Asia Stutter-Ing Association (ASIA)

Indian Stammering Association - from Keith, Tanveer & Prem

October 22nd, 2006 at 12:55pm |

This is an email from Keith Boss. Keith and his two other friends, Tanveer and Prem are working on encourgaing Indian PWS (People Who Stammer) to form their self-help groups. Keith is the ISA Project Coordinator

This is an email he sent out to “stutteringchat” yahoo group:

–>A word to our Indian readers.

Three of the ISA (International Stuttering Association) project team,
working on Raising Stammering Awareness in India, Tanveer, Prem and
myself are working on encouraging Indian PWS to start their own
stammering self help groups, or to join an existing self help group.

The advantages of well run self help groups throughout the world are many.
1. Meeting other stammerers;
2. Encouragement from other stammerers;
3. Knowing you are not alone;
4. Hearing of other therapies and seeing them in use;
5. Talking about your therapy and practicing it;
6. Generally exchanging ideas;
7. Being able to address several people, up to the whole group;
8. Gaining more confidence in speaking and social situations;
9. Having people to practice with the telephone;
10. Engaging in role play (Interviews etc);
11. If the group is set up for `exchanging jobs around the group’,
experience in carrying out new job functions;
12. Starting or continuing to desensitize you by stammering freely,
until you switch in to `speaking tools’ mode;
13. With luck, easy access at meetings to a trained and / or under
training Speech Language professional;
14. Equal voice in shaping the direction of the group;
15. Possibility of asking for talks from professionals;
16. Occasional meetings with other groups;
17. Inviting others (employers / police / government representatives
etc.) to meetings to hear first hand about your problems and how you cope;
18. Inviting local media to see and hear your experiences;
19. All these things will build your own self image, and start to deal
with emotional baggage many stammerers have;
20. The meetings can be both fun and enjoyable, with you enjoying
speaking.

There will be more advantages.

To all members of this group.
Are you a member or the leader of a self help group? If so, your
experiences and ideas will be most welcome at `stutteringselfhelp ‘.
Are you looking for a self help group to join? Visit
`stutteringselfhelp ‘. Are you thinking of starting up your own self
help group? Visit `stutteringselfhelp ‘

From the 21st October 2006, there will be a new Yahoo group. It will
be at http://uk.groups. (yahoo.com/group/stutteringselfhelp/). (Please
remove the space and brackets when using the address.) . The new
Yahoo group `stutteringselfhelp’ will be, for the most part, dealing
with self help group issues.

It will not replace your need to be a member of this group, because
this group has a wider agenda. This group will continue to be a fund
of diverse knowledge about stammering / stuttering and individuals’
experiences.

Enjoy life and take care,

Keith Boss”