Chandigarh Workshop 2nd day

The 2nd day kicked off with a session on cognitive(thought process) distortions related to stuttering.The facilitator Mr Jai Prakash Sunda thoroughly explained the impact of one’s attitude towards this disability.The participants realized that irrespective of their age,they could still pursue their life-long dreams which earlier they had given up in the name of stuttering.After this,the participants were divided into two groups and each group was provided with a script so as to test their acting skills.The participants explored their creative side and all in all it was a good blend of speech therapy and enjoyment for the participants.Following this,a participant of the group Dr. Kshitij gave a presentation on the topic”Stuttering and Medical Science”.This was followed by some more discussion on acceptance and Jai told everyone that all of them were ready to accept their stutter in the outside world.To achieve this,the participants were taken to the Sec-17 plaza and divided into 3 groups.Then each member of the group was instructed to ask some pre-selected questions related to stuttering(like What is stuttering?Why do you think it happens? How can you help a stutterer?,etc.) to people in the plaza.This solved two purposes-1)It greatly reduced the stigma attached to stammering in the mind of a stutterer.2)It created awareness among the people about this seldom discussed topic.For all the participants it was a liberating experience as this activity exposed the one thing they had been hiding for so many years. The interviews ended at 7 30 pm and the days’ success was celebrated with lots of ice-cream !!!!!