What Causes People To Develop A Speech Impediment?
I am one of many people who are unfortunate enough to develop a
speech impediment in childhood. This article describes why these
impediments may occur and how I went about achieving fluency.
For the purpose of this article, I concentrate on the speech
impediment known as stuttering.
There are many reasons why people may develop a stutter, it can
be as a result of bullying from school, an over aggressive
member of the family, a shock reaction to an event such as a car
crash, or it could be passed down from another member of the
family who has a stutter.
I have met many people who stutter as I now help people to
achieve fluency as a career. I always ask them to talk about how
and why their stutter started. The reasons above are the type of
answers I receive.
Stuttering normally originates in childhood and nine out of ten
people who stutter are men. Around 1% of the population has a
stutter according to recent reports.
I have now managed to beat my stutter which had basically ruined
my life for eighteen years. When I had a stutter, I found it
difficult to say certain words beginning with certain letters. I
would always avoid these words or I would think of an
alternative word to say.
Aged twenty-two I decided it was time to try to overcome my
communication problems. I started to observe what I called very
good fluent talkers, I was watching and trying to work out how
they were talking and breathing. I also tried to find
differences between their speech and my own. I also started to
read books about things like, positive thinking and mind over
matter as I also realised I needed to change the way I was
thinking.
After nearly a year of working and practicing very hard, I
managed to overcome my stutter, much to my relief. As a career I
now help other people to achieve fluency by running one to one
speech courses from my home in Birmingham. A also offer a self
help ebook and seventy minute dvd for people who are unable to
attend the courses.