postr/StutterFebruary 14, 2025

advice for phd student with fluency disorder

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advice for phd student with fluency disorder Hi all, I'm a first-year biology PhD student that clutters and has adhd/autism. I think my advisor is looking down on me because of my speech skills and I don't know how to fix it or if it is even valid to bring it up. I have noticed that they have started to pick apart the way I talk and constantly asks me to reclarify my sentence or use different words. A few weeks ago I mentioned writing down my thoughts so I can better communicate my ideas, and they said that "I can do that, but I need to learn how to verbally communicate" because I can't talk to them only through words or whatever. Today, they explicitly told me to work on my speech skills (e.g., speaking slower, connecting thoughts better, etc) and to be more confident when speaking because "communication is key to success in this field". I genuinely think that after they have noticed my speech they have started to act like I'm stupid and don't know how to do research as they will go out of their way to make comments like "you remember that right?" or define concepts for me that are very basic. I know that communication is an important part of any job but I've always believed there are other ways to communicate (I much prefer writing over speaking obviously) and most importantly its not reflective of my intelligence or capacity to do research. The main point of this all though is that these comments were only made during casual conversations. I can get why they worried if it was for a presentation or talk, but they genuinely are tearing apart the way I talk every day. Obviously I prepare for talks and presentations (I basically make a script) but I cant do that for normal conversations. I'm even more hurt knowing that I probably didn't experience this in undergrad because I disclosed my disabilities + speech troubles to my professors beforehand. I made the decision not to disclose this to my current advisor because my experience in undergrad made me think that it was not something that affected my work. Clearly it does and no one probably said anything to me because I told them I had a disability. I genuinely don't know what to do and I'm worried because this is only my first year- I don't want to make any bad impressions by bringing it up but I also don't want to deal with this my entire phd.

Themes

Anticipation & AvoidanceCauses & VariabilityIdentity & DisabilitySchool & Work

Subthemes

Avoidance & SubstitutionOverthinking & MonitoringNeurological & BrainIdentity & Self-PerceptionEmployment & Career

Codes (3)

intimidation_authorityperceived_judgmentsocial_pressure