tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12602489.post779272749295479398..comments2024-03-24T15:07:18.773+01:00Comments on The Stuttering Brain: Leys against GoogleTom Weidighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02084153394215001999noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12602489.post-3707876876786092712009-03-18T17:36:00.000+01:002009-03-18T17:36:00.000+01:00Ora, sorry, only saw your comment just now. I tend...Ora, sorry, only saw your comment just now. I tend not to read the comments very often. There is no cure for stammering in the sense that 'cure' implies a medical model, an illness. And a cure means something administered by an expert which will work for everyone, in every situation; you apply it and you will never stammer again; never need to work on your speech again; never need to use a speech technique again. <BR/><BR/>So, for an adult stammerer, cure does not mean learning and applying a technique such as precision fluency shaping, costal breathing, block modification- that's a controlling device, similar to a wheelchair which does not "cure" a paraplegic. Others are much better at expressing this than I am and the summary is here:<BR/><BR/>www.stammering.org/cure.html<BR/><BR/>NorbertNorbert @ BSAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08777494290357326626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12602489.post-73805813038564294552009-03-09T07:45:00.000+01:002009-03-09T07:45:00.000+01:00Norbert - What is meant by the statement "there is...Norbert - <BR/>What is meant by the statement "there is no cure for stuttering"? Surely we're not rejecting the proposition that speech therapy is often effective? On that assumption, what do we mean by "there is no cure for stuttering"?<BR/><BR/>(I don't mean to be argumentative, just trying to understand your point.)<BR/><BR/>Thanks.<BR/>OraOrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05187596156466209667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12602489.post-77996115544348125332009-03-05T11:47:00.000+01:002009-03-05T11:47:00.000+01:00For us in the UK it is clearly not always easy to ...For us in the UK it is clearly not always easy to assess the impact, influence and attitudes of organisations like ASHA.<BR/><BR/>In his letter to John B, Leys gave a very good sumamry of <B>why</B> it is important to pursue this:<BR/><I>"Thus we - and many other authoritative organisations throughout the world - believe it would be right for Google to include stammering under the Miracle Cure policy because:<BR/><BR/>1. There is no cure for stammering.<BR/><BR/>2. As stammering is still thought by many to be caused by a mental or character weakness, it is not seen to be a medical condition, and therefore a lot of entirely unqualified people and organisations are advertising stammering treatments, many of which are claiming a cure.<BR/><BR/>3. These ads give false hope to those who stammer and perpetuate the false impression amongst people who don’t stammer that stammering is not serious and can be cured quite easily.<BR/><BR/>4. The number of people affected by stammering is immense - some 720,000 adults and children here in the UK, 3 million in the US and more than 60 million throughout the world. Yet, not surprisingly, you don’t hear much about it.<BR/><BR/>5. Google can, and should, take responsibility for this situation - especially as they are profiting from advertising impossible cures."<BR/></I>Norbert @ BSAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08777494290357326626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12602489.post-84820790768919515132009-03-04T19:43:00.000+01:002009-03-04T19:43:00.000+01:00Tom & Leys, you may find this of interest.I re...Tom & Leys, you may find this of interest.<BR/><BR/>I recently wrote an article for the ASHA Leader--which is essentially the ASHA trade magazine.<BR/><BR/>In my article, I cited stuttering as a medical (i.e., not psychological) condition. They edited that sentence out.<BR/><BR/>So this is the mindset we're dealing with...<BR/><BR/>Greg<BR/>http://stuttering.meGreghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06461391169646033150noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12602489.post-77242100346844881912009-03-04T19:14:00.000+01:002009-03-04T19:14:00.000+01:00One of the important factors here is the general p...One of the important factors here is the general perception that stuttering is caused by a mental or character weakness of some kind - and thus, often, stuttering treatment is not even seen as a medical issue. As a result, there are a lot of entirely unqualified organisations and people claiming that they can cure stuttering, without even thinking about doing any clinical trials or getting approval for their claims from an authoritative body. They simply put up a website and write whatever they want on it; then they write an ad, with some entirely unquantified claim, which they bung up on Google and encourage people to click through to their website, where visitors get the Big Sell. Nobody checks anything and Google get money every time someone clicks through. This doesn't happen with treatments for many other conditions, because the companies offering those treatments belong to organisations such as the Proprietary Association of Great Britain which will only approve an ad if it is supported by medical references to full and independent reports on treatment success over long periods. My company produces marketing communications for GlaxoSmithKline and other medical organisations and, believe me, every single word, and every single nuance, is checked exhaustively before any ad can be released to a media owner for publication.Leys Geddeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04126280579474478873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12602489.post-53853332561308449802009-03-04T16:49:00.000+01:002009-03-04T16:49:00.000+01:00Leys...I admire what you're trying to do.Before AS...Leys...I admire what you're trying to do.<BR/><BR/>Before ASHA confronts Google, ASHA would be better to address the situation of allowing ASHA CCC'd professionals - with little (or more often none) academic coursework or clinical training in fluency disorders - to deliver treatment for stuttering to children in the public school setting.<BR/><BR/>ASHA may be the perpetrator of the biggest fraud...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com