Stuttering Takeaways –
Learn to shift your thinking away from fear of stuttering. Become more tolerant of your speaking difficulties, like normal speakers. Learn to be more resilient to listener reactions.
A stutterer can learn to reduce their awareness of their speech to a level more near that of normal speakers.
I can speak with authority, because I have stuttered since childhood. Today I have 80% fluency, and am very happy about that.
To begin, the stutterer can consider the following:
Everyone stutters to some extent, but it does not bother him or her. Here is the big difference. Stutterers are deeply troubled with all speech difficulties. Stutterers ruminate about past stuttering events. Stutterers fear future speaking situations. Stutterers think about their speech much more than normal speakers. Stutterers watch for listener reactions much more than normal speakers.
I went to many speech therapists in my life. I also learned self-help techniques.
What helped me the most, however, was realizing that my stuttering was a symptom of thinking and emotional troubles.
Here is what has helped me.
I took ownership of how my body and mind works.I worked on my troublesome personality traits, such as: Perfectionistic Overly sensitive Overly reactive Low self-esteem and confidence I learned assertiveness skills. I learned about the various stuttering therapy techniques. I picked a few of these tools to get through stuttering situations the easiest.
When I changed my irrational thinking, my stuttering improved, as well as many of my other life situations.
For much of my life, I could not even say my own name without contortions. I squeezed out each word. I got tired of that, especially as an adult. I decided to grow out of stuttering, just as many normal speakers do in childhood.
If I could improve my stuttering by 80%, you can too.
For more information –
International Stuttering Awareness Day – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Stuttering_Awareness_Day A CHECKLIST OF STUTTERING AND NORMAL DYSFLUENCY – www.kslc.net/resources/comm_connection/stuttering_checklist.pdf Counseling Skills for Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists By Lydia V. Flasher, Paul T Fogle – see section Stuttering and Fluency Disorders Van Riper – Study Guide – Veils of Stuttering – Desensitization – www.veilsofstuttering.com/documents/vriper.htm Stuttering Modification Therapy – www.mnsu.edu/comdis/kuster/journal/osborne3/vanriper.ppt