How to Fix a Stutter

American Thinker ^ | December 17, 2016 | Jim Whiting

[Kaslin]

This is a great article on John Glenn, now deceased, with a focus on Annie, his wife of 73 years, who had a severe stutter.

For most of her life, Annie was afflicted with an 85 percent stutter, meaning she would become "hung up on 85 percent of the words she tried to speak, which was a severe handicap," as John put it.

Those years must have been torture for Annie.

Some of the inconveniences might seem small. John recalled them:

For Annie, stuttering meant not being able to take a taxi because she would have to write out the address and give it to the driver because she couldn't get the words out. It would be too embarrassing to try to talk about where she wanted to go. Going to the store is a tremendously difficult and frustrating experience when you can't find what you want and can't ask the clerk because you are too embarrassed of your stutter.

Others were large. As The Post reported, once her daughter stepped on a nail. As blood gushed out, Annie couldn't speak well enough to call 911. Instead, she found a neighbor to make the call for her.

My own stutter as a youngster was much less severe, more on the order of Jonathan Miller's: "When I got out of bed in the morning, I never knew which consonant was going to be my nemesis that day." Although frequent, my stutter was usually not disabling, but it was always embarrassing. I would call a girl's house, intending to ask her mother, "Can I speak to Suzie, please?" and I'd get stuck on the C: "C-c-c-c-c..." The mother would shout over the phone, "Suzie! I think it's Jim!"

[Bryanw92]

>>We know real discrimination. The public schools were the worst! They treated her like she was mentally retarded. They wanted to dumb down her education, and didnt want to privide her with enough speech therapy.

Most people can’t disconnect speech impediments from some form of retardation. Big Education probably doesn’t get a lot of government money for speech therapy, so they don’t care about it. But if they can get a child listed as developmentally disabled or mentally challenged (or whatever the euphemisms are today), then they probably get a lot more funding.

Of course, when I was in elementary school, getting funding wasn’t the purpose. Back then, they tried to get a stutterer labeled as retarded to get them out of the “normal” classroom.

[norwaypinesavage]

I’m convinced that not everyone with a stutter actually wants to end it. I once had a boss (for too many years) who stuttered quite significantly. But he had three different levels of stuttering. He had minor difficulties with his bosses and would talk on without aa problem if they would complete a word for him. With his peers, he would not allow them to complete words for him, but he would have minimal delays. With his subordinates, he would stutter uncontrollably, and continue stuttering even longer if anyone completed his words. I’m convinced it was his way of controlling us. He would go into an Ak-Ak-Ak-Ak.....mode with the top of his tongue curled out for what seemed to be minutes on end. He stuttered so badly, that one (three level down) subordinate, who rarely ever heard him speak, thought he was having a heart attack, and began starting CPR.

[Guardian Sebastian]

Sounds like you were given the greatest gift as I was, wonderful parents. :)

[OldNewYork]

Thanks for that. I remember her character in The Right Stuff.

[my right]

another one is color blindness. people, for some reason, think it’s funny you can’t see colors as they do.

[Bryanw92]

>>another one is color blindness. people, for some reason, think it’s funny you can’t see colors as they do.

But in most cases, you either have to do something dangerous (i.e. cutting the red wire and not the green wire) or you have to make it a point to tell them. Stuttering is something that people can’t hide unless they become a hermit. But, I’ve never heard a comedian joke about a stutterer. There’s even a joke about the stuttering bible salesman that preachers love to tell..

[luckystarmom]

My daughter was not a stuttered (except for a few months when she was on one type of anti-seizure meds. Stopped when she changed meds). She just couldn’t talk for a long time. It’s called apraxia of speech.

I remember when they tested her for colors when she was 3. They kept on asking her to say the colors of the blocks. That was what they were going to use to say she was mentally retarted.

I told them she knew her colors. I asked her to hand me the deferent blocks by color like the red block, the white block, the pink block, etc. Of course, she knew all her colirs. Personally, the testers seemed a bit retarded that they couldn’t figure that out.

[luckystarmom]

My daughter had a stutter while she was on anti-seizure meds. She would get stuck on c/k sound. She started sin ginger her reading until she changed meds. The neurologist didn’t believe it was the meds causing the stutter, but he agreed to switch her meds. It worked.

[21twelve]

My son use to stammer on some words as a child and had some nervous physical ticks (stretch his neck and arm), but outgrew them. Or so I thought. I see him once in awhile back from college and he stutters again. Not much - but a little. But - he gets good reviews in his jobs where he is holding group meetings and getting presentations - so hopefully he doesn’t do it there.

Maybe he is stressed out over college (I doubt it, he gets great grades without much studying), or perhaps he is nervous around mom and dad now that he has been out of the house for almost 4 years.

He did turn 21 and has started drinking. I don’t think too much, but I might need to look into that if drinking could bring it back on. I could see where it might.