Six members were present including a new member - welcome Rick! Six present at this time of year is pretty good - thanks to those who came. We started off with introductions along with the question "If you could afford any kind of car, what would it be"? Answers included a Ferrari (the old standby - does anyone not want a Ferrari?), an Aston-Martin (the "James Bond" car for you uninitiated), a Tesla (an all electric vehicle), an Audi R8 (an Audi with a Lamborghini engine - Holy Horsepower, Batman!), & a fully equipped 4-wheel drive Chevrolet super truck. The person who chose a Ferrari backtracked a little, saying he believes Ferrari no longer makes cars with manual transmissions. He's a stick shift purist, so he'd have to get a used Ferrari. As you may have guessed, it was an all-male meeting, not surprising as there are about 10 times as many male stutterers as female. Not that there aren't some females who are interested in cars - I don't want the Politically Correct Police to come looking for me. What did this introductory question have to do with stuttering? What do any of the introductory questions have to do with stuttering? Nothing directly: introductory questions are icebreakers, designed to get people to participate by talking about an interesting topic. There is a method to my madness.
One member was interested in what speech therapies, if any, others had tried. A member talked about his therapy with a well known local therapist who uses Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF), in part to teach people who stutter to learn a new way of talking. DAF is interesting: for some reason, you won't stutter if you hear your own words repeated back to you about a second later. It isn't clear if the reason for this is known. There is apparently an earpiece one can wear to use DAF. Another member said he doesn't stutter when he talks in front of a mirror when alone. Watching himself talk takes his stuttering away, at least temporarily. This same member talked about his experiences with Toastmasters & how it helps some people who stutter gain confidence. Toastmasters comes up a lot in our meetings. One member, with very little formal speech therapy, mentioned a method he tried long ago at the University of Pennsylvania that, I believe, has fallen out of favor: the "metronome" method, developed by a psychologist at Penn. You talk to the beat of a metronome &, like DAF, there's an earpiece. Another member talked about the program he went through at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington - the Successful Stuttering Management Program (SSMP). It's an intensive, on site, three week program that's been around for over 35 years. The SSMP uses voluntarily stuttering, in part.
We had just enough time left to do Table Topics. You never know what will come up in Table Topics, which is what makes them interesting & fun. Topics included: "Are you a dog or cat person?" The person who spoke on this was definitely a dog person, although he admitted that dogs sometimes do bark all night long, which another member said makes you want to strangle them. "How do you feel about Putin?" The speaker wasn't really familiar with Putin but mentioned that while George Bush once looked into Putin's eyes & "was able to get a sense of his soul, & found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy," John McCain said he looked into Putin's eyes & saw three letters - KGB. (We try to avoid politics in Table Topics; this was an exception). "Facebook & it's social importance": the speaker mentioned that Facebook is mainly useful for reconnecting with old friends you've had no contact with for a long time. "What emotions do you feel when you stutter?""Do you find it hard to order in a large & loud restaurant?" And finally, the height of politically correct radioactivity: "How do you feel about girls/females/women?" Remember, this was an all male meeting, & no, I'm not commenting on this one for all the gold in Fort Knox.
Next meeting led by Matt & Mihaela is on Thursday, September 11. Remember the mantra: Second & Fourth Thursdays - 5:45PM - Kaiser.
Have a great rest of summer.
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