Ivory Towers and Glass Houses: Does the Dog Have Fleas? The Real Story on the Role and Purpose of Stutterers' Self Help Groups in Australia

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to respond to the views and opinions propounded by Onslow and Costa in a paper entitled “When the Tail Begins to Wag the Dog: Some views on the relationship between speech pathologists and self-help groups in the management of stuttering” published in AJHCD, 17(2), 1989. Whilst Onslow and Costa do not equate first-hand experience of stuttering with professional development and maintained familiarity with current research and treatments for stuttering, it is submitted that the intrinsic value of the former is not given enough credit whilst the alleged universality of the latter is over-stated. The present paper will put the researcher's and clinician's rhetoric in perspective from a stutterer's point of view. It is stressed that the present author has retired from active participation in the administration of the Australian Speak Easy Association and the view contained herein are the personal views of the author.