| Only a person who has a stutter can truly | | | | wanted to be able to speak fluently and therefore |
| understand just how much it can impact on your | | | | wanted to speak in the same way that fluent do. |
| life. This, perhaps, goes a long way to explaining | | | | Accept the stutter, you must be joking. There is |
| why traditional speech therapy proven in-effective | | | | not a cure for stuttering, this is something that I |
| in helping me. I started to stutter at the age of | | | | could not believe, the thought of having the |
| four and by the age of twenty-two I had basically | | | | stutter for the rest of my life was a thought that |
| had enough. I was desperate to find a cure for | | | | I would never have. |
| my stutter and in the end decided to attempt to | | | | In my attempt to achieve fluency I decided to |
| find my own solution. | | | | study people who I believed were very good |
| How I Overcame My Stutter | | | | speakers, these include politicians, television |
| At speech therapy I was given various pieces of | | | | presenters and actors. I also needed to learn how |
| advice; you need to speak slowly, you need to | | | | to deal with pressure and anxiety as these were |
| take a deep breath before speaking, you need to | | | | the situations where my stutter would become |
| accept your stutter/stammer and there is no | | | | the most severe. |
| cure for stuttering. | | | | I read many books including ones about how to |
| I decided to ignore all of these points. Fluent | | | | gain confidence. I worked very hard on all of |
| people do not, in general, speak slowly; they also | | | | these areas, progress, it has to be said, was slow |
| do not take deep breaths before they speak. I | | | | but progress there most certainly was. |