What's So Great About Stuttering?
I stuttered severely. I needed an hour to say what a non-stutterer could say in five minutes. I could block on a word for five minutes.
My speech wasn't just slow. I jerked my head, rolled my eyes, and my body shook in spasms. Some listeners asked if I needed medical attention. More often they laughed at me.
Worst, my speech was incomprehensible. Listeners guessed what I was trying to say, usually incorrectly. Or they ignored me and walked away.
I'm now 46. People ask me to speak at events. I perform acting and stand-up comedy. In stressful conversations I sound confident and relaxed. And I still stutter.
Stuttering is a remarkable disorder. It's easy to help stutterers to speak fluently temporarily, or in certain situations, but—past the age of six—no universal, permanent treatment has been found. Stutterers can talk fluently when they're alone; by changing their style of speaking; by focusing their attention on certain parts of speech; by using an electronic device; or even seeing their speech therapist walk into the room. But stutterers can go right back to stuttering even after months of the best therapy.
Stuttering occurs when we want most to speak well, such as job interviews, public speaking, or speaking to authority figures. Stuttering is characterized by overtense speech-production muscles. We try too hard, tense, stutter, try harder, stutter more, and get stuck in a vicious cycle. The most frustrating aspect of stuttering is that it gets worse when we try not to do it.
Some stutterers have extreme physical symptoms, as I did. Other stutterers hide their stuttering by substituting or avoiding words but are disabled by speech-related fears and anxieties. A stutterer may refuse promotions that require talking, or avoid social interaction.
Not many paraplegics win marathons. Few blind persons become famous painters. Not a lot of deaf persons are great musicians. But despite the disabling effects of stuttering, some stutterers become effective public speakers.
Demosthenes was the greatest orator of ancient Greece. Aesop was master storyteller of Babylon. Winston Churchill and Aneurin Bevan were the best speakers in the British Parliament in the 1930s. Today, James Earl Jones is one of the most in-demand voices in Hollywood.
These stutterers found ways to speak fluently, and developed strengths from what had been a disability.
Demosthenes improved his articulation by speaking with pebbles in his mouth, improved his volume by shouting over the ocean waves, and worked with an actor to speak with emotional affect.
Bevan also found fluency when expressing his emotions. As leader of the British Labor Party during the Depression he made passionate speeches about the plight of the working class.
Churchill was fluent when he prepared his remarks in advance—so he devoted long hours to mastering every political issue and having an answer ready for every objection.
Jones recited Shakespeare and developed his acting talent along with his fluency.
Individuals find their strengths only after finding their limitations. [1] For non-stutterers, 35 may be when the dreams of their youth crash down. But for stutterers this is often the age at which they overcome stuttering, and find that they can achieve goals they never thought possible.
Stutterers are both hyperaware and unaware of stuttering. Before talking to a stranger, we have fear and anxiety that we'll lose control of our speech. But we have poor awareness of what do when we stutter. Speech therapy often begins with the stutterer analyzing videotapes of his speech and seeing for the first time what he does when he stutters.
You can't overcome stuttering until you admit that you stutter. Ironically, admitting that you stutter gets easier as you improve your fluency. People who stutter severely can be the least willing to do anything about their stuttering.
But after you make progress on your speech, you want to tell everyone how you did it. You attend support groups and stuttering conventions—or write a book.
Stuttering is one of the few disabilities that get better over time. Most children outgrow it. Even adults who stutter severely in their 20s usually learn to manage their stuttering in their 30s. Other diseases lead to a lifetime of worsening symptoms. But if you're an adult stutterer, your most severe stuttering is probably behind you.
Stuttering is difficult to treat because it involves all aspects of your life—muscle control, emotions and anxieties, cognitive awareness, and social interaction. By working on the different aspects of stuttering, your reward is not just fluent speech, but improvements in all areas of your life. Years after reading this book, you'll look back over many life successes and say that stuttering was a gift.
In no area is man more vulnerable to misunderstanding, criticism and downright abuse from his fellow man than if he should fail to develop speech, or having gained it, should lose it—for when man loses the ability to express himself by speech he is suspect…of having lost, also the [faculties to arrive] at the conclusions which he would express in speech. The world feels…that if he can't say his name…he doesn't know his name. [2]
References
[1] Bly, Robert. Iron John (Georges Borchardt, Inc., 1991).
[2] Doman, Glenn. What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child, 1974.
