Although there were only 3 present, we had an enjoyable meeting with interesting discussions. We started with introductions & the question: “What place anywhere in the world that you haven’t been would you like to visit?” One person, who has traveled a lot, would like to go to Bali, as it is becoming a world renowned tech center & he’s a “techie.” Another has always wanted to visit Spain. The 3rd would eventually like to visit Italy, as his parents were immigrants from there, & he’s curious about the land of his ancestry.
We then went to the night's discussion topic : “Knowing what you now know about stuttering in general & about your stuttering & how it’s affected your life, if you could live your life over again, what would you do differently concerning your stuttering? “ One member believes he started stuttering in elementary school when he was made to write with his right hand when he was naturally left handed. This was interesting as at a previous meeting this topic came up, & a speech therapy student said this theory has been proven untrue. Still, our member feels very strongly that it caused him to start stuttering & if he could do it over, he wouldn’t allow himself to be forced to write right handed.
Another member said he started stuttering when, as a child, he began mimicking the stutter of a baby sitter he had. This is another controversial theory about stuttering, & I don’t know if any research has been done on it. Our member said he would not mimic his stuttering baby sitter if he could do it over again!
The third member said he wouldn’t hide his stuttering as much as he did when he was younger, as this really dominated his life.
We talked about the fear that people who stutter have about public speaking. On this topic, one member brought up a “TED Talk” about Megan Washington, the Australian singer/songwriter who stutters. Here’s the link: https://www.ted.com/talks/megan_washington_why_i_live_in_mortal_dread_of_public_speaking?language=en
We talked a little about the poor attendance at meetings lately. One member suggested contacting local speech therapists to refer their clients to our meetings.
By now, you’ve been notified that Tammy Flores, Executive Director of the NSA, will be visiting us on April 7th, when there will be a get-together at BJ's Restaurant and Brewery at the Block of Orange. The address is 460 The City Drive, Orange, CA. Dr. Gerald Maguire, well known local speech therapist & university professor, will also be there. More details to follow. If you haven’t RSVPd yet, please do so ASAP.
That’s it for now. Next regular meeting is on Thursday, April 14.
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