Stuttering Hub

End of British Summer Time

So what, some of you may ask? Well it does have one key benefit. An extra hour's sleep. I must admit I did enjoy my extra hour of snooze. So much so, that I left my clock on one hour ahead, so that I could dwell in the knowing that when it said 8:30 am this morning, I knew that it was actually  7:30 am. It felt soo good! So that's the key benefit.

What else? Well, I guess when sometimes the moon will be shining brightly and magically in the darkness, which is quite special. Are there any others? Not for me there aren't. Why? Well, because it means that it's really dark early in the mornings when people are off to work. And it means that it's pitch black when people are coming back from work. Really exciting. NOT. Of course, it gets better. Not only does it get more darker, but it gets colder. This is even more exciting. Yeah, right! Mind you, these are only my own opinions. Some of you may find other advantages of the clocks going back. If so, let us know...

Reflections

I remember one time, when I was at university and we had to do a group presentation on a particular topic. We had to talk about cell biology to a group of other students and a couple of lecturers. I remember dreading it. My anxiety levels were increasing by the second and I gave in to the fear. I wanted to get out of talking because I believed I would block. I convinced one of the other guys in my group to do my share of the talking. He didn't really want to do it either, as he was pretty nervous but the poor guy ended up doing it. As he began to speak, his uneasiness started to become apparent. His presentation was full of pauses, 'ums' and 'ers'. And he wasn't what I would consider to be a person who stammers either. What did this experience teach me? That my judgment that 'fluent' people had no problem communicating was totally false. Many people experience anxiety and fear about communicating in different contexts. I like to remind myself more of this, these days.

Thanks for your Help

Hi Friends. A friend of mine needs your assistance for an important piece of research she is carrying out. Many thanks!

She sent me the following message:

Online survey on impact of stammering in the workplace. 

 

Hello.  My name is Melissa Seymour and I am a person who stammers.  If you are a over 18 years of age and have a stammer, I would be very grateful if you could spare approximately 20 minutes to fill in the online questionnaire.

The survey, which will run until the end of November 2008, is being conducted as part of my research project for a Masters degree course with the Open University. The research is looking at the impact that stammering may have on one's working life and career prospects and whether this may be mediated by perceptions of self-worth.

To take part in this survey, please link to <a href=http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=d98JXYs8gjL6Dcbz7dz7xQ_3d_3d

If you wish to have a copy of the results when they become available, please contact me at mjs482@student.open.ac.uk

I'm Back

Hi All. I'm back from my trip to the States. Actually, I was in Alaska for an advanced training course in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). I will discuss the use of NLP in a future post. My trip to the 'Last Frontier', however, was absolutely brilliant. I saw majestic snowy mountains that seemed to be never ending, along with big, fast rushing rivers. I felt the glorious peace of being surrounded by gigantic glaciers, only to be interrupted by the sound of enormous rocks of ice, crashing into the sea. The wildlife was straight out of a Sir David Attenborough BBC documentary. Among other things, I witnessed Killer Whales hunting a Porpoise, saw powerful Bald Eagles, and enjoyed seeing a herd of Sea Lions on a small island. The food was both hearty in portion and delicious in taste. Sea food, unsurprisingly, was the regional speciality, and I sampled very tasty halibut and equally good salmon. I have to admit that the Alaskans could give the Brits a run for their money in terms of quality fish and chips! I had many interesting and unforgettable experiences in Alaska. I will share some of these in future posts.