Hi Everyone,
You can click on the title "Secondary Behaviors" and it should take you to the youtube video of Ellis Lankster (they spell his name incorrectly) really using secondary behaviors to try not to stutter. This is the video of what was played on Howard Stern that we heard through www.stuttertalk.com. It's very hard to watch this man struggling so hard not to stutter. As SLPs, we have to make sure that we are not falling into the same trap as our clients, and just helping them do other things not to stutter. Stuttering, as Walt Manning has said, needs to be picked up, plopped down on the table, and really worked with. You cannot just try to work on Fluency... the stuttering is the problem, and the trying not to stutter is perhaps a bigger problem...
Thursday, October 1, 2009
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Hi Joe,
ReplyDeleteI know I am not a student in the class, but I am gonna respond anyway. I had watched this video before (someone posted it on FB), and I honestly thought, "wow, kudos to him for hanging in there and giving the interview". But after reading your post and watching it again, I was much more painfully aware of how hard he was working to avoid.
This just happened to me on the phone a little while ago. I got stuck big-time on a word, and after trying to push it out unsuccessfully, after almost 10 repititions,I changed the word. (no kudos to me!)
I love how you say you just have to pick up the stuttering and plop it down on the table. I so want to be able to do that fully.
Now I will behave and not post for a few days!
Pam,
ReplyDeletePreviously you had mentioned that you speak with parent groups. I think that it is wonderful how you are willing to speak with us online and to parent groups. Last week in class we listened to a clip from the Howard Stern show and heard him making fun of an individual that stutters. This clip was extremely disturbing and inappropriate. The individual that was depicted in the you tube video was the subject of Stern's comments. I agree that it was great that he gave the interview. I also thought that it was nice how the interviewer was a good listener and was patient.
By talking with parent groups parents may be more willing to talk to their students about what stuttering is and give better explanations to them if they come home with stories about friends at school who stutter.
I think that it is great that you are starting to open up to your family and that you share your story with students and the community. By creating awareness about stuttering you can help so that it is not a topic that is avoided for children and adults who stutter. The stories that you share on the blog help to give practical application of all that we are learning in class.
This is difficult to watch but it is nice to see the courage Ellis Lankster has by not passing up the interview. I am sure that in the sport of football, it is tempting to always try to come off as being as tough and macho as possible by not showing a "weak" side. It's extremely disturbing to see the comments about the video (people saying he's on drugs) and the other videos that were made into remixes.
ReplyDeleteI hope that, on a positive note, this video (sans all of the comments) could be used to provide some sort of support to a child or adult who stutters to show that communication partners can be patient and understanding (i.e. the reporters)and that stuttering shouldn't keep you from following your dreams and experiencing success.
I agree with kquinn that this is difficult to watch but it was great to see that he had the courage to go through the interview. As I watched the video, I felt horrible that he had to go through that in front of many people. It made me wonder what was going on his head as he was trying to speak through the "like ums." It made me think that he probably felt that people were judging him in a negative way. Although this video made me wonder what he was thinking, it was great to see that he still continued to speak despite struggling to get out the information. I thought this video was great because it showed that the feelings and attitudes of your stutter can truly impact how you deal and react to your stutter. In this example, Ellis Lankster's opinion about his stutter seems to be negative, therefore to cover up his stutter he uses starters such as "like ums" to conceal his stutter. From what I have learned from our fluency classes, is that you can not work on fluency until you have addressed the feelings and attitudes behind your stuttering.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with everyone that has made comments about the interview with Elis Lancaster and Howard Sterns comments. While listening to the interview in class, I couldn't help but wonder how people could be so cruel. I don't understand how people think it's funny and find laughter when they see people struggling. One part I did appreciate was how the announcer never interrupted Ellis Lancaster and gave him as much time as he needed to speak.
ReplyDeleteI give a lot of credit to Ellis Lankster to continue his interview while clearly showing signs of struggle to get his words out. I would like to see how a professional football player in the spotlight feels about his stuttering and how it affects his attitudes and feelings in everyday situations on and off the playing field. As we discussed in class and K Clark mentioned as well, it's an important piece to address a clients attitudes and feelings about stuttering and areas of positive and negative affects before beginning to work on therapy.
This video seemed like one of many contradictions to me. On one hand you have Ellis Lankster being forthright and speaking to a room full of reporters and cameras even though he knows that he is a stutterer. However, once he is up at the podium he chooses to mask his stuttering by inserting fillers such as “um”. In doing so he actually made his stuttering appear worse. Likewise, I was surprised how understanding and receptive the reporters appeared; it seemed to me that they modeled exactly how great communication partners should act. On the other hand listening and reading to the responses to this video is shocking in how uninformed and judgmental people really are. This video seems to me to be a clear example of the many issues there are within the field of stuttering, including the lack of education and knowledge on the subject matter. It is my hope that Ellis Lankster becomes comfortable with being a stutterer as many other athletes like Bill Walton and Bob Love have. In doing so he will not only be helping himself but the stuttering community as a whole.
ReplyDeleteWell, a local PWS will weigh in here. nEverybody has really insightful comments about this. It is good when other athletes and media darlings embrace their stuttering, and act as good role models. But I still think we need to try and play up more the ordinary people that live good lives with stuttering. We are more likely to impaxct younger folks, since the millionairre athletes are removed from most common people's experiences.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the reaction of the reporters was great. All listners should take a cue from them.
Going along with my fellow classmates, I too agree that the comments made by Howard Stern and his co-hosts about Ellis' stuttering was truly cruel and tasteless. I also agree with Feliks' comments that this video poses some contradictions. While Ellis was courageous for speaking to a room full of unfamiliar listener (which can be a fearful and stutter inducing) despite his stutter, he did a great deal of masking behaviors to try to hide stutter. So not only did he make his stutter appear to be worse, he also made it appear (though unintentional) that he was less intelligent than he is. He used a great deal of interjections to hide his stutter, that what he was actually trying to say did not make much sense and was tough to comprehend. It is unfortunate that people who stutter can at times be seen as intellectually impaired when that is often far from the reality of that person. It is an unfair and undeserved judgement made about PWS.
ReplyDeleteOn a positive note, this video could be used as a tool (for PWS and for listeners) to view to show how to be an interactive and respectful listener towards PWS. It also shows in a positive light that PWS can do everything that they wish and aspire to do no matter how severe their stutter may be. Finally, as a tool for therapy this video could be an example of what are counter-productive actions when stuttering, while also pointing out positive things as well. An SLP could have the client view the video and then have a discussion with their client about what may be another way to deal with or handle stuttering in a better, more positive way.