Stuttering Awareness Week - Adult Stutterer Decides to Outgrow Stuttering, Just as Many Normal Speakers Do in Childhood

Stuttering Awareness Week - Adult Stutterer Decides to Outgrow Stuttering, Just as Many Normal Speakers Do in Childhood

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

 
  Disclaimer - Article is for information only and is not medical advice.