Stop Stuttering

I am someone, who from what my parents have told me, started to stutter when I was four years of age. I have to say that I hated having a stuttering problem and was determined that I eventually would be able to have the confidence to say whichever words that I wanted to, in any situation. There were you see a number of words which I believed I just could not say and I also found it difficult to talk when I felt under pressure. After living with the stutter for eighteen years, I finally managed to achieve fluency and life has never been so good. It is like having a weight lifted from my shoulders.

Many people who stutter find that it can, in a way, rule their whole lives. Every decision they take seems to be affected by the speech impediment. For example, I decided to leave school because of my own stutter. My life at school was made so much harder by being unable to converse fluently. In fact I used to fear going to school, this was mainly because I was scared that I would be asked to read out aloud from a book or would be asked a question in front of the whole class. I will never forget when I attempted to take part in a role play in an English lesson, I was a complete nervous wreck and had a terrible time.

When I was at home, a place where I should be relaxed, I used to be afraid of the telephone of all things. Fluent people may well think that I am crazy from some of the things that I am admitting to in this article. On the other hand, I am sure other people who have a stutter may identify with some of the issues that I was trying to deal with on a daily basis. Going back to the telephone, there were many times when the phone would start to ring and I would just ignore it and not answer it. My parents would return home a little while later and would see that someone has perhaps left a message. They would enquire as to why I had not answered the call, I would reply with some excuse such as that I had popped out to the shops.

As you can see I basically had a fear of stuttering and during this period I would do anything to avoid stuttering. To overcome the speech impediment I was willing to do anything to beat it.

Popularity: 2% [?]

There are many different treatments for people who stutter/stammer. In this article I will describe some of the experiences and types of stuttering or stammering therapy people experiment with.

One of the first places people go to when seeking help for a speech impediment is speech therapy. I myself started attending speech therapy at the age of five and I continued at different times to attend until the age of eighteen. Now I am sure some people have some very positive experiences and results from this type of therapy, however I was not one of these people. From what I remember the main advice I was given was to slow down my speech and to take a deep breath before starting to speak. When I observed fluent people speaking, I rarely heard them take a deep breath.

Another area people try is hypnotherapy. This was something I really wanted to try for myself at the age of around nineteen. Unfortunately each session cost nearly as much as my weekly wage at that point of my life. I never managed to experience this form of stammering therapy.

I now believe that stuttering is a psychological as well as a physical problem. As hypnotherapy only really deals with the psychological issues I am now not sure if it could have offered me the complete answer.

The other treatments people who have a stutter try are speech courses. These courses are either on a group basis or on a one to one basis. With each of these courses, the person who attends the course is required to practice the techniques to make them a natural part of their speech.

Confidence courses are another form of treatment for stuttering. In my opinion these are of value, however do not cover the physical aspects of how to eradicate a stutter.

Popularity: 1% [?]