Report from Dublin Self Help Group Meeting

Date: 18 May 2010

Report:

There was a good attendance at the meeting, 7 people attended. There was one new face, he came to the meeting after reading the article in the Irish Times health supplement that an ISA member and her daughter had done a couple of weeks ago.

The meeting started with a round-the-table discussion of how everyone has been doing over the last number of weeks. We also introduced ourselves to those who we didn't meet before. It's always good to meet new people who stammer and share experiences with them and hear their experiences. Stephen Paterson spoke about his interview he did on the Stuttering Is Cool podcast, a couple of the members had heard the podcast and thought it was good.

A good discussion started about opening up to children about our stammer. One of the members said he speaks freely to this children about his stammer while another member said he would always try to speak as fluent as possible in front of children because he would be afraid of the reaction he might receive.

There's no evidence to say that children will copy stammering from parents. Even acknowledging a block, "I found that word hard to say and I got stuck" may show the children that it's ok to stutter and nothing to fear. It's often what isn't said that causes more difficulties.