Started to think about this following this tweet from STAMMA
https://twitter.com/stammer/status/1379071865633800197?s=21
St John's University New York proposed that SLT (speech and language therapy) students should practice pseudostuttering in public to get an idea of what it felt like to be a person who stammers. However, the students were worried that this might be offensive. All credit to the university: they are holding a research study, asking for peoples' views.
My top-of-the-head thoughts...
There is no easy yes or no here. There are arguments on both sides. "Behaving as if" exercises can be beneficial to a limited degree in suddenly giving a new perspective. But no exercise can give a true experience. Sitting in a wheelchair for half an hour might give you some insight but could also be regarded as fun, a game — nothing like someone's day in, day out experience.
There is a risk that students would get a false idea of what it is like to stutter 24/7 without the means of switching it off. It might actually reduce empathy if students think that in fact "it is not that bad".
I also worry that the exercise might be putting too much emphasis on the moment of speech. A few moments of talking are often in the context of hours of both anticipation and post-event self-recrimination. I am not certain that a handful of instances of pseudo stuttering in social situations of your planning and choosing can replicate those times and feelings.
There is an irony that voluntary stammering (aka pseudo stammering / stuttering) is used with people who stammer as a desensitisation technique but that is here being proposed as a way of sensitising students who do not stammer!
I think that talking with people with lived experience of stammering and learning about their experiences is crucial and probably of greater benefit in terms of developing empathy and understanding. It is also more inclusive.
https://twitter.com/stammer/status/1379071865633800197?s=21
St John's University New York proposed that SLT (speech and language therapy) students should practice pseudostuttering in public to get an idea of what it felt like to be a person who stammers. However, the students were worried that this might be offensive. All credit to the university: they are holding a research study, asking for peoples' views.
My top-of-the-head thoughts...
There is no easy yes or no here. There are arguments on both sides. "Behaving as if" exercises can be beneficial to a limited degree in suddenly giving a new perspective. But no exercise can give a true experience. Sitting in a wheelchair for half an hour might give you some insight but could also be regarded as fun, a game — nothing like someone's day in, day out experience.
There is a risk that students would get a false idea of what it is like to stutter 24/7 without the means of switching it off. It might actually reduce empathy if students think that in fact "it is not that bad".
I also worry that the exercise might be putting too much emphasis on the moment of speech. A few moments of talking are often in the context of hours of both anticipation and post-event self-recrimination. I am not certain that a handful of instances of pseudo stuttering in social situations of your planning and choosing can replicate those times and feelings.
There is an irony that voluntary stammering (aka pseudo stammering / stuttering) is used with people who stammer as a desensitisation technique but that is here being proposed as a way of sensitising students who do not stammer!
I think that talking with people with lived experience of stammering and learning about their experiences is crucial and probably of greater benefit in terms of developing empathy and understanding. It is also more inclusive.