I'm 54. I was hauled into speech therapy when I was 11, not because anyone wanted to help me, but because I was an inconvenience to my teachers. Back then, stuttering was considered an emotional, intellectual, or behavioral problem. The first thing my so-called "therapist" did was give me an IQ test. After several months of twice-weekly sessions, my she told my parents that I was faking a stutter to gain attention. Which is, of course, patently ridiculous. But my parents took this conclusion to heart, and I subsequently endured years of various types of abuse. Yes, my experience left me biased. And I know things have changed in the decades since. But I just cannot recommend speech therapy--at least, not unless the therapist has been seriously and rigorously vetted. 🙂
Oh my God. This is a horror story. Through and through. I can hardly even process this. And I have read a LOT of accounts about the lives of people who stutter, a lot of quite bad ones, some recent, some from decades ago. I'm so very very sorry.
@@nspector It was a product of both time (the 70s) and place (the conservative evangelical Southern U.S.). But I got through it. I had to do it on my own, and it took about 30 years, but I did. (I still stutter, by the way. Nowhere near as bad, but it's there. And likely always will be.) The greatest realization I ever had was that I AM NOT DAMAGED. I do not need to be fixed. I'm just different, as everybody is in one way or another. 🙂 If you're interested in the details of my experience as a stutterer in the Dark Ages, I cover it in my book NERDS OF ANARCHY, available on Amazon. Here's the link: www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1720111529/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1606319201&sr=1-1#aw-udpv3-customer-reviews_feature_div
@@nspector Much of my experience was the result of time (the less enlightened 70s) and place (conservative evangelical Southern U.S.). But I got through it. I had to do it on my own, and it took some 30 years, but I did. The greatest realization I ever had was that I AM NOT BROKEN. I do not need to be fixed. I'm just different, as everybody is in one way or another. The sooner stutterers AND fluent folks come to understand this, the sooner the stigma will go away. (By the way, I do still stutter. It's nowhere near as bad, but it's there. And probably always will be.) If you'd like to learn more about my experiences as a stutterer in the Dark Ages, I cover it in my novel NERDS OF ANARCHY, available on Amazon. Here's the link: www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1720111529/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1606319201&sr=1-1#aw-udpv3-customer-reviews_feature_div
@@roy1701d We are the same age, but I am from NY and CT, and my family was never part of a fundamentalist religion. I am so very glad to hear that you somehow managed to get through it and to have that amazing realization. I cannot spend money right now, but I did read the pages I could see on Amazon. They are really compelling. It's clear it's a painful story, much of it, at least. I hope it was cathartic to write. Wishing you the best. You deserve it.
@@nspector Thank you so VERY much! And yes, it was cathartic in many ways. In the end, my stutter was just a small part of the story. It's mostly about dealing with a dysfunctional family and finding the right friends to help me through it. (Later, I found a wonderful, patient partner; we had a daughter, I came to terms with my stutter, and was able to break the cycle of abuse and dysfunction.) 😀
There are very, very different practices that may be called "speech therapy"; most of them from my experience were absolutely pointless and were lead by extremely incompetent people, although they had university diplomas on that subject. And, as you can imagine, I hated the whole idea of treatment - and ended up to deny that I have a problem, denying it to myself and to others. I told that I could control my speech if I needed; in fact, I couldn't. However, I was very lucky to find a therapist in Moscow 10 years ago; she is a very famous, an old lady who just had turned 80 by that time, and she's 90 by now. She had her own method of treatment to build our speech (it was a group therapy) completely anew from scratch, to build new speech patterns with new neural connections. She spent enourmous amount of time with us, many hundreds of hours, and we were obliged to do no less than 20 voice records per day talking on the street to complete strangers. We were also needed to make public speekings in front of various audiences practicing our new speech pattern. The speech therapy that only takes place inside a therapy room is useless; you need your speech therapist to go outside with you and master real life social situations. The treatment were roughly for 1,5 years, and yes, a miracle was happened. Not a substantial improvement, but new speech that is absolutely free from any manifestations of stuttering, although stuttering is generally considered to be incurable in the West. My speech therapist is a person whom I will be being extremely grateful to to the rest of my life as to no one else. So, it depends.
for me no. nothing one can do to stop stuttering. it's not fixable. i went to see a speech therapist once was extremely dissapointed that she actually thought it can be fixed. so that's it. i left immediately.
My kindest regards to you. I try speech theraphy every 10 to 20 years, it doesn't improve and they don't have anything new to offer. Its all about talking and the enhancing that feeling of talking freely without being self conscious of your stammer. I stammer and find you have good days and bad days. Remember the feeling you have on the good days and try to build on that. Also, humming and singing words helps. Yes sounds mad but try it, stammerers don't stammer when they sing - FACT. Its a combination of humming with words and breath control. My heart goes out to you my sweet, I'm old and can offer you 60 years of inward thinking. Be yourself and your confidence follows, sure some mock but this makes you stronger no one is perfect and the love of your friends and partner supports you. Be proud to be you. x
yes some speech therapists dont understand stuttering at all. they thought it is fixable and has stg to do with anxiety and lack of intelligence. They clearly didnt do well in college to NOT know that!
