Exactly. To say that stuttering or any other speech impediment is just a ‘difference’ rather a disorder is ridiculous. First, because by saying that he’s sugarcoating reality. Political correctness becomes tiresome when it waters down the facts. How is it not a speech disorder to open your mouth to say a phrase only to block on the syllables, gasp with the effort and make violent facial contortions in an attempt to expel the words? We have a speech disorder, we need to learn to cope with it rather than denying it. Second, by tossing it out of the ‘disorder’ category he’s disregarding the struggle of PWS for whom stuttering gets in the way of their careers, social lives and everyday activities. (My stutter is not so bad, and I’m grateful for that, but I know there are others out there who have it a lot worse.) Third, he’s playing into the idea that stuttering is not a ‘real’ disability. Sure, it’s not a catastrophe, it’s not the worst thing in the world, but it’s not not a disorder either. Like you said, most of us speak fluently sometimes yet stutter excruciatingly at other times. The lack of ‘consistency’ seems to make people think that it’s a transitory issue and can be fixed easily (talk slowly, breathe deeply, or my favorite: don’t be nervous!). And that first-grade teacher who believed she could scare the stutter out of you? Well, saying things like ‘it’s not a disorder’ reinforces imbecile ideas like hers. So he’s doing nobody a favor by insisting stuttering is not a speech disorder.