Stuttering is a speech impediment which affects around one percent of the population of the UK. Also referred to as stammering this form of speech impediment mainly affects men with seven out of ten people who stutter being male. For many years people who suffered with a stutter/stammer were advised that they should learn to accept their speech impediment as there was, in the opinion of the so called experts, no known cure for stuttering. Things have now moved on at a pace and there is no longer the need to accept stuttering as a way of life, treatment for stuttering has come a long way and there are now a number of different therapies available which can help to eradicate the speech impediment once and for all.
I am a person who grew up with a stutter. My parents took me to speech therapy and I have to say that I was less than impressed with their efforts to cure me. I could not understand this acceptance method, it is in my opinion very defeatist. I do not accept second best in any other area of my life therefore why should I accept it for my speech? If there is no known cure then surely somebody should be looking for one.
At the age of twenty-two, after deciding to give up on all things to do with traditional speech therapy, I began the search for my own cure for stuttering. It was a rocky road with many ups and downs, I did however have a superb support network to help me. This support was essential to keep me in a positive state of mind during those darkest days when I felt like giving up altogether. After around eleven months I was successful in overcoming the stutter and for the last eleven years I have been helping other people to achieve fluency.
Stephen Hill runs The How To Stop Stammering Centre, he has a number of websites including:
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