by Carmen Shapiro | Aug 5, 2019 | Chapter meeting
Hi! We are back from our summer recess. I hope everyone is enjoying the summer.
We had a very good meeting. One new person joined us and we had some very interesting conversations.
We talked a lot about educating others about stuttering. It is not about telling them what they did wrong or what hurt us about their behavior towards us. It is about making them aware of what they do so that they don’t repeat the same behavior the next time they encounter another person that stutters. We shared stories about how each of us has approached situations like this.
We also talked about things we don’t like about our stuttering: people finishing our sentences, feeling obligated to speak fast or in perfect full sentences, seeing the reactions from people, the physical tension that holds us back, having to substitute words instead of saying what we want. It is a long list and we all had examples about all these situations. We also shared advice on how to deal with many of them
by Carmen Shapiro | Jun 24, 2019 | Chapter meeting
We were only two people at this week’s meeting. It was nice to catch up on recent events and plans for the Summer.
We are taking a break for the month of July.
Have a nice 4th of July and enjoy your Summer!
by Carmen Shapiro | Jun 8, 2019 | Chapter meeting
We started the meeting with the Welcoming Words and introductions.
Our first topic was regarding secondary characteristics associated with our stutter and Terets in particular. One of our attendees was diagnosed with a very mild form of Terets and he questions whether stuttering could be a symptom developed from it or a form of Terets.
Another person has noticed that older people don’t seem to stutter as severely. Currently, he can’t imagine being fluent as an older version. Some reasons for it can’t be that people are more mellow. They accept themselves more easily and they have less to prove to others or to themselves. All of which contributes to more self-confidence and more fluency.
by Carmen Shapiro | May 29, 2019 | Chapter meeting
We were four people at this meeting, all regular members..
One of our young adult attendees has been giving presentations about stuttering to a couple of student groups in her school as part of the end-of-year activities. She told them about how it feels when she stutters, she dispelled myths about what stuttering is and it is not. She gave tips about how to interact with a person who stutters and had a fellow student to role play a typical situation. Way to go! What a great opportunity to educate others.
We talked about how disclosure sometimes can backfire at you. It happened once to one of our members during a job interview. There are other times when the non-stutterer doesn’t feel comfortable after disclosure has happened. We talked about a comedian that stutters and makes jokes about himself in stuttering situations. Many times people don’t feel comfortable laughing at those jokes. But you can also say that the comedian is not doing a god job if is making people uncomfortable. How would you feel?
The topic about therapists that stutter came up. Some people would not choose one because they don’t think that a person that has not overcome their own stuttering can help them with their own. One of our attendees was an SLP that stutters and this is what he tells people about it. Michael Jordan is one of the best basketball players of all time and he had a coach. Was his coach better than him? Why would Michael Jordan need a coach? A coach is not necessarily better than the athlete. A coach has experience, tools and knowledge about the sport, observes the player and sees things that the athlete doesn’t notice and is able to offer advice.
We finished the meeting with the Closing words and wished everyone a good Memorial Day weekend
by Carmen Shapiro | May 1, 2019 | Chapter meeting
We met at Temple University. We had three new people, one of them a friend that came to support a new attendee on her first meeting.
One of the new members came as a way to challenge himself to talk to groups of people. We talked about Toastmasters as another venue to learn and practice talking to audiences, improve communication skills and remove bad habits.
The second first-timer is a young person that has fear of speaking and fear of what people would think if she stutters. We all shared experiences like that but we also encouraged her to not focus on what people will say but on what she wants to communicate. We agree that we are all our worse enemies and we think that what people see when we stutter is worse than what we feel. It is not easy to take that step but I hope we encouraged her enough to try.
