| As a speech coach I am I am often asked if | | | | As I entered into my teenage years, I became |
| there is a cure for stammering/stuttering. As a | | | | more and more frustrated with my lack of |
| person who has overcome a stutter I can say, | | | | improvement via speech therapy and also with |
| without reservation, that there is. In this article I | | | | the fact that I actually had a stutter. I was |
| will be explaining in more detail the subject of | | | | starting to feel a little sorry for myself. |
| eradicating stuttering. | | | | At around the age of fifteen I asked a speech |
| There is often a big debate in speech therapy | | | | therapist if there was a cure for stuttering, he |
| circles about whether people can overcome | | | | told me that there was not. I could not believe it |
| stuttering, to be able to live a stutter free life. | | | | and my heart sank, I could not bear having this |
| Some specialists say you can and others say you | | | | horrible speech impediment for the rest of my |
| can't. | | | | life. |
| I started stuttering when I was four years of | | | | At the age of sixteen I became drunk for the |
| age. My childhood and my early adult life were | | | | first time, it may seem strange but I loved the |
| very much affected by this most frustrating | | | | feeling! I had so much confidence and my speech |
| form of speech impediment. | | | | seemed to improve with every bottle I drank. |
| My parents, who saw how much it troubled me, | | | | This was, for me, a breakthrough. I was able to |
| sought help, in the early years, via taking me to a | | | | talk when drunk, therefore I should be able to talk |
| local speech therapist. Even now, at the age of | | | | when I am sober - there is no excuse. |
| thirty-four, I can clearly remember how much I | | | | The cure for stuttering is not to be in a |
| disliked attending these classes. | | | | permanent drunken state but it just proved that I |
| Possibly due to my bad attitude but also due to | | | | did have the capability of talking fluently. |
| the quality, or lack of it, of the speech therapist, I | | | | I then had the task of developing this into a full |
| struggled to improve my fluency. In fact as I | | | | blown cure for stammering and stuttering. |
| became older the worse the stutter became. | | | | |