stellar turnout for last night’s teen group (8 of us)!
We had three special visitors from the Northeast Kindgdom (about an hour an a half away) — a student who was being mentored by Gaetan Delabruere (a member of the group who passed away this August) and her district SLP and SLPA. We hope they can all make the trip back next month!
The student shared how she and Gaetan met up to do a presentation at her school about stuttering and how he was the first person who stutters she had ever met. She mentioned that to get ready for the presentation, she researched stuttering and found out more boys than girls stutter and that there are quite a few famous people who stutter (Marilyn Monroe and James Earl Jones).
We talked about how hard it can be to get up the courage to speak up in class or to give presentations in front of a large group and were impressed with members’ stories about when they were able to take that step.
The biggest part of the discussion revolved around “goals” and whether the goal is really to have strategies to “fix” the stuttering or if the focus better aimed at trying to reach some self-acceptance about being a person who stutters (I stutter — so what).
Some members commented that it seems the speech strategies help, but only when you are comfortable within yourself as a person who stutters, and this can change over time. Part of the process is to try to be able to be ok in the moment of stuttering, which is easier said than done!
One of the parents mentioned that he attended a local poetry reading, and one of the members of the group read some of her poems about stuttering. He noticed that that energy of the poetry matched the tension and release of stuttering, and he was unsure if her stuttering during the reading was intentional or as part of the poem.
She self-advertised as a person who stutters to the group, and we’ll have the chance to ask her more about that ourselves when she comes to read at the November 4th adult group! Check her book out here.
Looking forward to more great discussions next month– see you Nov. 6th!