I'm 54. I was hauled into speech therapy when I was 11, not because anyone wanted to help me, but because I was an inconvenience to my teachers. Back then, stuttering was considered an emotional, intellectual, or behavioral problem. The first thing my so-called "therapist" did was give me an IQ test. After several months of twice-weekly sessions, my she told my parents that I was faking a stutter to gain attention. Which is, of course, patently ridiculous. But my parents took this conclusion to heart, and I subsequently endured years of various types of abuse. Yes, my experience left me biased. And I know things have changed in the decades since. But I just cannot recommend speech therapy--at least, not unless the therapist has been seriously and rigorously vetted. 🙂
Oh my God. This is a horror story. Through and through. I can hardly even process this. And I have read a LOT of accounts about the lives of people who stutter, a lot of quite bad ones, some recent, some from decades ago. I'm so very very sorry.
@@nspector It was a product of both time (the 70s) and place (the conservative evangelical Southern U.S.). But I got through it. I had to do it on my own, and it took about 30 years, but I did. (I still stutter, by the way. Nowhere near as bad, but it's there. And likely always will be.) The greatest realization I ever had was that I AM NOT DAMAGED. I do not need to be fixed. I'm just different, as everybody is in one way or another. 🙂
If you're interested in the details of my experience as a stutterer in the Dark Ages, I cover it in my book NERDS OF ANARCHY, available on Amazon. Here's the link: www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1720111529/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1606319201&sr=1-1#aw-udpv3-customer-reviews_feature_div
@@nspector Much of my experience was the result of time (the less enlightened 70s) and place (conservative evangelical Southern U.S.). But I got through it. I had to do it on my own, and it took some 30 years, but I did. The greatest realization I ever had was that I AM NOT BROKEN. I do not need to be fixed. I'm just different, as everybody is in one way or another. The sooner stutterers AND fluent folks come to understand this, the sooner the stigma will go away. (By the way, I do still stutter. It's nowhere near as bad, but it's there. And probably always will be.)
If you'd like to learn more about my experiences as a stutterer in the Dark Ages, I cover it in my novel NERDS OF ANARCHY, available on Amazon. Here's the link: www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1720111529/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1606319201&sr=1-1#aw-udpv3-customer-reviews_feature_div
@@roy1701d We are the same age, but I am from NY and CT, and my family was never part of a fundamentalist religion. I am so very glad to hear that you somehow managed to get through it and to have that amazing realization. I cannot spend money right now, but I did read the pages I could see on Amazon. They are really compelling. It's clear it's a painful story, much of it, at least. I hope it was cathartic to write. Wishing you the best. You deserve it.
@@nspector Thank you so VERY much! And yes, it was cathartic in many ways. In the end, my stutter was just a small part of the story. It's mostly about dealing with a dysfunctional family and finding the right friends to help me through it. (Later, I found a wonderful, patient partner; we had a daughter, I came to terms with my stutter, and was able to break the cycle of abuse and dysfunction.) 😀
There are very, very different practices that may be called "speech therapy"; most of them from my experience were absolutely pointless and were lead by extremely incompetent people, although they had university diplomas on that subject. And, as you can imagine, I hated the whole idea of treatment - and ended up to deny that I have a problem, denying it to myself and to others. I told that I could control my speech if I needed; in fact, I couldn't.
However, I was very lucky to find a therapist in Moscow 10 years ago; she is a very famous, an old lady who just had turned 80 by that time, and she's 90 by now. She had her own method of treatment to build our speech (it was a group therapy) completely anew from scratch, to build new speech patterns with new neural connections. She spent enourmous amount of time with us, many hundreds of hours, and we were obliged to do no less than 20 voice records per day talking on the street to complete strangers. We were also needed to make public speekings in front of various audiences practicing our new speech pattern. The speech therapy that only takes place inside a therapy room is useless; you need your speech therapist to go outside with you and master real life social situations.
The treatment were roughly for 1,5 years, and yes, a miracle was happened. Not a substantial improvement, but new speech that is absolutely free from any manifestations of stuttering, although stuttering is generally considered to be incurable in the West. My speech therapist is a person whom I will be being extremely grateful to to the rest of my life as to no one else.
So, it depends.
Welcome back beautiful 🙌
for me no. nothing one can do to stop stuttering. it's not fixable. i went to see a speech therapist once was extremely dissapointed that she actually thought it can be fixed. so that's it. i left immediately.
I am so happy that you are back!
Glad to see you Alexandra! I totally agree with you. Don't stop to share your thoughts and emotions with us!
Does reading aloud help?
for me yes, the louder i talk, the less I stutter
My kindest regards to you. I try speech theraphy every 10 to 20 years, it doesn't improve and they don't have anything new to offer. Its all about talking and the enhancing that feeling of talking freely without being self conscious of your stammer. I stammer and find you have good days and bad days. Remember the feeling you have on the good days and try to build on that. Also, humming and singing words helps. Yes sounds mad but try it, stammerers don't stammer when they sing - FACT. Its a combination of humming with words and breath control. My heart goes out to you my sweet, I'm old and can offer you 60 years of inward thinking. Be yourself and your confidence follows, sure some mock but this makes you stronger no one is perfect and the love of your friends and partner supports you. Be proud to be you. x
yes some speech therapists dont understand stuttering at all. they thought it is fixable and has stg to do with anxiety and lack of intelligence. They clearly didnt do well in college to NOT know that!
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