Speaking Out Spring 2014 low res

The British Stammering Association SPRING 2014 1
SPEAKING OUT
SPRING 2014SPRING 2014
Speaking Out
Preparing for a
Best Man’s speech Page 9
Rapper MotionR Page 10
The role of emotional support
in stammering Page 16
Channel 4’s
First Dates Page 4
BRITISH STAMMERING ASSOCIATION
www.stammering.org
Performance poet
Davy Charles
Page 6

2 SPRING 2014 The British Stammering Association
SPEAKING OUT
IN THE CHAIR
JOHN M. EVANS
Our world is changing
fast – not least for
people who stammer.
Recently, BSA Trustees and staff held a
series of meetings to take stock of how
things have been changing and to plan
our strategy for the next few years.
One unwelcome change has been
the reduced funding of speech and
language therapy services. Owing to
the reorganisation of the NHS, in many
parts of the country the state of services
is now worse than at any time in BSA’s
history. At the same time, funding for
BSA’s vital and unique programmes for
children in the education system has
become harder to secure.
On the positive side, BSA has been
able to make its views known
to the Government through the
Communication Trust, a coalition of
nearly 50 organisations with expertise in
speech, language and communication.
We hope that BSA’s involvement, by
way of submissions prepared with
the highest levels of competence and
professionalism, will continue to make a
real difference to children who stammer.
We have also seen two exciting
developments which would have been
unthinkable ten years ago. First, there
is social media. Through the BSA’s
Facebook page and our new closed
group, over five thousand people
affected by stammering have been able
to talk to each other – ending the cruel
isolation that so many people have
experienced. BSA staff moderate these
on an ongoing basis, ensuring that the
conversation is both well-informed and
positive. Members have been inspired
to set up their own spin-off pages and
groups, including one for parents of
children who stammer and even a BSA
supporters’ book club.
Second, there is the BSA Employers
Stammering Network (ESN). With eight
large organisations already joined up,
it is building momentum, with others
joining on an almost weekly basis. We
are very grateful to Iain Wilkie of EY and
Leys Geddes, the ESN Ambassador (and
former BSA Chair), who spearhead this
initiative. Organisations are realising
that pretending that stammering
doesn’t exist works against the interest
of both employees and employers. BSA
is pioneering ways of helping them talk
about stammering productively. We are
channelling the wealth of our experience
to people in the workplace, helping
them to make their voices heard and
their talents fully recognised.
What’s the strategy?
The basic aims of the BSA have not
changed. Our goal is still that, at all
stages in life, everyone who stammers
has better life chances and opportunities
for achieving equality with others, and
that they receive both understanding
and respect.
In order to achieve this in our changing
world, Trustees see the BSA moving
away from simply providing information.
A key new aim is encouraging
community self-help. We want to link
our knowledge and expertise with the
new possibilities for bringing people
together through the internet and
translate that into interpersonal contacts
– working to end isolation, helping us all
to inform and encourage each other. The
ESN fits in well with this.
Campaigning hasn’t been forgotten,
of course. Trustees want to see the
BSA continue to campaign so that
people who stammer receive proper
understanding and respect, extending
our efforts of recent years. The ESN can
be seen as part of that initiative as well.
I have kept a very exciting bit of news
until last. BSA now has a new look,
modern website; still packed with the
unbiased, accurate information for
which the BSA is famous, but now
allowing for much greater interaction
between us. Interaction and involvement
– two key words for the future of the
BSA.
John M. Evans, BSA Chair
Winter 2013Speaking Out-The British Stammering Association
We are an Association
In the chair
as a group of people coming together for a common purpose. In
our case, that is to do with stammering.
Being part of an association does not mean we all have to see the purpose and
ole of the BSA in the same way.After all, stammering affects people differently.
Of course there are those of us who stammer – perhaps the bulk of people
associated with the BSA. But there are also parents of children who stammer
and people living with others who stammer in their families.There are Speech
and LanguageTherapists (SLTs) and SLT students. In addition, there are a number
of researchers and others who are fascinated by stammering, either because
hey want to understand it, or because it is a symbol of their own efforts to
communicate better.
Someone said to us recently that the BSA“holds all of the stammering community.”
How true that is.We work to support everyone affected by stammering, in an
open way. We do not favour one type of treatment over another (though we
are keen to destroy fraudulent claims of ‘cures’).We do not lay down any rules
about the best way to live with stammering (though we do say how helpful it
can be to be open about it).The BSA is a place where everyone can learn about
tammering, a centre of expertise, recognised as such by everyone.
heir personalities, and set themselves to live well with it. We support those
who regard their stammering as relatively unimportant, but want to understand
t better.We support those who have stammered all their lives, as well as those
whose stammering is ‘late onset’ due, for example, to Parkinson’s disease. We
upport people who consider they have won a victory over stammering and
want to share that victory with others.We support people who are desperately
ooking for a new way forwards.
Acceptance and friendship are powerful – when we accept ourselves as we are,
we give ourselves the power to change. When we accept others as they are,
we give them strength to go forwards on their journeys, in the ways that they
choose. When we share what we have learnt about stammering and our own
Recently the BSA organised a strategy day, when a facilitator came and helped
Trustees and staff to envision our strategy for the next few years.This was an
mportant day for the BSA and we will be telling you more about it all soon.Some
exciting things are happening.
