I went to Johnson Secondary School (Herbetpur) with Sachin to gave an introductory speech about stammering,what exactly it is?, what is is the role of students, teachers and Samagra in therapy. Sachin started the dialog by sharing some of his experiences, how stammering affects children and the hope that people can get over it. Next came my turn to speak in front of around 150 children. I was a bit afraid and my heart beat went up, but to my surprise everything was under control! I shared a few experiences from my school days so that teachers and students can really understand that its much more than a speech disorder, and if there is any kid who is facing this problem and listening, can easily relate to us. After my speech i felt really great and I would like to do it more and more (anybody listening!!)
This whole experience has taught me that in stammering if we try to help others, we are helping ourselves indirectly. Our "cure" is linked with other's "cure". So we should not wait for a day when we will get rid of our stammer and then help others, rather we can start right at this moment, trying to help others and curing ourselves too!
Jai,
ReplyDelete"Our "cure" is linked with other's "cure""... this is what i am trying to achieve day in and day out. Bravo ! for your effort .
on the other day, i was discussing with Rupesh and swapnil about how to approach the schools and try to help.
thoughts...?
Manohar
Hi Manohar,
ReplyDeleteYou can start with first of all giving yourselves a time of two weeks to prepare yourself for this...
You may start with the self help manual which I have sent you ( http://www.stammer.in/menu-self-help-manual.html )
Also you can go to British stammering Association's website ( http://www.stammering.org ) and read the
information for school kids & teenagers ( see at the top of left most column).
Other than this Also read:
1. some basic stuff about stammering, what it is ? etc.
2. about various speech modification and fluency shaping techniques like bouncing, prolongation and easy onset. Practice them too!
And you are all ready to approach any school.Meet the Principal and introduce yourself as TISA coordinator of Pune chapter and tell something about yourself, our self help group and TISA. If he agrees (which I am hopefull he will :) ), start with a screening process where you can ask a child to read a few lines from a book or talk to each kid for some time or use a mix of both (I never used to stammer while i used to read from book :), so i would suggest a mix). Also you can talk to teachers and children themselves if they know of any kid who stammers (which is very effective). And go once a week to each school or ask those kids to come to our SHG meets (you can talk to their parents for this)...
Just keep in mind you will have to be a bit innovative with kids, play games and make therapy interesting...you can search for a lot of good activities online or purchase some book or use your own innovation...
Other than all this, you can also ask for ideas from othe SHG members as most of us have taken Therapy at some time and we all have something to share...
All this may seem difficult but it is very easy once you start and you can continuously update yourself with new information as you go along..
All the best!
Even just sitting with child and letting them share whatever they want to- will help many children, because people dont listen to them, because they are children and because they stammer.. You could even organsie a drawing copmetition for them (carry with you some white sheets and pastels).. Not every group session with such children need to focus on speech alone.. Essentially, let them have fun..
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