How a teacher who listened to a stuttering student became her unsung hero
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By JOE GRIMM
Founder of the MSU School of Journalism Bias Busters series
Heroes surround us, even if many of them don’t think they’ve done anything very heroic.
Take Fred DeMayo, a high school English teacher. One of his students called him an unsung hero for helping her get comfortable with her stuttering.
The student was Susan Greenstein Prescott, and she told National Public Radio’s My Unsung Hero podcast how a terrifying assignment from DeMayo changed her life.
Greenstein Prescott, a lifelong stutterer, was a high school senior when DeMayo assigned her to recite a poem in front of the class. She was terrified. “I had a mild stutter,” she said. “I’d be trying to get a word out that might begin with ‘d’ or ‘th’ — and the word wouldn’t come out, or I might say ‘the’ three times.”
Her mother wrote a note asking that Greenstein Prescott be excused from that public pressure. Such stressful situations don’t cause stuttering, but they can increase the stress that intensifies it.
Disfluencies like this and other kinds occur for about 1% of adults. Non-stuttering people can help with that, but often don’t. DeMayo decided he would try to help. He let Greenstein Prescott recite the poem just to him. He listened. And then he said a remarkable thing. He said she had a good voice.
For the first time, she told NPR, she considered that her voice didn’t have to embarrass her. She moved on more confidently. She graduated from high school, went to college and became a corporate trainer, where she called on her voice all the time.
As a Michigan State journalism class was working on 100 Questions and Answers About People Who Stutter: A Listeners Guide, J. Scott Yaruss, professor of Communicative Sciences and Disorders, advised us not to go overboard recognizing famous role models. He said that that many people who stutter are role models, not just famous folks.
This story reminds us that good listeners are all around us, too, showing us the way.
Hear Greenstein Prescott tell her story, created by Autumn Barnes and Laura Kwerel on “All Things Considered.”
Then, learn how you can support people who stutter with the new book, 100 Questions and Answers About People Who Stutter: A Listener’s Guide. It tells in words and videos how individuals who stutter say allies help them. It’s easier than you might think. Amazon releases the stuttering guide on July 28.
Care to learn more?
This week on the MSU Department of Communicative Sciences & Disorders website, MSU’s Claire Dippel has written a fascinating overview of this new book and its importance for so many people.