One thing that struck our facilitator was the passion that existed within the BSA,
and that led us on to think about the source of that passion. Certainly it is a
passion to see lives transformed – as we see all the time in self-help groups and at
our open days and conferences.Certainly it is a passion to dispel the myths about
Registered Charity Nos.1089967/SC038866
Est 1978
Registered Company No. 4297778
15 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PJ
tel: 020 8983 1003 fax: 020 8983 3591
helpline: 0845 603 2001
email: mail@stammering.org
website: www.stammering.org
Vision
A world that understands stammering
Mission
To initiate and support research into stammering
To identify and promote effective therapies
To offer support for all whose lives are affected by
stammering
To promote awareness of stammering
Activities:
INFORMATION AND SUPPORT SERVICE
EDUCATION: THE EXPERT PARENT PROJECT
RESEARCH COMMITTEE
SELF HELP GROUPS
TELEPHONE SUPPORT GROUPS
OPEN DAYS
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
MAIL ORDER SERVICE AND POSTAL
LENDING LIBRARY
INTERNATIONAL LIAISON
(International and European Stuttering Associations)
MEMBER BENEFITS:
Magazine, postal lending library,
regular information updates, support groups
Annual subscription: £15, concession rate £5
Speaking Out
Editorial guidelines
Unsolicited material is welcome. Due to space
restrictions, not all articles can be guaranteed
publication and may be considered for future
editions. Speaking Out reserves the right to edit
articles for space and/or clarity. Anyone who is
contact the editor. For information on advertising
Registered Charity Nos.1089967/SC038866
Est. 1978
Registered Company No. 4297778
15 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PJ
tel: 020 8983 1003 fax: 020 8983 3591
helpline: 0845 603 2001
email: mail@stammering.org
website: www.stammering.org
Vision
A world that understands stammering
Mission
To initiate and support research into
stammering
To identify and promote effective therapies
To offer support for all whose lives are affected
by stammering
To promote awareness of stammering
Activities:
INFORMATION AND SUPPORT SERVICE
EDUCATION: THE EXPERT PARENT PROJECT
RESEARCH COMMITTEE
SELF-HELP GROUPS
TELEPHONE SUPPORT GROUPS
OPEN DAYS
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
MAIL ORDER SERVICE AND POSTAL
LENDING LIBRARY
INTERNATIONAL LIAISON
(International and European Stuttering
Associations)
MEMBER BENEFITS:
Magazine, postal lending library,
regular information updates, support groups
Annual subscription: £15, concession rate £5
Speaking Out
Editorial guidelines
Unsolicited material is welcome. Due
to space restrictions, not all articles can
be guaranteed publication and may be
considered for future editions. Speaking Out
reserves the right to edit articles for space
and/or clarity. Anyone who is unhappy with
the editor’s decision should first contact the
editor. For information on advertising and
rates, please contact the editor.
Editor: Steven Halliday
Email: sh@stammering.org
ISSN: 0143 8891
© 2014 British Stammering Association

SPEAKING OUT
CONTENTS
On Wednesday 5th March,
BSA member Usman
Choudhry was invited to
Buckingham Palace to be
presented with a Learning
Ambassador Certificate by
HRH Princess Anne.
Usman was recognised
after being awarded
an Outstanding Adult
Learner award from the
National Institute for Adults
Continuing in Education
(NIACE) last year, having
been nominated by the City Lit for his efforts
in raising stammering awareness. He has
helped set up a public speaking group for
people who stammer, co-organised two
BSA open days, arranged a training course
where he works at the Bank of England
on interviewing
people with speech
impediments, and
nominated BSA to
be its charity of the
year, which raised
£35,400. He was one
of ten award winners
selected from the last
five years’ awards.
Usman said, “At the Palace we were in the
Centre Room, from where King George
VI stepped out onto the balcony after
his speech (and where William and Kate
waved to the crowd after their wedding).
When Princess Anne (King George’s
granddaughter) honoured me, I thanked her.
She replied, ‘No, thank you for all the great
work you have done.’ Later, she walked
round the room and I spoke to her for a few
minutes. She seemed very well-informed
about stammering and told me about her
friend who had quite a bad stammer but
spoke fluently when he had to shout when
working on his farm. I told her how The
King’s Speech inspired me to become a
‘stammering ambassador’.”
BSA member
becomes
continuity
announcer
NEWS
4 Channel 4’s First Dates
5 The Stammerers Through
University Campaign (STUC)
STORIES
6 “If I can’t finish a word, how
the hell will I finish life?”
- A performance poet
7 It’s all in the presentation
8 Stammering in a foreign land
9 Prepare to succeed - Having
to do a Best Man’s speech
10 It’s a rap - rapper MotionR
THERAPY, SELF-
HELP, PARENTS AND
RESEARCH
11 My recent experience of
NHS speech therapy
12 One small step for Manchester
- The Manchester self-help
group and advice on starting
a group
14 Study on pre-school children
draws criticism
16 The role of emotional support
in stammering
18 Why so few teenage referrals?
OTHERS
19 Stammering gallery
20 Book reviews & wordsearch
competition
21 Obituary: Myrtle Aron
22 Readers’ letters
24 What’s been happening on
the BSA Facebook page?
Photos:MaxMaxwellPhotography
As part of its ‘Born Risky: Alternative
Voices’ season, Channel 4 recruited a
number of people with communication
difficulties to introduce some of its
biggest shows. Organisers said, “We
wanted to give them a platform and
normalise the presence of disabled people
on TV.” Matthew Oghene was chosen to
represent people who stammer, and last
December appeared in a primetime slot.
Matthew said, “The experience was amazing.
They actually wanted to use my voice! I
auditioned last September with a script they
sent me to read on the day. Then I had to
go for a screen test and was accepted. We
spent three days learning how to write a
script at the Channel 4 headquarters. On
the day of filming I arrived very early to
get settled in and have make-up put on.
The whole experience really made me feel
excited about sharing my voice. We don’t
often get to hear someone stammering on
TV unapologetically.”
In the announcement (available to watch
online at http://bit.ly/1es9o42), Matthew
says, “Hi, I’m Matthew and I have a
stammer. Channel 4 have given the mic over
to me to introduce the next show: Location,
Location, Location. To say it once is hard
enough, let alone three times!”
Honoured at Buckingham Palace
Photo: Channel 4

4 SPRING 2014
First dates can be hard enough for people
who stammer. Imagine being filmed for
a television programme whilst on one!
This didn’t seem to faze Paul Thompson,
who took part in the Channel 4 show in
February.
My name is Paul, I’m from Weymouth and
I recently took part in a TV show called
‘First Dates’. If you didn’t see it, it’s a reality
dating show with a difference. It doesn’t
focus on choosing a date; it’s about the
date itself. Participants know nothing about
the date they have been set up with other
than what they look like, from an emailed
photograph.
I found out about it via a link on the BSA
Facebook page, saying that Channel 4
were looking for people who stammer to
audition. I’ve always wanted to be on telly
and decided it would be fun so I applied.
