Guest Blog Post by Dr. John Paul McKinney
Author, An Ode to Cleve
In an earlier blog post , Nina Reeves writes that “The field of speech-language pathology is changing. As we shift away from the medical model that sees stuttering as a pathology, we are on a journey toward becoming neurodiversity-affirming allies.”
Unwittingly, I had earlier published a story about a boy named Nick, who stuttered, in which the notion that stuttering as verbal diversity was front and center. For example, Nick’s best friend, Mason, insisted that Nick consider his speech just his way of talking. At one point when Nick was feeling dejected about his stuttering, Mason reassured him by commenting on the speech of a neighbor, a retired professor, who had a stiff, professorial way of talking, as well as that of a family who had an accent:
“Whoa, dude. It’s just your way of talking. Lots of people have their own way. Take old man Carson, for example. You told me that Carson talks ‘weird.’ And how about that family at the end of the street that moved up from Georgia? They all have a ‘southern drawl.’ You can still understand them, right? Stuttering is just how you talk. Sure, it’s hard, but people usually know what you’re saying.”
Without realizing it, I had given Nick’s best friend the sensitivity of a seasoned speech-language pathologist. But this story was not written without help. Having written what I considered a final draft, I decided to have an expert in the field review it for me. I found the expert at my own university! (I’m a retired professor of psychology from Michigan State University, home of Stuttering Therapy Resources’s own J. Scott Yaruss.)
I had written a story in which Nick “overcame” his stuttering by talking to his beloved, three-legged pet dog. Professor Yaruss wrote back that he liked the story but noted that the story doesn’t always work out that way for children who stutter. When Scott suggested that I might give young readers a false hope, I rewrote the story in such a way that Nick becomes more comfortable with himself and the way he talks. In the end, he becomes confident enough to enter his school’s speech contest with a picture of his beloved dog, Cleve, on the podium next to his text.
After having rewritten the story, I realized that it is not about verbal diversity alone; it also reflects the importance of acknowledging other types of neurodiversity and all of the ways in which both children and adults who are different may be marginalized or discriminated against. Perhaps Nick’s courage can serve as a model for others who find themselves in a similar situation.
I will let Nick have the last word. Here is the speech he wrote and delivered for his school’s annual speech contest (p. 124-125):
AN ODE TO CLEVE
There was a time, and not so v-very long ago,
And even now,
When I am plagued with halting s-speech;
The words just stumble from my lips
Like rocks being tossed upon the b-beach
By waves that care no more for stones
Then sailors’ c-carcasses with whitened bones.
And no one listens, no one c-cares;
My words drop unattended.
And if I try to pick them up
Most people seem offended.
But you, my dear and gentle C-Cleve,
Have never left my side,
You do not criticize my s-speech
Or ask me to slow down,
And even if I yell and screech
I never see you frown.
I looked down at Cleve’s picture and smiled. I could just imagine him rubbing up against my leg, urging me along.
You never t-taunt me,
You never laugh; you never call me “N-N-Nick.”
You sit and wait beside my leg
Every time a word gets s-stuck.
You help me understand, dear Cleve
As I watch you walk on three legs,
Still, you get from place to place
And isn’t that the point of walking?
I realize that I can stutter
And still be understood,
And isn’t that the point of talking?
If you can walk on just three legs
And get from there to here,
Then I can talk with a s-stutter and still
Make my meaning clear.
My d-dearest pal in all the world,
I keep you as my pet.
Some would say you’re just a dog
And yet
I know you're more than that to me
Oh, friend who lets my words fly free.
Thank you, Cleve, for being there
It's c-comforting to know you care.
The end.
I don’t want to tell you how the story ends in case you want to read it or give it to a young friend as a gift. If you like, you can order a copy here. Thank you.
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Editor’s note: Stuttering Therapy Resources is pleased to highlight helpful materials for children who stutter and their caregivers, and we are grateful to Dr. McKinney for sharing his time and talents through this story about Nick and Cleve. For more caregiver resources, click here and here.
ALSO: Congratulations to Dr. McKinney, as An Ode to Cleve won the 2025 First Place award for juvenile fiction from the Colorado Independent Publishers Association. Find more about his work at www.johnpaulmckinney.weebly.com.
