Biography

My parents noticed my stuttering when I was 6 years old and moving from New Jersey to Oregon. Of course years later I blamed them for causing my stuttering, brought on by the move. As a graduate student in Speech and Hearing Sciences at Portland State University I discovered that the cross country move was not the cause of my stuttering (I forgave my parents--they knew this all along). I found out that stuttering is heritable. It was not an emotional/anxiety/nervous disorder, learned or environmentally caused. Rather there is a physiological basis to it. It's NATURAL for a person who stutters to stutter.

To enhance fluency, the person who stutters needs to employ techniques or tools, targets, which are the specific speech muscle movement patterns. Learning and putting into practice these techniques together with a willingness to seek out speaking situations in the 'real world'. I took to heart the adage about fear. Hugh Downs, side-kick to onetime Tonight Show talk show host, Jack Parr: "If you want to get over fear, go out there and scare yourself."

I also discovered that there are people who stutter who do not want to do all of this. Many want to find out what stuttering is, why they stutter and then come up with their own goals. My job as a therapist is to find out what the person who stutter wants to get out of therapy.

This life long experience with stuttering has helped me understand my clients better.

The experience of the foreign born English speaker with intelligibility issues can be similar to the person who stutters. Some foreign born English speakers are afraid to talk on the phone, order in restaurants, being fearful that people would not understand what they are saying. People with accent may avoid introducing themselves, to avoid parties and gatherings. Let others approach them first in these situations. They can get frustrated and uncomfortable when asked to repeat. Acquiring American English intonation patterns and minimizing the effect of native cultural traits on phonology goes a long way to gaining confidence and clarity.