Ten minutes later I had a phone call from
one of the producers, Joe, who gave me a
brief phone interview (daunting I know, but
Joe was very nice and made me relaxed as
he knew I stammered). He asked me about
myself, what kind of girls I like and how
my stammer affects me. He seemed really
interested, and a few days later I got the call
to go to London to audition.
The audition
was basically an
extended filmed
version of the
phone interview,
with a bit more
emphasis on my
stammer. It was
very relaxed and
Joe was eager to
get me on the
show, and a week
later I had confirmation that they wanted
me. It was at this point I started getting
nervous and excited all at the same time;
I suddenly realised that I was going to be
stammering in front of millions of viewers all
over the UK! Scary. I was worried about my
voice and how it would come across. I hate
listening to my own voice so I could only
imagine what others would think. But I knew
it would be a good thing to do as it would
put me outside my comfort zone and also
hopefully raise awareness of stammering.
I wanted more people to see how the
condition affects us and how best to talk to
somebody who stammers.
Filming
I went up to London to record the interview
that would be broadcast, which repeated a
lot of stuff I had said at the audition. They
also asked what I was expecting from the
date. They only showed a tiny bit of what
was actually recorded, though.
The dates themselves took place in a posh
London restaurant. A bit smarter than
what I’m used to; it was no Wetherspoon’s
beer and a burger night! Being filmed for
the show was weird. There were cameras
everywhere; on the walls, the ceiling, by the
bar, in the toilets and outside. Everything
you did was captured, there was no escape!
But after a while I kind of forgot they were
there.
The first date was with a writer called
Christine. I was really, really nervous
beforehand. Not because of the usual first
date nerves (well, a bit) but because I wasn’t
feeling well and I know that this makes my
stammer worse. I had been stammering
quite badly all morning, and I was worried
I was going to come across like an idiot. It
also stopped me saying a lot of things as I
knew I was going to stammer so I really held
back my conversation at times.
The way the date was edited made Christine
come across badly. She got a lot of abuse
online afterwards with people calling her
condescending, but she wasn’t really like
that at all. They can’t show the whole date,
so they pick the bits that keep viewers
interested. Unfortunately this was me having
a bad stammer day and Christine looking like
she was being rude and patronising.
Anyway, I thought she was really interesting.
She did talk a lot but I didn’t mind as I was
enjoying not talking so much, if I’m honest.
She did talk over me a few times and tried
to finish my sentences, and I did try to
explain it wasn’t helping. I had a bit of an
emotional five minutes in the post-interview,
though, where they filmed me talking about
how it went. I had a little cry because I was
annoyed that my stammer was bad and I
wanted the date to have gone better. We
had a fun time, though, and agreed to be
friends, with a high-five sealing the deal.
For a few days after filming, I was quite
upset with myself over the way it had gone. I
was worried that I was going to come across
as a bumbling, crying idiot and people were
going to laugh at me. I thought my stammer
was atrocious and I nearly called to ask
them to remove the emotional bit. However,
producers kept phoning and emailing me to
check I was alright, which was lovely. They
assured me that it would be edited in such a
way that the viewers would warm to me and
Channel 4’s First Dates
Photo:CourtesyofTheDorsetEcho
The British Stammering Association
SPEAKING OUT
Paul and second date Kathryn.
(Photos: Channel 4)

that it would all be alright.
Second date
I also featured in the next episode, where
my second date was a down-to-earth, funny
Irish lass, Kathryn. She was great. We got on
famously, laughing and joking about all sorts
of stuff. I was more relaxed with Kathryn
but that probably had a lot to do with the
fact that I wasn’t feeling ill this time. I even
managed to get my BSA wristband into the
conversation as well. Well, she noticed it
and asked what it was. The stammer didn’t
seem to bother her at all; she even said she
liked it and that it was more like an accent
than anything. “An accent that takes half an
hour to say a word,” I believe was my reply.
Unfortunately the date was to go no further
either; Kathryn only wanted to be friends.
I think the
geographical
distance
between us
was a big
decider in
that. Looking
back, neither
date was
really my type
anyway.
I was so nervous before the first episode
aired that I hardly watched myself at all.
However, all my worries soon disappeared
as the public reaction came flooding in.
I couldn’t believe it. The amount of new
Twitter followers, Facebook friend requests,
messages and tweets was unbelievable! My
phone was going crazy. Nobody had a bad
word to say about me. I was completely
overwhelmed with positive responses. It took
me till 2am that night to sift through all the
online correspondence.
All my friends tuned in and left me lovely
comments. I had random ladies from all over
the country saying how they would love
to date me and how brave I was for going
on the show. It was mental. I even had a
marriage proposal! (Not sure how serious
that was, though). I get noticed and chatted
to all the
time when
I’m out. Most
people just
want to say
“well done”
and talk to
someone
who’s been
on the telly,
but it’s still
nice. A lot of
the response has been from fellow people
who stammer, saying it has given them
confidence to do more challenging things,
which is great. I’m glad I could be a kind of
role model.
Overall, I had a great time on the show. It
was a wonderful experience and I met some
awesome people in the cast and crew. I
would definitely do it, or something similar,
again.
Watch Paul’s appearances on First Dates at
http://bit.ly/1fEsjrI. Follow him on Twitter:
@paulamahol.
“I was worried that I was
going to come across as
a bumbling, crying idiot
and people were going to
laugh at me.”
SPRING 2014 5
SPEAKING OUT
Undergraduate Claire Norman
introduces her project that aims to
support students at university.
Attending university can be truly beneficial
and offers priceless opportunities and
life skills. However, many students feel
that their stammer prevents them from
‘coming out of their shell’ and obtaining
the confidence required to achieve these.
Hence, it can be assumed students who
stammer find it difficult to develop in
preparation for the working world that
faces them when they graduate.
I am a final year undergraduate studying
French Studies at the University of Warwick
and I have felt for a while now that there
is little awareness of stammering within
the university environment. In comparison
to other, more evident disabilities, such
as dyslexia, there is insufficient support
for students who stammer. There was
obviously a gap in the ‘market’ as far as I
was aware. So I decided to change that.
