About this activity
Eight disclosure lines for different listeners: heads up, I stutter, so sometimes my words take a second; I stutter, you don't have to finish my sentences; to a new teacher — I stutter, please don't call on me to read cold, I'd rather volunteer; to an interviewer — I stutter, it doesn't affect the work; to someone who laughed — that's my stutter, it's not a joke to me. Plus one card asking the student to write their own.
How to use it in a session
Have the student pick two and rehearse those until they are automatic. Eight scripts is a menu, not a curriculum, and the version they will use is the one that sounds like them — which is why the last card, writing their own, matters more than the eight supplied. Say each one aloud three times; a disclosure improvised under pressure usually comes out as an apology.
What to listen for
Listen for the disclosure being framed as a warning rather than an apology. I stutter, it doesn't affect the work is a statement; sorry, I have a bit of a stutter is an apology, and listeners respond differently to the two. Notice which listener the student most avoids disclosing to — that is usually the situation costing them most.
Carrying it home
Disclosure to family is usually not needed and disclosure to their friends may be. Asking the student who already knows, and who they would want to tell, is a conversation worth having outside a session.
Questions
- Should a student disclose that they stutter?
- It is their decision. The value of a prepared script is that the option is available and fast when they want it, rather than improvised under pressure.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all eight scripts play with no account.
- What ages is this for?
- Ninth through twelfth grade, where new listeners — teachers, employers, strangers — arrive constantly.