Some PWS are content to “manage” their speech and are accepting of some stuttering (which is fine for them), but they will continue to be identified as PWS. SAA has set the bar higher. SAA aspires to show PWS methods that will eliminate the appearance of stuttering; that is, when strangers no longer identify the PWS as a stutter, the PWS has become a PWSS (person who has stopped stuttering and the appearance of other speech disabilities). Fears of speech issues are slow to die, and may persist for a long time after the PWS stops stuttering. In SAA’s experience, over time, whatever residue of stuttering, and stuttering-fears remain in an PWSS, can be eliminated to all appearances by most diligent appliers of SAA’s methods.
SAA’s higher goals for curing notwithstanding, SAA welcomes, and will do its best to help, those who wish only to “manage” or reduce their stuttering, as well as those who wish to self-cure (as SAA defines it).
On p. 1 of Lee’s book, in “Author’s Confession”, he states, “I am a stutterer and I shall surely die a stutterer, because the satanic fears of stuttering still come and go . . . BUT, NO ONE can catch me stuttering.” Similarly, SAA’s reasonable and repeatedly proven goal is: “to not be detectable as a stutterer by strangers.” This IS the goal of most PWS who come to SAA, and SAA’s methods DO produce that result in most cases. Regardless, to some this is not a 100% cure, but it IS what SAA’s means when it says that its methods eliminate stuttering and the appearance of speech disabilities in general. Even SAA’s initial Founder, Lee Lovett, refers to himself as “99% Stutter-Free Lee”, because he admits that he DOES have occasional stutter-fears or stutter-stumbles to this day, BUT, by using the Crutches, he avoids being caught by anyone in the act of stuttering.
Those who do not wish to simply manage or reduce their stuttering but still allow themselves to be identified as PWS, are referred to SAA’s webstie as “PWMS” (People Who Manage Stuttering). All PWS are accepted and welcome here with open arms.
Surely, all readers of this website share a common goal: To reduce the inscrutable pains that public-stuttering so often brings upon PWS. We urge all readers to stay focused on that goal and not to belabor semantics: “I am right; you are wrong”. It simply doesn’t matter who is “right”, if there even is a “right”. All that matters is how much we can help each other find paths to happier lives. PLEASE read this website with this in mind. It is all that SAA wants for you!!! Let’s simply work together to help each of us obliterate (or mitigate to the max) stuttering and all other forms of speech disability and to find more happiness and not grade each other’s progress or lack of it.