The Stammerers Through University
Campaign (or ‘STUC’, emphasising the
possible feeling of being trapped by having
a stammer) is a concept that I created
with the aim to bring together students
and staff who stammer in a network
where they can discuss issues and possible
resolutions. It is a social enterprise
supported by the University
of Warwick in partnership
with UnLtd and the Higher
Education Funding Council
for England and Wales.
Thanks to the support of a
departmental staff member
at the university, I was
made aware of the Social
Enterprise Award, a scheme that
offers funding for schemes that aim to
support the wider community. Having
posed my idea to a panel of judges, I was
awarded £500 to get the scheme up and
running.
I held a focus group at my university
in February for those affected by
stammering, in order for me to gain an
insight into what concerns they currently
have. My aim is to hold a seminar in
October to address the issues raised
in a non-judgemental and supportive
environment, when I will return as an
alumnus to run it. The seminar will include
external speakers, people who stammer
at Warwick, staff, students, university
personnel, Psychology and Applied
Linguistics researchers, and many more.
As far as education is concerned, I wish
to develop this project to help
students affected by stammering
by extending it eventually to other
universities and broadening the
potential outreach. I want to provide
students with a greater insight into
how going to university doesn’t have
to be the most daunting experience they
will experience. It is vital to me that the
message is emphasised that having a
stammer does not have to prevent us
from reaching our full potential. With the
support of the BSA, together with the
University of Warwick, I am certain that
this campaign has the potential to succeed
and prove beneficial to so many people.
If you are a student and would like to
get involved, go to www.stuc-uk.org.
Follow the campaign on Twitter: @
STUC_UK.
The Stammerers Through University Campaign (STUC)

SPEAKING OUT
6 SPRING 2014
Davy Charles tells us how taking up
performance poetry has transformed his
confidence.
Time and time over, in the
hope that chance would
side with me, I went against
insurmountable odds and
came up empty-handed.
Throughout my life I have
tried many different ways of
combating my stammer, but
it wasn’t until I started doing
performance poetry that I started thinking
about it in a new and unusual way.
Growing up on a tiny Caribbean island
where people spoke both English and
French, having a stammer did nothing but
double the number of languages I couldn’t
express myself in. My schoolteacher pretty
much forced me
into seeing a speech
therapist. Going
for therapy meant
crossing the island
on my own - I was
only nine. But I
was met with sheer
disappointment,
all my expectations
flattened. I was
given a few speaking
exercises and told to breathe more. Where
was the magic fix? None of it sunk in and
after a dozen sessions I quit.
When we moved to England in 2001 I
had the chance to reinvent myself. I could
leave the old me behind, stammer and all.
I began making conscious efforts to speak
fluently. But when I blocked, my self-
awareness heightened, in turn exacerbating
it and creating a cycle of tortuous mental
exertion. But I kept pushing, putting myself
in situations I hated, like speaking on the
phone (I took a job in a call centre). I hoped
with each confrontation my speech would
improve, but it didn’t. There it was, like an
unwanted extra limb forcing people to find
somewhere else to look as it fumbled into
the conversation.
Unexpected inspiration
Looking for a new creative outlet and
challenge, I started doing performance
poetry in 2013 through what I can only
describe as divine intervention. One
restless night I woke up at 4am and knew
immediately I wasn’t going back to sleep.
Lying there, it came to me; the first lines
of what I later knew to be a poem, a poem
I later called ‘The Story Of Your Opinion’,
which had probably been buried inside me
my whole life, as I’ve spent so much time
worrying about others’ perception of me.
I found a poetry event and went along,
performing my poem ‘Frankenstein Love’.
I remembered to compensate for my
stammer; when I felt a block coming, I
simply spoke faster and a lot of that poem
was mostly inaudible through a combination
of nerves and difficulty pronouncing the
sounds, syllables and rhythms.
I later joined a group called
Gorilla Poetry. We have just
about every type of poet, from
classical to performance-based
poets, even MCs. Styles, tone
and content vary wildly, offering
me a wealth of inspiration. Every
time I think I’ve progressed and
expanded my range, we get
someone new performing who
completely changes everything about what I
thought poetry could be. Performing quickly
becomes addictive. The feedback I get from
audiences is something I can no longer live
without.
Rhythm
I realised that it’s all about rhythm. The way
I spoke fluently by connecting to the rhythm
of the poem was symbolic of how each
of us has our own rhythm, our own pulse
and once we discover it, once we discover
ourselves, we can then tap into our full
potential.
I realised I didn’t believe in that still voice
inside. Self doubt, shyness and lack of
conviction constantly shouted over it. I
realised that breathing is listening. Speaking
is a call and answer. That still voice calls, you
inhale then answer by breathing out. Thanks
to this new understanding of myself and
my impediment, my speech is now much
improved, but still far from perfect. There’s
infinite room for you to grow, once you lose
that negative clutter.
Self-belief
2013 was one of the best years of my life.
I won the top prize at the Word Emporium
in Leeds, part of the Love Arts Festival and
I also became Grand Bard of Gorilla Poetry.
As Grand Bard of the collective I host its
open mics and ‘slams’, which requires a lot
of quick thinking - I’m getting better at it.
At a recent slam, one performer got very
nervous and left the stage after delivering
only two lines - she was visibly distressed.
In these tense and delicate moments I get
nervous too and when I went onto the mic
I stammered quite badly in trying to move
the show forward with sensitivity. I’m now
working with local film companies to create
a series of spoken word videos which I will
distribute online and through social
networking.
I can’t describe what all this has
done for my self-belief – not just as
a poet, but as a human being. All
of us have a voice, but now I know
I have something to say. When I sit
and properly reflect on how much
I’ve grown in terms of confidence
and the performance of my poetry,
I get frightened. I used to look at confident
people and think, ‘I’ll never be that
comfortable in front of everyone, I’ll never
be so calm and collected’. Now, just a year
later, my nerves are virtually gone. Virtually...
Watch Davy performing ‘Sometimes I
Stutter’ at www.davycharles.co.uk. He will
feature in a BBC Radio 4 documentary on
Thursday 17th April at 1:45pm, available
on iPlayer after that.
“Each of us has our
own rhythm, our own pulse and
once we discover it, once we
discover ourselves, we can then
tap into our full potential.”
