| Stammering is a speech impediment that affects | | | | when speaking to myself gave me the belief and |
| around one percent of the British population. It | | | | hope that one day I would be able to talk fluently |
| can affect people in a number of ways; it can | | | | in all situations. |
| seriously erode a person's confidence, it can | | | | I did attend speech therapy classes when I was a |
| negatively impact on a person's career, it can | | | | child and also when I was in my teens. These |
| hinder a person's love life and it can also make | | | | were run by local speech therapists, people who |
| socialising difficult. | | | | had never had a stammer. I was less than |
| I understand exactly how stammering can impact | | | | impressed with this type of stammering therapy - |
| on one's life. I was one of the unfortunate one | | | | enough said. |
| percent; I had a stammer from the age of four | | | | Nowadays there are specialist speech courses for |
| until the age of twenty-two. To say that I hated | | | | people who stammer, some of which are run by |
| having a stammer would be an understatement, it | | | | people who have previously had and overcome a |
| ruined my life for those eighteen years. | | | | stammer. |
| My goal in life was to achieve fluency, the thought | | | | Some of these stammering courses are run on a |
| of having to endure life with the stammer until | | | | one-to-one basis and others are on a group basis. |
| the day I die was not a thought that I would | | | | On the course people can learn about how to |
| ever contemplate. I was informed by a variety of | | | | overcome their stammer, the types and amount |
| sources that you are unable to cure a stammer; | | | | of practice that is required and about how to |
| this was something that I could and would not | | | | handle certain life situations such as how to speak |
| accept. The fact that I could talk perfectly well | | | | in pressure situations. |