When I was younger I was often mystified by the lack of help that was available to people like me – people who have a stutter. And what about the help and treatment that was available? Was it of value? Was it a positive thinking form of therapy? Did the therapy enable me to stop stuttering? These are the questions that I will be answering within this article – I hope you find it interesting and of benefit.
At the outset I would like to share with you some positive news – I no longer have a stutter, in fact I have now enjoyed life as a fluent person for the last 16 wonderful years.
And now for the negatives – which are all to do with the therapy that I received as a child, as a teenager and as a young adult from the traditional speech and language therapists. Yes I am fully aware of the fact that these people are “qualified”. But what does that mean? Fat diddly squat!
So the first question again – was the therapy of value? Well I started to stutter at the age of 4 and I continued to stutter up to the age of twenty-two therefore no it was not of any real value. But you did eventually manage to eradicate it from your speech? Yes but this was after I had given up on the speech therapists and decided to attempt to find my own stuttering solution.
Second question – Did the speech therapy enable me to stop stuttering? NO
Third question – Was it a positive thinking form of therapy? NO
The therapy was in fact shockingly bad and yes I am rather bitter, there was absolutely no reason why I needed to continue to stutter for these eighteen years – positive and educated therapy from people that have previously had this form of speech impediment is what I required but unfortunately this was not available at the time.