Davy’s trophies
“If I can’t finish a word, how
the hell will I finish life?”

SPEAKING OUT
Most of us have been through
the nightmare of having to give a
presentation. 18 year-old Jodie Chapman
talks us through her recent experience
and gives advice on how to cope with
them.
In January I had to do a presentation at
college on an enzymes experiment we did
in Chemistry. In it we had to talk about our
aims and predictions for the experiment,
the equipment we used, the methodology,
results and then give an evaluation and a
conclusion. We had ten minutes in which to
do it. Being an unconfident person (because
of my stammer), I was very nervous about it.
On the morning of the presentation I felt
really sick. On the way to college I was
shaking and had a full sweat on. On the bus
I did actually think I was going to throw up!
My heart was racing and I simply could not
relax.
I met up with my friends in the lesson
beforehand. One of them asked how many
slides I had included, and was panicking
because I had done more than her... which
made me panic because I thought I had
done too many! I told them that I was
really worried. I was scared because I was
desperate to get a distinction for this
assignment, and for that you have to present
with ‘confidence and polish’. They told
me I was going to be absolutely fine.
They said, “Just think, you’re getting
it done and out the way today, so you
won’t have to do it on Friday,” which
made me feel a bit more at ease. I had
emailed my teacher the day before,
telling her how nervous I was. She
suggested I pretend I was talking to an
empty room, which helped. She also
gave me an extra minute to do it in
because of my speech.
Once I got to the classroom I felt so scared.
My heart was racing and I was having a cold
sweat. Normally I would have a homeopathic
pastille to help me calm down before doing
these types of things, but I didn’t have
time, as my teacher arrived shortly after and
asked if I was ready to do the presentation.
She reassured me and said I’d be fine. She
then told the other students that they could
work on their computers or watch me, but
either way they HAD to be quiet. This took
the pressure off a bit. She also told them to
be nice to me (I think
she was referring to my
stammer and that they
shouldn’t laugh if I got
stuck on a word). Then
I remember her saying,
“Whenever you’re
ready,” a sentence I was
dreading.
In the
moment
I had a dry mouth and
throat throughout
and a sweaty back. I
didn’t think I would
get everything
said in time. I sped through it
and stammered quite a lot in the process;
I think the speed caused me to stammer
more. But for the first time ever I actually
ignored everyone else and imagined I was
just talking to the teacher. When I did block,
I either concentrated on reading from the
slide or the flash card. I knew I couldn’t just
read from them; I had to make eye contact
with the audience, which I did. However,
my teacher said that if I wanted to, I could
look out the window while speaking. I really
didn’t care about my stammer at the time,
because I was just so eager to say my stuff
and get it out the way.
When I finished I remember my teacher
saying, “I bet you’re glad it’s all done now.
It wasn’t that bad, was it?” It was definitely
the best presentation I’ve ever done, and
the one that I’m the most proud of. I felt so
relieved. As it turned out, I got no response
(good or bad) from the other students when
I stammered.
Tips
If anyone has a presentation coming up, I
would say that it helps to talk to someone
about it. Tell a friend, family member or
teacher how you feel and what you think
will happen. They’ll be able to reassure
you that it will be fine. Ask your teacher if
you can do your presentation first out of
everyone in the group, which will mean you
won’t have to wait and worry. If it’s a timed
presentation, ask for extra time. If you see
a speech therapist, ask them for coping
strategies. My therapist reminded me to
use ‘soft onsets’ and to say the first sounds
really slowly to help the words flow together
better. Before the presentation, try telling
your audience that you have a stammer (if
they don’t already know); this will not only
reassure them, but you will feel a bit more
relaxed because they are aware that you
might stammer.
Also, try and sound confident in what you’re
saying. Practice the presentation until you
know it inside out. Try and relax the night
before. Take a hot bath and listen to music.
But the main thing is to have fun whilst
you’re up there. Speak from the heart.
It’s really not the end of the world if you
stammer, and people will not think less of
you.
And do you want to know what grade I got
for my presentation? A distinction!
“Then I remember
my teacher saying,
‘Whenever you’re
ready,’ a sentence
I was dreading.”
It’s all in the
presentation

SPEAKING OUT
Lecturer Grant Meredith shares his
experiences of teaching in China and
explains how his stammer wasn’t as big a
barrier as he feared.
In 2012 I was invited to lecture a course
on effective communication skills, team
work and oral presentations in China as
part of a partnership commitment with my
own university in Australia (University of
Ballarat). What followed was an eye-opening
adventure in terms of fluency, respect and
the use of a Western teaching method. At
first I was a little apprehensive in accepting
the offer. It would mean nearly a month
away from my family and I only knew one
phrase in Mandarin. I was also unsure about
how they would accept my overt and at
times very severe
stammer.
So off I travelled to
tropical Shaoguan
University in
Guangdong
province. Upon
arrival I was
greeted by my
minder and I found
that I had to slow my speech rate down to
half my normal speed for him to understand
what I was saying. I spoke too fast and my
accent was very thick. This was a challenge
in itself because I’m usually a very fast
talker. Slowing down certainly smoothed
my speech out
and I found myself
stammering less. The
next challenge was
communicating with
my new students.
After settling in
I was introduced
to the academic
hierarchy who were
all very interested
in my thoughts and
teaching methods.
The next day I would
meet my students from amongst the 25,000
who lived on campus. I was also told that
I would stick out, being the only ‘white
person’ there.
Cultural differences
The next day came and I entered the lecture
hall. In front of me was a class full of
focused students. They had all learnt English
during their school years but still their
conversational skills were very mixed.
After teaching for three hours I asked
them for some feedback concerning how
well they understood me. Now, I was
stammering overtly, loud and proud the
whole time, but to my surprise it was not
an issue. Most students said they had
never spoken to a native English speaker
and were having trouble understanding
my accent. My accent was too heavy
for them but my stammer didn’t raise
a mention. These students had grown
up in a very respectful society where
lecturers are seen in very high regard. The
physical characteristics of how I spoke didn’t
bother them at all. Not a single one stared,
laughed or even seemed to acknowledge it.
