Oregon daily emerald., January 14, 1987, Page 7, Image 7

I
(■raphii bt Uirramr Hath
Free support group created
to help people who stutter
By Carolyn Lamberson
Of the Kmerald
Stuttering can be a traumatic affliction, ac
cording to Chris Caniglia, a graduate student
in speech pathology at the University.
In order to help people deal with this pro
blem, the Speech Pathology and Audiology
department of the University Division of
Special Education and Rehabilitation has
developed a free support group open to
students and the general public. Caniglia
worked with the support group during fall
term as a graduate teaching fellow.
“The group meets once a week for an hour
to an hour and a half to discuss any problems,
things that happened in the past week, either
good or bad, life in general, and we even
sometimes try to save the world,” she said.
“Often, our discussions would turn toward
politics and current events.”
The purpose of the group is to provide
support for a stutterer from other stutterers,
she said. Ruth Tiger, clinic co-ordinator for the
Speech and Hearing Center, who heads the
group, a GTF and Mark Christensen, a local
psychologist, meet with group members, help
lead discussions and give advice to those af
flicted with the problem.
“If a person is having a problem speaking
fluently that day, the other group members
often tell him or her to slow down or try one of
the other techniques of controlling the stut
ter,” Caniglia said. Other techniques include
breathing more slowly, talking more slowly,
relaxing and a technique called easy flow, dur
ing which the person takes a deep breath and
talks slowly as he or she exhales, she said.
Tiger stressed the fact that the group is not
a strict therapy session.
“It provides the opportunity for people to
discuss how their disfluency affects their life,”
she said. “That ranges from jobs, personal
situations, meeting people and even ordering
in a restaurant.”
'Finer began the group two-and-a-half
years ago.
"I was aware of several adult stutterers at
the Speech and Hearing Center. In the past. I
had worked with stutterers and was involved
in a support group when I was a graduate stu
dent,” she said. “That was a positive ex
perience. and I thought that a support group
here would be helpful here.”
There art; six people in this term’s group,
and although the numbers have been small,
Tiger has been satisfied with everything that
has been accomplished, she said.
Caniglia believes the support group is im
portant because of the social stigma associated
with stuttering.
“It often begins when kids are in school.
Those children with a stutter often feel left out
and many times are teased by the other
children,” she said. “This may blow up when
the child becomes an adult and may affect the
type of job that person may apply for. They
may look for a job where they won’t have to
speak or deal with the public."
Stuttering is not a psychological disorder.
Tiger said. It is a speech disorder where the
repetition of speech sounds calls attention to
itself, she said.
Research shows that about 1 percent of the
population has a stuttering problem, and a
large percentage of those tend to he male,
Caniglia said. However, she added, the actual
cause of stuttering is a mystery.
“Some people think (stuttering) is
genetic. Others believe it is environmental,
while some others contend it is a combination
of both. At this point, no one knows for sure,
although research is being done in tin; area of
speech pathology,” she said.
Working with a support group gave
Caniglia an interesting outlook on the pro
blems faced by stutterers, she said.
“I learned how these people feel in real
life.”
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