By specialist Speech and Language Therapist Frankie Paterson
It is my pleasure to introduce you to speech and language therapist Duncan Musasizi and his client Beatrice (to protect her identity I’m not using her real name). Duncan is an outstanding Ugandan speech and language therapist who I worked alongside at Yellow House Health and Outreach Services in Kenya earlier this month.
Beatrice was accompanied to the clinic by her new guardian, a friend of her Grandma who had died only a few weeks before. Beatrice’s Grandma had been her sole carer and she had entrusted this kind lady to be her new guardian once she passed.
Beatrice came across as a highly conscientious little girl with a propensity to want to do everything perfectly. She and her guardian arrived super early for the assessment as Beatrice had been insistent that they must not be late as she wanted to get back to school ASAP!
Her guardian described Beatrice a worrier and prone to always doing things at high speed. We have not used Beatrice’s real identity because, although her guardian was keen for Beatrice’s story to be told, she was wary of condemnation from people in their community who see having a stammer as being a curse from God. In parts of Kenyan society all forms of disability are seen as a huge weakness, the effect of curses or witchcraft. Parents of children with disabilities can have an incredibly hard time. They often feel they have no option, once their child’s disability becomes more obvious, but to keep them locked away indoors, away from potential judgement and rejection. These children often stop going to school and are socially isolated, exactly the opposite of what children with communication disabilities need.
Beatrice is lucky to have a guardian who is bravely ignoring the judgement of their community and doing her best to get them to accept her. Beatrice will be coming for weekly therapy with Duncan and I supported him to devise a treatment plan. Beatrice is aware of her stammer but is still so very little and has a lot of adjustment to make to her new life. Duncan is keeping it very simple, starting off with a few practical activities aimed at slowing Beatrice down. Not just her rate of speech but everything else as well. We gave her guardian advice on slowing down her own speech and holding herself back from giving Beatrice advice on how to talk, like that old chestnut ‘take a breath and start again’. We asked her just to focus on letting Beatrice talk and listening to the meaning of what she’s saying, instead of focusing on any moments of stammering.
Working with people who stammer in a very different culture has been hugely beneficial to my understanding of stammering as a universal human phenomenon. People who stammer across cultures may have daily struggles that differ somewhat but fundamentally the nature of the adversity they face is the same everywhere.
All over the world, what people who stammer need is for non-stammerers to have more awareness about what stammering really is. That having a stammer does not make someone weak, stupid or cursed or even that different to anyone else. That having a stammer is never a defining characteristic and that people who stammer need to be shown the same respect as any other person. People need to know what to do when talking to someone who stammers. Mainly: you don’t need to do anything special, just let them talk, in their own way and in their own time. People who stammer just want you to listen to them with the same respect that you would pay to any other person.
