The only thing you can actually know about people who stutter is that we stutter. The personality types and interests of PWS very as much as any other group of people. And while we may know that mentally, media representation only shows stuttering as a nervous habit. Many have been told to “play to their strengths” with the assumption being that public speaking, stage presence, and effective communication are not strengths nor interests. 

Many of us, like me, love to talk; the idea that I could not pursue a particular career path because of my speech was more than wrong. I believe the most important thing to establish is getting on the same page with how we think and feel about stuttering in. There are a lot of wonderful checklists about how to talk to people who stutter, but I have yet to find one that is how to feel about people who stutter. Feelings and checklists don’t work well together though, so this episode is the next best thing.

FOOTNOTES:

1. Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach: https://www.tarabrach.com/books/radical-acceptance/
2. CBT Psychology's Article/Video on Radical Acceptance: https://cbtpsychology.com/radical-acceptance/
3. YouTube Video on Radical Acceptance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVwIVwGOnpo

For any questions or comments, please send me a message on instagram: @stutterology.

Disclaimer: I am not a Speech Language Pathologist or a researcher. I do, however, know many of them. And my idea to create this podcast was further encouraged by those very voices.