it’s something that’s very very personal
to me it’s the experience of living with
a communication disorder in my case
stuttering I’ll be talking about some
tidbits that are helpful and some things
that you probably don’t want to do if
you talk to people with communication
disorders however starting off I want to
set the stage and offer a portrayal that
we’re going to need to go back in time
to explore back for years then I’d like
to say back to my high school days while
I was in high school
growing up in western Pennsylvania we
spent a lot of time on friends arms so
the transition out to a widow was a
pretty easy transition one time coming
home from a friend’s farm a friend of
mine was driving his car on a gravel
road driving way too fast
ended up losing control of the car the
car rolled and rolled and rolled and
rolled over times ending up on its hood
pushed up against the telephone pole my
friend had a cut across the top of his
head bleeding a lot had to take off my
shirt wrap his head to stop the bleeding
fortunately we did have cellphones took
out my cell phone just kind of as Zach
mmm horace style cell phone at the time
called 9-1-1 denied one want to operate
her hung up on me I called heck
she hung up on me Kim I had to try to
get my friend to be aware of enough to
tell the operator that I stuttered a
9-1-1 operator finally let me speak
after someone else told her that i
stuttered I didn’t know if my friend was
gonna survive how much he was bleeding
what was going on in that state I was
trapped so I’m not only going to be
talking about the HOS aspects I’m gonna
be talking about what you can do as
little listeners to support those of us
with communication disorders also in
being a speech-language pathologist an
academic faculty member who studies in
this area and a person who stutters I
have the opportunity to be in an
educator and advocate and I want to
impart some of that experience in
helping you all increase your
understanding for people with
communication disorders and through some
experiences that I’m gonna ask you to
have hopefully gain some empathy to
starting off it helps to talk about what
stuttering is so when we talk about
stuttering we conceptualize it in this
iceberg 10% of the iceberg is what’s
above the surface of the water which is
what we can see in soldering it might be
a rural repetitions per elongation x’ or
a boom blox where we just get stuck on
what we’re trying to say we might even
get stuck to the extent that we have to
force it out or try to force it out
pushing our arms out smacking our hands
against our legs something else to try
to get us out of being frozen so
stuttering is an intermittent
involuntary neural motor disorder a lot
of words there what it essentially means
is we know what we’re trying to say we
know how we’re trying to say it we just
get stuck in that moment trying to
actually produce what we’re trying to
say so those observable features there’s
overt characteristics or what we think
of with the top of the iceberg however
as you can tell there’s 90% of the
iceberg below the surface of the water
submerged that we can’t see that we
don’t often talk about that’s the shame
they guilt the feeling that we’re
inferior how we think about ourselves
how we feel about ourselves how we
choose to interact with our social world
and because this talk is about the
experience of living with a
communication disorder I’m gonna ask you
who all to do something a little bit
uncomfortable and maybe kind of scary
I’m gonna ask you to stutter now in
having you stutter I need to be honest I
haven’t been showing my true stuttering
I’ve been trying to control how I’ve
been talking I’ve been using techniques
and strategies forms of fake stuttering
holding sounds out gently gliding into
words I’m saying using forms of altered
shuttering to reduce my stuttering
severity if I do not use any techniques
or strategies and what I’m going to show
you is very representative of how I
still sound if I don’t use any
Isis is sound like that and I stutter
on most every word in a sentence so
that’s very hard what I’m gonna ask you
to do I want you to experience the
essence of a communication disorder in
this example stuttering so you might be
thinking well wait I’m a kind person I
live my life with my heart we’ve heard a
lot of talks about living our lives both
for others when we have friends spouses
children parents friends clinicians
teachers put themselves out there and
experience this vulnerable state of
stuttering clients who stutter report it
increases the relationship it
strengthens the relationship they’re no
longer isolated they feel supported and
understood so for the purpose of this
activity it’s okay
I give you permission to stutter and do
a great job stuttering to have as many
secondary stuttering behaviors as you
want really toss yourselves in there
however if you meet someone or the next
time you meet someone with a
communication disorder probably not a
good idea to just switch back to your
stuttering state so I want you to turn
to the people around you introduce
yourselves tell them what you gained
from this TEDx experience so far with
