I know I usually use facebook to express my hate for the political and monetary system but I just wanna get this out there because I think it might help someone. I've stuttered for most of my life but I think I finally know what it is. I found this a few years ago and it's been the only thing that's actually helped me, instead of masking it. It's helped a lot actually, I'm the most fluent I've ever been without using techniques to hide it.
Please keep this in the back of your mind because one day you might have a son/daughter and this could change their life. Depending how bad the stutter is it can completely ruin their life and make them suicidal. I'm lucky I guess because mine wasn't as bad as it could have been. Even if this stops 1 person from stuttering it's worth writing, please share because I honestly think it will help someone.
I'd give parents this advice:
- Don't take your kid to any speech therapist, not even to diagnose it
- Don't label them as a stutterer
- Don't even tell them they have a problem
- If you've already told their teachers go back and tell them to forget about it and never to bring it up to them
If you've already told the kid they have a stutter, or if you or someone you know is an adult stutterer, pls read on & watch the video, and explain this to them in some way.
When a kid is learning to speak, some aren't perfect at gettin their words out, even adults trip up on words every now and then. When an overly worried parent tells the kid they have this 'problem', their mind makes it real. Now every time the kid speaks they're thinking about it, every trip up they have in speech they associate it with the stutter, when it's just a normal part of speaking. Every time they speak they tell themselves not to do it. What do you do when you're told to not think of a black cat, you think of a black cat. They get caught up in this vicious loop.. everytime you stutter, your belief that the stutter is a real thing reinforces itself, and makes it worse. I don't want to sound like I'm blaming my parents, my dad spent thousands on therapy for me and I'm so grateful for that, I wouldn't go back and change it because I believe everything happens for a reason.
For like 15 years I've been tryin to work out what it is, and this is the only explaination that makes sense to me. If you're interested watch the video 'cos it explains it better. I think the problem lies within the solution (speech therapy / trying to speak perfect when normal speech isn't perfect). Problem is speech therapists wont be able to make money if this was right and everyone knew, is it just another one of those corrupt markets that exist only because of itself? Like head and shoulders dandruff shampoo, or how glasses make your eyes worse over time? That's just me wearin my tin foil hat as usual but why is it that stuttering happens more in western countries? There's more money to be made helping a problem than curing it.
I might be wrong, but therapy did nothing for me, all they do is make you practice BS techniques like humming and speaking slower, and doesn't address why you stutter more in certain circumstances, and in others you don't stutter at all.
Btw this is only for developmental stuttering (which is most stutterers) not genetic stuttering, that's a different thing to do with the motor function in your brain