S is for stuttering

I'm taking a course on stuttering this semester. Just so happens I am also doing my thesis on stuttering. I interact with PWS (people who stutter) but don't think I have a deep sense of understanding, how the pieces come together and play out in a life. We're reading a book by Jezer, "Stuttering: A Life Bound Up In Words," which has by far wonderfully (and thankfully) put together the scientific and academic side of stuttering together with the reality/person-invovled side. Sure, we learn about emotional and behavioral characteristics of stuttering, but Jezer puts the same points into meaningful words. Anyhow, I'm at chapter 11 now, and this section stood out to me, telling me something that I should have realized when I first began chapter 1: "The shame of being so identified--of having that "S" letter hung from my neck--was so powerful that it became etched into my consciousness. Recalling a humiliating incident forty years after the fact, I can still feel the blow in my gut, my stomach tightening up (Jezer p. 84)." Everyone has labels, what we identify ourselves as, most commonly, we introduce ourselves to others in terms of our occupation or relational/familial connection. Our primary identity drives our life, how we perceive and value ourselves, guiding our actions. A form of speech, stuttering is enough to be a defining label for a PWS. Needless to say, such a term does not promote happy feely thoughts or positive self-concepts. Typically with a childhood onset, the person has a lifetime to reinforce negative habits and struggle with self-esteem.

We are called as Christians to identify with Christ. We hear it in Sunday School and at the pulpit, to call ourselves as children of God, to make that our primary identity and live accordingly. Sinner but redeemed, heirs of God. Reading Jezer's book has renewed this concept to me. A PWS struggles to come to terms with their stuttering, and the label 'stutterer' because they mark it as their primary identity, above any other identity. Therapy (if it's good) does include help to form a positive self-image, accepting stuttering as a part of themselves but not allowing to conquer themselves. The goal is to view stuttering in neutral or positive ways, which often is the key factor to opening doors which actually address the stuttering behaviors themselves, in keeping stuttering under control, or giving life to a PWS. I think that treatment then, should not only be emphasizing that stuttering is only a part of their identity, and not the whole, but also filling in the void previously filled with 'stutterer' by actively identifying healthy and positive identities, especially a primary identity. And what better identity that a child of God.