Jim
10-11-2007, 09:25 PM
Hello to Everybody -
I'm a native of Little Rock, Arkansas and was a stutterer most of my life.
According to my parents, I was stuttering by the age of 4 when I went to nursery school. They quickly removed me from the school but my stuttering continued. In fact, it grew worse.
In 1938, my mother took me to the University of Iowa at Iowa City where I would receive free speech therapy if I participated in an experiment by Dr. Van Riper to determine if a choice of handedness caused stuttering. It was found it did not and the therapy received was of little help.
In 1945, I went to San Francisco, California for therapy by Mabel Farrington Gifford who had written a book in 1940 titled: How to Overcome Stammering. (By the way, her book was just reprinted in March, 2007.) The speech therapy I received from Ms. Gifford was tremendously helpful but, for some reason, I could not keep it going after I returned home.
During the next fifty years, while I married and had four daughters, my stuttering continued unabated, worse sometimes than others, and seemingly beyond my control--especially when I really didn't want to stutter!
I guess my lucky break came in 1987 when I decided (at least my hundredth attempt) to quit smoking cigarettes (I was a three pack a day smoker). Summoning up what will power I had, I quit cold turkey, and haven't had a cigarette since.
So, I decided if I could quite smoking, I could quit stuttering the same way.
I guess it's needless to tell you it didn't work. But I was still determined to quit.
The most painful way I stuttered was most in severe blocks that resulted in facial grimaces and finally the word coming out explosively. During the time I was blocking, funny as it may seem to you, I would forget how to pronounce the word and would mentally ask myself, "Why didn't they teach me how to pronounce this word in school?" (I do not know if other stutterers experience this.)
So, I guess you could say that I home schooled myself and taught myself how to pronounce, starting with sounds ... how to speak without stuttering.
In 1988, devised a phonetic alphabet for myself that I could read easily (I found the IPA or International Phonetic Alphabet too hard to decipher).
Having done that, I took one syllable (the semi-liquid consonant L and the open vowel U = LU) and said "lu" to myself countless times until I was certain I could say it without stuttering anytime, anywhere under any condition.
My next syllable was HI and I went around saying "Hi" to everybody I saw. I was the friendliest person in town - and I didn't stutter.
By 1989, I had progressed to some two-syllable words. The most important was "Hello," which I used when answering the telephone (I used to dread and fear answering the phone).
From there, I progressed to short phrases. And then to one-on-one conversations.
One day in the spring of 1991, while I was at the bookstore (I owned a bookstore until I retired), a customer came in and said, "I'm not hearing you stutter anymore."
I said, "I think I've overcome it."
"Would you like to find out for sure?" he asked.
"Of course," I said.
"I belong to Toastmasters, a club where you practice speaking to groups of people. I invite you to come join our club."
My response was immediate: a true stutterer's avoidance response. "Thanks," I said, "but I haven't got the time."
So he shook his head but left his business card.
That evening, after the store closed, I sat in the back office and realized if I couldn't make time then, it was likely I never would make time. So I picked up the phone, called him and joined Toastmasters. Although my speech controls worked and I spoke without stuttering. Three years later, I became president of the club but my fear of stuttering and avoidance techniques kept reappearing.
I was told I spoke fluently but I knew I was nervous all the time doing it. So in the years since, I have worked on removing the fear of stuttering, which I think I finally did a few months ago (July, 2007). But that still needs to be tested.
You are probably younger than I and I hope you can rid yourself of stuttering much quicker than I did.
I am not a speech therapist. What I've done has worked for me but it may or may not work for others. I have started working on a book explaining step by step what I did to be able to speak fluently and (hopefully) overcome the fear of stuttering--so that I will never ever use any avoidance technique ever again.
Many thanks to Warrick for starting this website. I think sharing experiences and ideas will be of benefit to all.
Best wishes to all,
Jim
I'm a native of Little Rock, Arkansas and was a stutterer most of my life.
According to my parents, I was stuttering by the age of 4 when I went to nursery school. They quickly removed me from the school but my stuttering continued. In fact, it grew worse.
In 1938, my mother took me to the University of Iowa at Iowa City where I would receive free speech therapy if I participated in an experiment by Dr. Van Riper to determine if a choice of handedness caused stuttering. It was found it did not and the therapy received was of little help.
In 1945, I went to San Francisco, California for therapy by Mabel Farrington Gifford who had written a book in 1940 titled: How to Overcome Stammering. (By the way, her book was just reprinted in March, 2007.) The speech therapy I received from Ms. Gifford was tremendously helpful but, for some reason, I could not keep it going after I returned home.
During the next fifty years, while I married and had four daughters, my stuttering continued unabated, worse sometimes than others, and seemingly beyond my control--especially when I really didn't want to stutter!
I guess my lucky break came in 1987 when I decided (at least my hundredth attempt) to quit smoking cigarettes (I was a three pack a day smoker). Summoning up what will power I had, I quit cold turkey, and haven't had a cigarette since.
So, I decided if I could quite smoking, I could quit stuttering the same way.
I guess it's needless to tell you it didn't work. But I was still determined to quit.
The most painful way I stuttered was most in severe blocks that resulted in facial grimaces and finally the word coming out explosively. During the time I was blocking, funny as it may seem to you, I would forget how to pronounce the word and would mentally ask myself, "Why didn't they teach me how to pronounce this word in school?" (I do not know if other stutterers experience this.)
So, I guess you could say that I home schooled myself and taught myself how to pronounce, starting with sounds ... how to speak without stuttering.
In 1988, devised a phonetic alphabet for myself that I could read easily (I found the IPA or International Phonetic Alphabet too hard to decipher).
Having done that, I took one syllable (the semi-liquid consonant L and the open vowel U = LU) and said "lu" to myself countless times until I was certain I could say it without stuttering anytime, anywhere under any condition.
My next syllable was HI and I went around saying "Hi" to everybody I saw. I was the friendliest person in town - and I didn't stutter.
By 1989, I had progressed to some two-syllable words. The most important was "Hello," which I used when answering the telephone (I used to dread and fear answering the phone).
From there, I progressed to short phrases. And then to one-on-one conversations.
One day in the spring of 1991, while I was at the bookstore (I owned a bookstore until I retired), a customer came in and said, "I'm not hearing you stutter anymore."
I said, "I think I've overcome it."
"Would you like to find out for sure?" he asked.
"Of course," I said.
"I belong to Toastmasters, a club where you practice speaking to groups of people. I invite you to come join our club."
My response was immediate: a true stutterer's avoidance response. "Thanks," I said, "but I haven't got the time."
So he shook his head but left his business card.
That evening, after the store closed, I sat in the back office and realized if I couldn't make time then, it was likely I never would make time. So I picked up the phone, called him and joined Toastmasters. Although my speech controls worked and I spoke without stuttering. Three years later, I became president of the club but my fear of stuttering and avoidance techniques kept reappearing.
I was told I spoke fluently but I knew I was nervous all the time doing it. So in the years since, I have worked on removing the fear of stuttering, which I think I finally did a few months ago (July, 2007). But that still needs to be tested.
You are probably younger than I and I hope you can rid yourself of stuttering much quicker than I did.
I am not a speech therapist. What I've done has worked for me but it may or may not work for others. I have started working on a book explaining step by step what I did to be able to speak fluently and (hopefully) overcome the fear of stuttering--so that I will never ever use any avoidance technique ever again.
Many thanks to Warrick for starting this website. I think sharing experiences and ideas will be of benefit to all.
Best wishes to all,
Jim