so, it's been awhile..
.. and i've been so busy! who knew speech pathology could be so intense; i certainly did not.
but this semester has made me realize how shallow my perspective of speech pathology has been thus far - it's more than working with children in schools who have autism or stuttering or lisping or other articulation issues, and it's more than just working with swallowing in hospitals, and it's definitely more than working on accent reduction.
it's working with real people, who are probably far braver and more persistent than i could ever be.
seeing a person with aphasia, with an intact mind but unable to bring the words out, is so heartbreaking. even through a video, you can see the utter frustration they go through - but still they keep going.
but with that said.. i can't help but feel that certain areas of this field are rather carebear-ish. take stuttering for example - apparently there are two camps, fluency shaping and stutter modification. the former works with fluency as its goal and that's what the focus is on. the stutter modification camp, on the other hand, focuses on the feelings and attitudes of the stutterer, trying to make him comfortable with his stuttering.
now don't get me wrong - i can understand how important someone's attitude towards stuttering can be when undergoing therapy. but i don't really think stutter modification is all that great.. for one thing, they make their clients stutter on purpose - in the classroom, on the phone, at home, everywhere. and part of me can't help but think, what if stuttering is a learned response? what if, by stuttering on purpose, you are basically training yourself to stutter until it becomes an unconscious habit?
because people do all sorts of things that create learned responses, e.g. sitting up straight, or heck, even changing your handwriting. i used to write my 'a's a certain way and then i changed it, and now i can't go back to the old way.
so what if in practicing stuttering, you are only making it more natural and ingrained? shouldn't the eventual goal be fluency?
but this semester has made me realize how shallow my perspective of speech pathology has been thus far - it's more than working with children in schools who have autism or stuttering or lisping or other articulation issues, and it's more than just working with swallowing in hospitals, and it's definitely more than working on accent reduction.
it's working with real people, who are probably far braver and more persistent than i could ever be.
seeing a person with aphasia, with an intact mind but unable to bring the words out, is so heartbreaking. even through a video, you can see the utter frustration they go through - but still they keep going.
but with that said.. i can't help but feel that certain areas of this field are rather carebear-ish. take stuttering for example - apparently there are two camps, fluency shaping and stutter modification. the former works with fluency as its goal and that's what the focus is on. the stutter modification camp, on the other hand, focuses on the feelings and attitudes of the stutterer, trying to make him comfortable with his stuttering.
now don't get me wrong - i can understand how important someone's attitude towards stuttering can be when undergoing therapy. but i don't really think stutter modification is all that great.. for one thing, they make their clients stutter on purpose - in the classroom, on the phone, at home, everywhere. and part of me can't help but think, what if stuttering is a learned response? what if, by stuttering on purpose, you are basically training yourself to stutter until it becomes an unconscious habit?
because people do all sorts of things that create learned responses, e.g. sitting up straight, or heck, even changing your handwriting. i used to write my 'a's a certain way and then i changed it, and now i can't go back to the old way.
so what if in practicing stuttering, you are only making it more natural and ingrained? shouldn't the eventual goal be fluency?