It took the
students a full
week of daily
classes with
me to be able
to understand
most of what
I was saying.
Surprisingly they
were finding it
more difficult
to get used to my Western teaching style.
They were confused why I smiled as I taught
and at how animated I was. They were also
taken aback when I asked them questions.
Usually a Chinese lecturer would not ask the
class questions or interact so openly with
them. It was so
interesting to
live and teach in
such a respectful
culture where my
stammering was
not an issue.
Another challenge
was learning how
to toast. Often I
would be asked
out to dinner by
members of the
university hierarchy. These dinners were
amusing because most of the time there
was no interpreter and the hosts spoke little,
if no English. In that case my hosts would
interact fully with each other and I would
smile and eat. However, the problem came
when I was required to toast individuals and
the table. Early on I was told that I should
toast everyone to my right-hand side at
least once every meal. I am still unsure if
that was in fact custom or simply a ploy to
get me drunk. The problem I found was not
conducting the toast but trying to think of
something different to say each time. At
some meals I gave more than 10 toasts and
I found myself getting very good at it and
using phrases that would make a politician
proud.
The big one
My final big challenge was conducting
a public lecture to the university about
research that I had been working on.
Invitations were sent out to all interested
parties and on the night I was treated
like a star. I entered the auditorium and
was greeted by a crowd of over 400
applauding staff and students, all of whom
had voluntarily come to hear my speech.
I was ushered to the stage and asked to
sit down at a table with a microphone on
it. I said, “Sit down? I don’t know how
to lecture sitting down!” So I stood up,
walked around, smiled and even showed
a little humour as I presented. All along I
was stammering, grimacing and blocking
uncontrollably, but with confidence. I
received a standing ovation and some
remarked that it was like meeting Steve
Jobs! I was swamped afterwards by people
wanting their photograph taken with me.
A few weeks later it was time to fly back
to Australia and back to my family. It was
an amazing experience and it was such
an embracing culture. I was blocking,
prolonging and repeating the whole time
and yet it was not a concern at all.
“I received a standing
ovation and some
remarked that it was like
meeting Steve Jobs!”
Stammering in a foreign land
Grant in action
Grant (back row, third from left) with students

SPEAKING OUT
Being asked to be Best Man at a wedding
can be a proud moment... until you
realise you have to make a speech.
Trevor Bradley explains how he prepared
for his by working on changing his
mindset.
Appreciation. Fear.
Avoidance. All of
these thoughts
flooded into my
mind when my
grandson Stefan
asked me to be
Best Man at his
wedding within
two years. Plenty of
time, I thought, to
prepare a speech.
What would I say?
What couldn’t I
say? How would I or
my audience react
when I stammer?
At the age of 62 I have acquired what I call
a ‘toolbox’ of therapies, some useful, some
not. Luckily I am a member of the Doncaster
Stammering Association (DSA) self-help
group, with Chair Bob Adams. There, we
practice speaking circles, a great aid for
overcoming anxiety of public speaking.
Both the audience and the speaker have
mutual respect and what you say is not the
ultimate aim. You don’t need to be funny or
interesting. In fact you don’t need to say a
word, it’s the connection of eyes and minds,
the giving and receiving. It’s OK to be you.
At the end the applause you receive from
the audience is a thank you for being you!
This positive outcome was what I needed to
focus on, not the need to be fluent.
Positivity
Understanding the way I speak to myself is
important. If I
keep thinking
negative
thoughts then
what outcome
will I have?
I had the
opportunity
to add to my
toolbox by
attending
a two-day
intensive
course
organised by
Hilary Liddle and Cheryl Orr at the Doncaster
Speech & Language Therapy Department.
In the group we discussed icebergs. No,
not the ones that can sink a ship, but the
ones that float around in our subconscious,
threatening to sink ourselves. What we
show on the surface is not always mirrored
below. I have
always tried to
hide my stammer
by constantly
changing words,
pretending to
forget someone’s
name, avoiding
taking risks in
socialising, and
always taking
the back seat.
At the end of
the session we
made a list of
what feelings
lie beneath the
surface. Mine included humiliation, shame,
fear, anger, and thoughts of ‘I’m not good
enough’. So on the wedding day all I needed
below the surface was a positive attitude to
the way I communicate.
My main anxiety was how I could make
the speech as amusing as possible. I
practiced it in front of the DSA but didn’t
get many laughs. In fact it read like a
short autobiography and I wasn’t pleased
with the result, although the group said it
sounded OK. I needed to find additional
guidance for my toolbox and found Barbara
Gomersall, a Neuro-linguistic Programming
(NLP) practitioner whose course I attended
in 2008. She recommended changes such as
reassembling the words to make it punchy,
like stand-up comics do, and to anchor
feelings of fun, pleasure, relaxation and
speaking with expression. Now my iceberg
contained positive thoughts - no longer
‘is this good enough?’. With this in mind I
practiced at home using three mirrors: one
placed in the centre, one to the left and one
to the right, making eye contact with each
and visualising people laughing with me,
not at me when I spoke. I also used a voice
recorder.
One last technique Hilary taught me was
voluntary stammering, the behaviour I spent
most of my life concealing. Far from being
embarrassing on the day of the wedding, it
proved to be liberating. Before the speech I
felt happy to be among family and friends
but I waited nervously for my time to come.
The speech
The time had finally arrived - the Best Man’s
speech. Nervous yes, but my iceberg beneath
the surface was full of positives. I unfolded
the pieces of paper from my pocket. The
speech was there in front of my eyes. It
seemed a blur of words I could not focus
on, just the memory of many hours spent
practicing speaking and gesturing at the
correct moments. The fuse had been lit.
Nothing could stop it now.
“For those of you who don’t know me,
my name is T-T-T-Trevor and I am Stefan’s
granddad. You may have noticed that I
sssssssstammer. The good news is, if you
don’t hear me the first time you’ll hear
me the ssssssss... 8th time.” Bob gave me
permission to use one of his quotes to
advertise my dysfluency so that I could laugh
at myself in a positive, accepting way and
to allow the audience to laugh with me. I
relied on physical and vocal memory to carry
the performance and I ended with: “And
finally, will everyone stand and toast Stefan
and Lauren.” Applause rang out around the
room and many came over to congratulate
me. At the end I was happy; relieved, with
a sense of accomplishment that I gave it my
best and my best was good enough.
