Charles Van Riper

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Reuben Schuff and Joel Korte join Peter Reitzes to discuss crucial stuttering experiences in speech therapy as proposed by Charles Van Riper.

Dr. Van Riper’s list of 15 crucial stuttering experiences is archived here at The Stuttering Homepage. Some of the items we discuss from Van Riper’s list are:

• “The stutterer is responsible for his own behavior – including his stuttering.” 
• “Stuttering can be deliberately endured, touched, and maintained and studied.”
• “Avoidance increases fear and therefore stuttering, and it must be reduced.”
• “It is possible to release oneself voluntarily from tremors, fixations, and oscillations.”
• “When a moment of stuttering occurs, it should be studied, and its evil effects should be erased as much as possible.”

Van Riper explained, “These are the crucial experiences which your therapy should provide for the person who stutters. Again and again you must seek to facilitate these basic experiences. These should be the goals which structure your therapy.”

An alternative title for this episode could be something Reuben said during the episode – Stuttering: A Collection of Avoidance Behaviors.

REUBEN SCHUFF is an Aerospace Engineer. He co-founded the Teens Who Stutter (TWST) chapter of the National Stuttering Association (NSA) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

JOEL KORTE is an electrical engineer and attends a masters program for Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Minnesota. Joel works as a design engineer for ZVEX Effects, a highly regarded guitar effects company. Joel is a musician in a Minneapolis based band, Ghost Towns of the West. Joel is not only a B Team host, but he is the technical guru who records and edits all of their episodes.

PETER REITZES is a person who stutters and a speech-language pathologist.

Next Week: Stuttering and Singing

Next week StutterTalk plans on discussing singing and stuttering. Leave us your thoughts and questions at the StutterTalk Facebook group or send us an email. We may discuss your comments on air.