Peter Reitzes and Eric Jackson are something of celebrities in the world of stuttering.
(excerpt of "StutterTalk")
The two 30-something speech pathologists from Brooklyn co-host a popular podcaston stuttering and both are lifelong stutterers. They’re now successful speech pathologists, but in the beginning, even those close to Reitzes and Jackson doubted they could do it.
REITZES: "Both of our mothers, both of our fathers."
JACKSON: "Actually, the first thing that both of our parents thought when we both told them that we’re going back to school for speech therapy is: what parent is going to want to bring their child who is struggling with stuttering to see a person who is still stuttering."
Reitzes and Jackson have an easy answer to that. They say stuttering is not something you cure; you learn to manage it. Their own struggles and successes give them empathy for their patients, who often feel more comfortable with therapists who know what it’s like. And, most speech pathologists have little or no training in stuttering, so specialists like them are rare.
Now they both work in schools and Reitzes has a private practice on the side working solely with people who stutter. But when Reitzes was training in the late 1990s, his fight for acceptance hit the local news media.
ROS ABRAMS (WABC-TV): "For a speech major at NYU, the future looked hopeless. The University told him he could not advance to the next level unless he passed a speech assessment test. Now, that was a frightening prospect for him because he had a speech impediment. So he got 7 on his side…"
New York University told him, essentially, that he had to have flawless speech to make it through.
REITZES: "I remember a professor saying to me ‘you should not be stuttering in class’ and I would say, ‘I’m going to speak in class, and I’m a stutterer. That’s what you’re going to get with me.’"
NYU eventually relaxed its requirements. Reitzes graduated, and got a job with a school district. But he learned quickly to be up front with people about his stuttering.
Eric Jackson just became a certified speech therapist, working with preschoolers. Jackson says he still encounters skepticism from parents.
JACKSON: "Someone was tipped off and went: beware of the stutterer from working with your child! They were concerned, and it’s OK they were concerned. Rightfully so."
For Reitzes and Jackson, who stutter but are easy to understand, they can usually win most people over. But how concerned should parents and patients be when they hear that a speech therapist stutters? Peter Reitzes:
REITZES: "I’ve never met somebody who was not able to get the words out quickly enough to be successful at what they do."
But for some, getting to that point is still a work in progress.
TEMME: "OK, hi, my name is Sam. I’m from Toledo."
At this month’s stuttering conference in Cleveland, 24-year old Sam Temme fearlessly addresses a small room at one of the open mic events there.
TEMME: "So I sort of just wanted to practice public speaking…"
Temme seems at ease in front of the crowd, even if the words don’t flow effortlessly. She tells them how she’s starting her second year at Bowling Green State University in speech pathology.
She takes me around the conference, and we happen to run into Eric Swartz, one of her speech therapists at Bowling Green.
He’ll soon be a professor in speech pathology, but his journey is another reminder for Sam Temme that discrimination or discouragement can happen anywhere and success--when you stutter--isn’t easy.
SWARTZ: "I got fired from one job because of my stuttering.
BOBKOFF: really? Tell me about that.
SWARTZ: Well, I was working in the public schools and the last week of school, my supervisor told me to have a seat and she said the principal doesn’t want you back because they’re tired of your stuttering.
BOBKOFF: Isn’t that against the law?
SWARTZ: Yes, it is, but because it was second hand information, it would be hard to make a case."
Sam Temme has already had her own mixed experiences. She was accepted to one grad program, but she says they had special terms for her. She interpreted them as basically saying she could get kicked out if she couldn’t control her speech with clients.
TEMME: "I think that’s kind of hypocritical because you’re supposed to teach people who stutter to accept it!"
Temme ultimately found a supportive school in Bowling Green, where her professor Rod Gabel also stutters. He has no doubt that people who stutter can be great therapists, but he also says it’s not that simple.
The tricky thing is knowing when a therapist’s stuttering goes from an asset to a hindrance.
GABEL: "Can you be able to effectively and efficiently manage your own problem such that it doesn’t inhibit that person who’s getting your help from improving? And, I think that is such a tough thing."
Everyone’s stuttering is different. There are good days and bad days. Good years and bad years. Some like Professor Gabel have achieved very fluent speech. Sam Temme is still working on it. When we spoke, at one point she had a 22 second block on a word.
During this time, she blinks rapidly, but otherwise seems patient. It’s frustrating, but she’s used to it.
And she believes she’ll be effective as a therapist.
TEMME: "I think that people who stutter can be great communicators still."
She says that just because somebody might take more time to finish sentences, doesn’t mean that their message can’t get across.