Without the help of the four people
mentioned I would not have had the inner
belief that I could communicate effectively
in the public arena. You could say I had
made myself bulletproof from the fear of
failure and being judged. I had practiced to
succeed.
“The speech was there
in front of my eyes.
It seemed a blur of
words I could not focus
on. The fuse had been
lit. Nothing could
stop it now.”
Prepare to succeed

It’s a rap
Ruben Sewkumar, aka ‘MotionR’, talks
about being inspired to take up rapping
and how music has helped him with his
stammer.
I have had my stammer for as long as I
can remember. I am 17 now and having a
stammer does come with challenges on an
everyday basis. For most people, ordering
food, talking out in public and making
jokes are all normal things to do. But with a
stammer all of those things are difficult.
Let me take you back three years ago to
McDonald’s, where I was ordering an egg
Mcmuffin. I just couldn’t finish
the last part of the word and was
struggling to get the sound out. The
cashier looked at me, laughed and
said, “Next please.” At that point
my confidence and self-esteem
sank and I didn’t try again. My high
school life wasn’t easy either. I
was picked on frequently and was
somewhat of an outcast because
of my stammer. I didn’t really
talk to anyone and no-one really
understood my condition. I hardly
had a social life until year 10 or
11, when I met a small group of
people, whom to this day I’m
still friends with.
Inspiration
I started rapping at the age of 11 or 12
after listening to Eminem. He inspired me to
start writing myself and remains my biggest
influence. I never took writing seriously back
then and just wrote when I wanted to. But I
found out that I could rap and not stammer
at all, which was amazing; it not only
helped me express how I felt, but it gave
me confidence and I have been rapping ever
since. I don’t know what it is about music,
but it helps me. It is hard to break out in
the music scene when no-one wants to give
you a chance, but I write and rap to get my
feelings out and to express myself. I bought
myself a microphone and I record, mix and
produce my own songs all in my bedroom
on my computer. I’m not sure where the
name ‘MotionR’ came from - I just wanted
my initial in it!
With regards to the creative process behind
my music, I write whatever comes into my
head. I always carry my notepad with me
wherever I go, or I just type
lyric ideas onto the ‘notes’
section on my mobile
phone so that I don’t forget
them. All of my songs have
a meaning and a message
behind them. Some of
my songs are based on
my stammer, songs such
as ‘Dear Destiny’ and
‘Famous’. Here’s part of a
verse from ‘2 Aspects Of
Life’:
“Take a second, close your
eyes. Just imagine living life
not uttering and people not
understanding that you’re ssssssstuttering!
I’ve grown up with this disorder but who
would have thought I could get my words
out on a tape recorder? See, rap has helped
me and I feel obliged to give something
back.”
The response I
am getting from my friends and peers at
college and others around me for my music
is pretty positive; everyone is supporting
me. I haven’t performed live yet but there
are chances to do so at college and I will be
taking them (with a bit of confidence, ha
ha!). I would love to perform and spread the
message that even with a speech disorder
you can get past it; you can make something
of yourself and follow your dreams.
Therapy
In 2012 I joined a speech therapy course
at The Michael Palin Centre in London,
where I was taught different techniques for
controlling my stammer. One was called ‘the
freeze’ and helped to overcome a block:
when you stammered, you had to stop
and try again. Another technique called
voluntary stammering, where you would
choose to stammer, helped a lot too.
I was doing well with my speech after the
course; I was going out, ordering food and
taking leaps that I never knew I could take.
Recently, though, it has reverted back to
the way it was before the speech therapy,
and has got to a point where I ask my
friends at college to order my food
for me. It’s pathetic and patronising,
I know; I should be able to order my
own food! Some days I’m fluent but
on other days talking is a nightmare.
College has been amazing, though. I
have just done three presentations and
they all went well. All my classmates are
supportive and I couldn’t ask for a better
place to study and have a social life.
No-one really understands what it’s like
not to be able to say what you want,
or how it makes you feel. They can only
imagine. People may laugh and say things,
but we’re all the same at the end of the day.
Music, and rap in general, has really helped
me deal with my stammer and I don’t
honestly know what I would do without it.
Listen to ‘Dear Destiny’ by MotionR:
http://bit.ly/1jaCdW9. (Please note that
several of his other songs have explicit
lyrics). Follow MotionR on Twitter: @
Motionrmusic.
“I would love to perform
and spread the message
that even with a speech
disorder you can get
past it; you can make
something of yourself
and follow your dreams.”
SPEAKING OUT

Ben Hewett shares his progress after
returning to therapy after over twenty
years, and highlights the growing threat
that NHS services are under.
I didn’t start stammering until I was eight,
so because I spoke fluently up until then,
my beginning to stammer constituted a
change in the way I spoke - unlike those
who stammer from the time they can talk -
this served to emphasise my stammering to
everyone who knew me and draw attention
to it. I didn’t understand and greatly feared
it. I was taken to a speech therapist. This
experience - which consisted mostly of
reading exercises and being repeatedly
told to slow down - was of little help. In
hindsight, I believe that the period of time
during which I spoke fluently reinforced the
idea that fluency was the norm and thus
stammering was abnormal and should be
hidden at all costs; to return to fluent speech
was all I wanted and nothing less than this
would do.
My single-minded desire for fluency (and my
hatred of stammering) persisted throughout
my teens and twenties, during which I
struggled to achieve anything I wanted
to. I left school after my GCSEs, worked
in various unfulfilling jobs for eight years
(hiding my speech and the impact it had
upon me as best I could) before finding
the courage to go to university. There I
found some confidence, both personally
and academically, which gave me hope.
However, upon leaving university, my speech
deteriorated and my confidence nose-dived.
Return to therapy
At this very low point, I decided to
seek speech therapy again. I had little
optimism that it would help (given my
previous experience) but decided it
had to be worth a try as the alternative
was far worse. Implicitly, I wanted
fluency but this was quashed in the
first session when I was told - in the
kindest possible way - that there is no
cure and that I was likely to stammer,
in some capacity, for the rest of my life.
