Helping tomorrow's therapists help people who stammer
By Alan Badmington

Alan Badmington.

During recent years, I have visited several American universities to speak with student speech-language therapists about various aspects of stuttering. I always speak about my personal experiences of stuttering, using a host of relevant anecdotes. Humour can be a very useful tool with which to convey an important message.

To give students an insight into what it is like to live with stuttering, I touch upon such things as self-acceptance, expanding comfort zones, approach avoidance, negative self-talk, assertiveness, self-esteem, self-image, emotional baggage and the stuttering mindset.

I also draw the students' attention to the importance of recognising the uniqueness of their future clients. I emphasise the need to make good use of listening skills; earn the respect of each individual, and appreciate the difficulties associated with transferring speech gains and techniques from a safe therapy environment into the outside world.

I never fail to be impressed by the enthusiasm and interest displayed by the students. They have an insatiable thirst for knowledge and I am always inundated with questions.

The seeds of this association were initially sown when I was invited to spend four days at Arkansas State University. On that occasion, I gave a series of talks that were video-recorded for future training.

Next, I travelled to Temple University in Philadelphia, where I spoke to a class of 40 graduate clinicians who were reading my life-story as part of their studies. I returned to Temple University last year, as part of a panel of people who stutter drawn from the Philadelphia Chapter (support group) of the National Stuttering Association, of which I am an honorary member. The following day, I flew to California, where I participated in several workshops at the NSA annual conference.

Earlier this year I widened my US connections by speaking to students at Mississippi University and La Salle University, Philadelphia. On this occasion, the presentations were given from the comfort of my own home in Wales, via a Skype online link.

I genuinely believe that such interaction is to our mutual benefit. Most speech-language establishments now incorporate these exchanges as an integral part of their training programmes. I have found it to be a most rewarding activity that has also allowed me to expand my comfort zones. I encourage people who stammer to seek out similar opportunities.

Case study - City University, London

After nine months of intensive study, first year speech and language therapy students at City University spend a study day where they talk with people who stammer to find out what it is like to live with stammering. For many students it is the first time they have met someone who stammers and had a chance to talk directly about it.

There are a mix of personal presentations and discussion sessions, usually with two people who stammer. To give the students a broader perspective, there are often people with Aphasia and those who have had a laryngectomy, who give short presentations and talk with the students. Having studied the more technical foundations for speech, language and communication disorders, the study days provide students with the human touch to give them greater confidence to work with people who stammer - often young children.

The study days are organised by Roberta Williams, co-head of the department of language and communication science and a strong supporter of this form of education for students, working closely with colleagues leading on the other disabilities. "Our students benefit enormously from this opportunity to interact with people who have a variety of communication difficulties and I think it really sets them up to start their placements," she said. "We have a process from novice to near-experienced clinician and this is the second step after self-directed learning using recordings and guided observations. It is always a challenge to fit it into the schedule, but important for us to do so because we have very positive feedback from students who find the study days very motivating and essential for their learning."

From the Autumn 2007 issue of 'Speaking Out', page 16