There are many types of speech impediment and they all affect a persons life in different ways. For the purpose of this article, I am going to concentrate on how stuttering/stammering can disrupt and even ruin a persons life and how at times it makes us accept second best.

For somebody who has a stutter, life at times is a struggle. As a first example, I am going to explain a situation from school. It is an English lesson, and on each persons desk there is a reading book. The teacher says to all the pupils that he/she wants everyone in the class to read one paragraph from the book. For the person who has the stutter, this is something they fear and they will try to work out which paragraph they will have to read. They do this by counting the likely number of people who are ahead of them and then by counting down to the appropriate paragraph. They will hope this paragraph is quite short, they will then read through it, hoping that there are not too many of their difficult words in there. Most people who stutter have certian words which begin with certian letters that they find harder to say. They then have to wait until there turn to speak, this causes a lot of tension and worry. By the time it is their turn to speak they are basically so nervous that is very unlikely they will be able to say their paragraph fluently.

When trying to find employment, people who stutter will often go for jobs which do not include too many pressure speaking situations. They are normally capable of much better roles or occupations, however are having to accepy second best.

In a restuarant people who stutter do not always order what they actually want but instead something they know they will be able to say.

I have heard of people who stutter, who will not get married through fear of the social occasion and especially saying the vows and their giving their speech at the reception. This has led people to losing the love of their lives.

These are just a few of many ways a stutter or speech impediment can hinder a persons life.

Stephen Hill is somebody who has overcome a stutter. He now helps other people to achieve fluency. He has a couple of websites at http://www.stammering-stuttering.co.uk and at http://www.stutter-cure.com