MYTH # 8

Hello:

From page # 40 of Elaine Kelman's book called, --- Understanding Stammering or Stuttering; appears the following words:

Myth # 8 

Stammering can be 'cured.'

Parents often ask us if stammering [stuttering] can be cured.   This makes it sound like some kind of illness, --- which it is not.   There are courses and techniques that will help reduce the stutter, --- it may even seem to disappear   However, many children find it exhausting to use techniques each time that they speak and they may relapse.  Many children learn to manage their stammer and learn to live with it.  There is no 'cure' for stuttering but there is much that can be done to help.

My Response:

She is quite right, much is being done to help those who stutter.  But since distorted and conglomerated fear is the  real cause of stuttering and such reality has not been accepted for the truth that it represents, then --- that help is not as efficient as it could be.

I am reminded here of the discovery of Insulin by Frederick Banting.   When he first went to Professor Macleod to obtain laboratory space, to try out his theory , he was told that his ideas would probably all disappear into a cloud of smoke. 

Later he was told by the Professor that in all probability a magical solution to solve diabetes would never be found.   You can watch the story unfold on youtube.com, by typing in the title, --- Glory Enough For All.

Theoretically we can solve every problem for anyone who stutters.  However in real life such perfection can easily escape us.   One of the ways that such failure may occur is as follows:  If the stuttering occurred because a child was sexually molested and that child does not want to reveal the truth, or more accurately, is coerced into silence, --- then the stuttering may never be cured.

It is of significance to understand that the feelings of fear, in the form of disgust or embarrassment etc., can be overcome with the acceptance on the part of the child, --- in this instance, --- that he or she was in no way responsible for the abuse.   Overcoming that fear of disgust or embarrassment is central to the method by which the stuttering can be eliminated.

If that outcome can be achieved, then it becomes unnecessary for the guilty party to be named.   Ruining the reputation and the life of one’s father or some other close relative is not always what the aggrieved person would want to do.

The author, Elaine Kelman is indeed right when she states that  stuttering is not some kind of illness.   But knowing that the cause can be realized is far better than resorting to a technique which, as the author readily admits, becomes too time consuming and exhausting for the stutterer to adhere to.
 
Just the fact that there is supposedly no cure, leaves the stutterer in a state of confusion wondering when and how the stutter will make its way back into the person’s manner of speech, in a way that is beyond the control of the said speaker. 
 
Stating that there is a cure for stuttering and then backing it up with proven methods for achieving such fluency is far more efficient than that which is accepted as the ultimate level of help that is available at the present time.