some great stuttering and after that I’m
going to ask you to just shout out some
things that you experienced just then in
that
moment so take about 30 seconds turn to
okay so I’m hearing some great talking
chatting stuttering I I did hear some
stuttering especially over here great
job what did you experience
just then awkward it’s hard hesitation
of frustration yes completely anyone
else
uncomfortable I heard time embarrassment
shyness fears we get a magnification
that everyone around us is judging us
thinking us the thinking about us in a
negative way evaluating us that sense of
time stops you’re frozen in that moment
if you feel like this is taking forever
I I can just switch back I can start
talking why am I doing this that’s self
judgment that anxiety that frustration
people who stutter often describe
feeling less than human less than human
because of that self judgment less than
human because of what we perceive others
are evaluating us as less than human
because the reactions we receive having
people laugh mock make fun of us ask us
if we know are in aim I do promise you I
know my name the moment of stuttering
it’s often described as the feeling of
drowning you can’t touch the bottom
can’t get your head above water you’re
trying to gasp to survive for one second
now imagine someone on this side of the
pool offering advice to that individual
take your time breathe it’s easy put one
arm in front of the other y-you know how
to swim this is what it comes across for
people who stutter not the value of what
we’re saying but a focus on how we’re
saying it so we should shift focus more
on the content less on the delivery
you’re probably also thinking wait some
stuffs just not adding up here you’re
sounding kind of in control of your
stuttering yet sounding like you’re a
confident speaker where’s and you
presented us this very overt severe
stuttering why is this not adding up as
individuals who stutter we go through a
process of self discovery through
clinicians so clinicians are not going
to cure people who stutter eight to
twelve percent of the world’s population
will go through some stage of stuttering
typically early developmental before or
around the age of five of that eight to
twelve percent eighty percent will
spontaneously recover within a year of a
year-and-a-half of onset of stuttering
so there are no longer Center regardless
of type of therapy if they’ve went to
therapy or if they haven’t went to
therapy however those of us who continue
to stutter and have chronic
communication disorders throughout the
lifetime our job as clinicians is not to
cure them it’s to help them become more
open and accepting of who
who we are as individuals and about our
communication disorder we want people to
be more confident speak how they want
when they want to who they want Wow
still effectively managing their stutter
so we don’t cure people we offer them
the opportunity to set the stage for how
they communicate through things like
fake stuttering all of our strategies
and techniques to be more in control of
our stuttering are altered forms of
stuttering I know kind of ironic isn’t
it
we also can have people use disclosure
disclosure statements say hi my name is
Tim and I stutter if you ever need me to
repeat anything just let me know or
hahaha hi my name is damn it’s great to
hate you by approaching communication
confidently openly and stuttering we set
the stage for how we expect people to
respond to us if I don’t show I’m
ashamed of my stuttering if I don’t show
that I feel guilt for my celery I’m not
embarrassed by it why should you be as
the listener so this comes with a cost
though when I use techniques when I use
strategies it feels like I’m putting on
an act
I’m not portraying my true self to you
you imagine going through life planning
what you’re gonna say and how you’re
gonna say it in all aspects of your life
it comes with pros and cons it’s a
dichotomy it may increase confidence as
well as decrease confidence it may
increase self-worth it may decrease
self-worth it may decrease anxiety
it may set unrealistic expectations
therefore increasing anxiety the amount
of energy and cognitive effort it takes
to enact some of these things on a daily
but the basis is very representative to
asking all of you to not use a word with
a letter S in it from now until 20 years
from now imagine how much energy that
would take constantly planning changing
revising not saying what you want to say
becoming socially reduce impacted
changing how you think about yourself
how you feel about yourself so the next
time you talk to someone with a
communication disorder let’s have some
patience be there with the individual be
present with them through their struggle
maintain eye contact a relaxed posture
give them the time that they need it
might have taken them a lot of courage
to come up and talk to you so it’s a
very meaningful conversation or it could
be if we give them the time we all love
to play charades
who doesn’t like to try to figure out
through gestures what someone else is
saying especially if it’s just on the
spot roof andum however I will go to ask
please please let us finish our sentences