The Health Doctors Daily Blog

Forming relationships with members of the opposite sex is hard enough for many fluent people. Just think for a few moments about how difficult it is for people who suffer with the speech impediment known as stuttering!

I had a stammer up until the age of twenty-two, at this point I managed to overcome the problem after a lot of hard work. For many years I wondered if I would ever meet a girl who would be willing to be my girlfriend. I used to think in a very negative way and would often ask myself questions such as, why would any girl want to go out with me? What kind of girl is going to want to date somebody who has a lack of confidence and a stutter?

If I meet a girl I will have to meet her friends and family. I used to dread meeting new people as they always seemed to ask so many direct questions such as where do you work? I wanted to have a shirt printed with all of the answers to the most popular questions as I would normally stammer under the pressure. To point to the particular answer or to say the number would be just far simpler.

I met my first ever girlfriend when I was eighteen, what a stud! I have to say she was superb and did not seem to care that I had a stammer. She was even happy to order my drinks and food for me and was basically a very nice girl. For whatever reason I did not believe that I was good enough for her and constantly worried that she would dump me. As you can see I was a very positive person. How would I cope if she left me? How long would it take me to meet somebody else who would be willing to date somebody with a stammer?

This girl did leave me but I did date her for fourteen months. I did cope despite my reservations and was surprised to find that most girls/women that I met after this did not care that I had a stammer. I still found the whole dating process very difficult especially at the outset.

I am now a DVD duplication consultant from the UK; I now have a wife and two beautiful children – I am also able to speak free from the fear of stuttering.

Lots and lots of people have managed to overcome a stammer. For this reason it often astounds me when I hear people, especially speech therapists, state that there is no known cure for stammering. So why are they being so negative? They may not be able to help people to achieve fluency but they should not be, in my opinion, shattering the hopes and dreams of many who would love to eradicate their stammer.

How many people have managed to overcome a stammer? As stated in the opening paragraph of this article there has been a large number of people who have managed to overcome a stammer, these include many famous people. Just by doing a simple search on Google for “famous people who had a stammer” will help you to find some of these.

How easy is it to overcome a stammer? It certainly is not easy to overcome a stammer, it takes a lot of practice to enable the techniques that are taught to become a natural part of one’s speech. Even though it does require this amount of practice and dedication the majority of people who stammer are more than willing to put in this amount effort. It goes without saying that to eradicate a stammer from one’s life can literally change a person’s life.

How long does it take to achieve fluency? It is, of course, different for each person however it takes an averahe of 3-4 months to overcome the stammer for people who put in the required amount of practice.

Are there any therapies for stammering out there that actually work? There are self-help stammering therapy products which include DVD’s, e-books and audio books. There are also one-to-one speech courses which are run by people who have previously had a stammer.

Where can I find out about the types of stuttering help and stammering therapies that are available? Probably the easiest way is to do a search on Google for “stammering therapy courses”.

It has been well known for many years now amongst the specialised stammering therapy that this form of speech impediment can be overcome. Why therefore certain speech and language therapists continue to advise people that there is not a known cure for stammering is beyond me. It is widely known, especially here in the UK, that for people who are determined to work hard and who are prepared to put in the required amount of practice that stammering can be overcome. What’s more many many people have managed to achieve fluency and are now able to enjoy a life free from the fear of stammering.

I am asked on a regular basis whether there is a cure for stammering. The people asking the question have often been mis-informed by their local speech therapist and are then more than pleased to be told differently.

The majority of people who have a stammer are fully prepared to put in the necessary required hours of practice as they are determined to achieve fluency. There are numerous forms of stammering therapy that can help them to attain their goal of fluency. These range from one-to-one stammering speech courses, which are normally held over a three or five-day period, to self-help therapy products which include audio books, DVD’s and e-books.

The speech coaches who are offering these forms of stuttering help treatments are usually people who have managed to overcome a stammer themselves and who therefore fully understand what it is like to have this form of speech impediment.

So is there a cure for stammering? Yes there is!

So why do speech therapists say otherwise? Well who knows the answer to this question. Perhaps a few of them could answer the question for themselves. It could well be because they are unable to provide the stammering cure through their own speech therapy.

So why do the speech therapists not attempt to develop their skills by contacting the people who are able to offer a cure to stammering? Again who knows? I certainly do not.

Steve Hill is a speech coach from the UK; he runs The How To Stop Stammering Centre where he helps people to achieve total fluency.

I developed a stutter or as some people call it a stammer in childhood. From what my parents tell me it started when I was four years of age.

Despite regular speech therapy over the next fourteen years my stutter became worse. I remember quite clearly the fear of having to read out from a book in class. Walking into the classroom, for example an English lesson, I would see that there was a book on each desk. My mind would begin to stress and would think that the tutor would ask me to read from the book. Just waiting my turn, knowing that it would result in yet another one of those stuttering moments would be torture.

Socialising with friends was not exactly easy for me either. I am fairly sure that the majority of people enjoy going out with their friends and even look forward to the prospect. For me though this was not the case, I would be counting down the days as the week went on.

My worst area of speech was using the telephone. To say that the telephone was something I would avoid using would have been something of an understatement – luckily my father made the majority of the calls on my behalf. Some people may say that this was not exactly helping me in the long run. This may be correct and I was very grateful at the time.

After leaving school, I started to attend interviews to try to find employment including a very bad one at a business cost cutting company. I would normally stutter more when under pressure or when meeting new people and both of these situations are prevalent in an interview situation. I would normally arrive at the interview very tired after a lack of sleep through the stress of it all and I have to say found it very difficult to convince any employer to take me on.

As you can no doubt imagine I was eager to find a way of stopping stuttering and I did eventually attain fluency after purchasing a seventy minute self-help stuttering therapy DVD from the UK. I now live happy and successful life and as a career I now I work for a DVD authoring company.

I hope other people who have a stutter can gain inspiration from my story – stuttering can be overcome and do not listen to those who say otherwise.

Are you somebody who has a stammer? My name is Stephen Hill and I had a stammer problem which started when I was aged four. After suffering with the speech impediment for eighteen years, I then, afer a lot of hard work, managed to achieve fluency. This article is about the types of speech therapy that are available for stammering.

After my stammer developed, my parents decided that I needed to attend some sort of speech therapy. I attended various types of therapy, some in groups, some on a one to one basis. Over the years I have been given a lot of information and advice with regards to overcoming the stammer. These are some of them:

slowing down the speed of my speech

costal breathing

prolonging each word or sound

taking a deep breath before I started speaking

I was a child that started at what I suppose would be considered to be the first class – preschool stammering. I was very young to attend stammering speech therapy and my parents were reassured that most people who stammer in childhood soon grow out of it. Well for whatever reason, I was one of those who continued well into my adult life.

I grew older and then joined the class known as childhood stammering. I kept on attending speech and language therapy despite the lack of progress that I was making. I guess I continued to go to keep my parents happy. This had little effect on my fluency and it has to be stated, that I really did not want to attend these anti stammering sessions. This was because I felt that the people who were trying to help me, did not really understand what I was going through, as they had never actually had a stammer themselves.

I then progressed to the class called, adult stammering. I now decided that speech therapy was not really working for me and seeked alternative stammering treatment.

I decided to try my own form of stammering help. Even though I had a stammer, at times I could talk very well. As an example when I was drunk, I spoke superbly. This was possibly because of the additional confidence the alcohol seemed to give me.

After nearly a year I managed to overcome stammering and eradicate the stammer once and for all. As a career I now help other people to stop stammering.