Do you think you listen well? Do you listen well to all others? Do you even listen well to the physically handicapped?

. . . Studies of attitudes toward stutterers reveal widespread bias. In a 1997 survey, nurses filled out questionnaires about a hypothetical stuttering doctor and were asked to appraise the physician's personality traits. They deemed the stutterer more afraid and nervous and less mature, intelligent, and educated than a hypothetical physician who did not stutter. Even a poll of speech pathologists found that more than a third of the group expressed the view that people who stutter have psychological problems. Reviewing these findings, Gordon Blood, a professor of communication disorders at Pennsylvania State University, says that the persistence of such potent stereotypes can in itself worsen a stutterer's plight. "A listener's reaction plays a huge part in this disorder," he says. "What we're really asking is for people to be civil" (p. 50).

Source: R. K. Sobel, "Anatomy of a Stutter: New findings from brain studies and genetics are illuminating the causes of this ancient affliction." U.S. News & World Report, April 2, 2001, pp. 44-51.

1		Do you think you would act differently toward a stutterer than is depicted in this excerpt?
2		How can those who are physically challenged increase the likelihood they will be listened to effectively by others? How can our society change the way they react to the physically challenged?
3		Is the problem one of poor listening? Or, is it more a problem of attitude? How do attitudes toward others and effective listening relate?