| Do you have a stammer or stutter? Has a | | | | traditional forms of speech and language therapy |
| stammer badly affected your overall | | | | as the speech therapists themselves fully admit |
| self-confidence and self-esteem? Are you looking | | | | that they do not fully comprehend the problem |
| for ways and techniques that can enable you to | | | | and the ways in which it can affect people. How |
| overcome your stammer? These are three | | | | could they, after all they have never had this |
| questions that I would have answered yes to | | | | type of speech impediment? |
| during the eighteen years when I suffered with | | | | The most popular of these specialist stammering |
| this form of speech impediment. There was | | | | courses are the ones that are held on a |
| absolutely no way that I could contemplate having | | | | one-to-one basis. This basically means that on the |
| to cope with the fear of stammering for the rest | | | | course you have the speech coach and the |
| of my life and I was determined that I would be | | | | course attendee, this ensures that the course |
| able to achieve fluency. I was only too aware of | | | | attendee is able to receive personal coaching, we |
| how much my life would improve if I was able to | | | | all know that there are many different forms of |
| eradicate the stammer from my speech. I set | | | | stammer including people who have a severe |
| myself a lifetime goal to beat the stammer and I | | | | stammer, people who have a mild stammer and |
| was able to realise that goal when I was aged | | | | people who have a slight stammer. There are also |
| twenty-two. That was thirteen years ago, being | | | | people who stammer who's friends, family and |
| able to speak fluently is without doubt the | | | | work colleagues are not even aware that they |
| greatest feeling in the world, something that the | | | | have any form of speech defect. This is because |
| majority of fluent speakers take for granted. | | | | they have become extremely good at hiding it by |
| The available therapies for stammering have | | | | a number of different guards such as by |
| greatly increased and improved over the last few | | | | substituting words. |
| years, enabling many other people to also enjoy a | | | | The world is certainly looking a brighter one for |
| new found fluency. There are now specialised | | | | people who have a stammer, as I have already |
| speech therapy courses for stammering; courses | | | | written, therapies and treatments for stammering |
| which are run by people who have had and who | | | | have improved and gone are the days where the |
| have managed to overcome a stammer. This | | | | advice was merely to slow down or even to |
| certainly beats having to attend the more | | | | accept the fact that they have a stammer. |