This was hard to take but, in a sense,
a degree of relief set in: maybe I didn’t
need to struggle anymore. This sense of
relief - resignation, in all but name - was
soon replaced with optimism that even
though I may stammer for the rest of
my life, there were things I could do
to manage it. Much of therapy to date has
centred upon identifying my stammering
behaviours - my avoidances, as well as
what I physically do when I block - and
desensitising myself to the act of blocking.
To allow myself to feel the full force of a
block (which were often uncontrollable)
and to not panic and avoid the block was
a crucial step for me. I won’t sugar-coat
it: desensitising myself to stammering
has been one of the hardest things I’ve
ever done but it’s also one of the most
empowering as the sense of acceptance,
and therefore of control, was genuinely
attitude-changing. This sea-change in
attitude and the boost in self-belief soon
resulted in another important change: I
realised that my speech-related anxieties
derived from my own negative relationship
with my stammer, rather than from anybody
else’s negative reaction to it. This further
increased the sense that my stammer was
something which was mine and as such, it
was something that I could change.
I started working through Block Modification
Therapy, an approach premised upon the
idea that I had a choice as to how I reacted
to a block. Whereas
before, my reaction was
to struggle and ‘push
through’ the block, this
taught me to do the
opposite: to stop, identify
where the block was,
reduce the tension and to
slowly and calmly utter
the word. I soon realised
that I could block and
still utter any word with
minimal struggle; blocking
didn’t have to mean I
couldn’t say that word.
The most significant
benefits I have gained
from therapy have been
the changes in belief
about my speech. I believed that stammering
was something which happened to me,
and was to be avoided. I now believe it
is something I do and something which
doesn’t have to be struggled against
or avoided. My outlook has changed
completely. I still stammer and find it
difficult at times, but I now have a few skills
to manage it in order to lead the life I want
to lead.
Therapy cut short
Unfortunately, however, after almost nine
months, my therapy was prematurely cut
short due to cut-backs at the Trust which
provided the adult stammering service. This
news was very distressing as I was several
months away from completing the therapy
plan set out for me and I felt very much like
I’d been abandoned. The dire
situation in Birmingham with
regards to adult stammering
services prompted the BSA to
launch an awareness campaign
in the city, involving local MP
Jack Dromey, giving me the
opportunity to be interviewed
by a local newspaper in order
to raise awareness of the issue.
The interview - a telephone
interview of all things! - went
really well and, in a way, the
opportunity to assist the
BSA in this way helped me
to realise how far I’d come
in my stammering journey.
Thankfully, whether due to the
pressure of the interview or
not, I’m being transferred to a neighbouring
service and will continue my therapy there.
SPEAKING OUT
Ben in The Birmingham Mail
My recent experience of NHS speech therapy

Max Gattie introduces the Manchester
Stammering Support Group and gives tips
for setting up a group in your area.
Being around others who stammer is
an unforgettable, if initially awkward,
rite of passage. As in a hall of mirrors,
manifestations of oneself are reflected back
multifold. Several stages of the stammering
odyssey are seen simultaneously. Experiences
you’d viewed as unique turn out to be
not so extraordinary after all. As these
commonalities crystallise, you gain insights
which would have been impossible to obtain
otherwise.
The Manchester Stammering Support Group
meets every fortnight. We have a private
room at a further education college in the
city’s Spinningfields business district. After
a formal session lasting a couple of hours,
we’ll continue at a bar or pub nearby. There
are extra-curricular activities too: Christmas
parties, karaoke nights and speed dating
evenings have all featured. Members
are experienced in a range of therapies,
and some have even done research into
stammering. We also have trainee or
qualified Speech and Language Therapists in
attendance.
With a growing member base, the group is
going strong. But it wasn’t always this way.
Seven years ago, there was no group at all in
Manchester.
Starting a group may
be easier with NHS help
In 2007, after a series of one-to-one sessions
at Manchester Royal Infirmary, I’d reached
the stabilisation phase of speech therapy. My
therapist, Rachel Purcell, suggested I attend
a support group. I was keen to participate
but Rachel only had contact details for one
group member, who had moved out of the
area. Nothing was running. We would have
to start anew.
Recruiting from her client list, we set up a
group at the hospital. Initial meetings were
held monthly, with four or five attendees.
We continued in this way for about a year,
shuttling between whatever rooms were
available. After a few memorable sessions
amidst learning skeletons and saline drips,
we decided to move away from the hospital
environment.
This took us as far as a pub over the road.
Soon after, I moved the group again, to a
bar near my flat. This might sound selfish,
but at the time I was the only regular
attendee and thought I might as well make
it easy on myself. It helped that I lived next
to a major transport hub in the city centre,
easy to get to from any part of Manchester.
The geographical advantage was, in my
opinion, essential in enabling the group to
grow.
Meetings continued like this for a couple of
years and others started attending regularly.
Growing the group beyond five or six was
still difficult, though.
Location and
management structure
are important
At around this point, one of the regulars
suggested we move the group, after
hearing about a social welfare project that
could provide us with a meeting room and
minimal funding. A drawback was that
we’d be on the outskirts of the city, at least
two bus journeys away for most members.
It was an attractive opportunity, though.
We’d had difficulty finding a private room in
the city centre, and had ended up in quiet
corners of pubs. This is far from ideal. It can
be off-putting for first-time visitors who are
self-conscious about stammering. It also
precludes many activities, such as guided
relaxation or prepared speeches, which
would otherwise have been worthwhile.
With these limits on meeting structure, it
was all too easy for sessions to end up as a
talking shop, covering the same old ground
every time.
Additionally, the organisation was too loose.
I was sending out reminder emails for each
meeting, but after several years was keen
to step away from the day-to-day running.
I didn’t have time to work out a detailed
programme for each meeting so I was
enthusiastic about shaking up proceedings
and moving to a more formal setting.
Before going on, it’s worth mentioning that I
was concurrently gaining a lot of experience
with group leadership elsewhere. I’d acted
as club president, and then area governor,
for the local Toastmasters public speaking
club. As such, I had a good insight into the
workings of professionally-run groups. I also
knew how difficult it was to find free rooms
in the city centre. This wasn’t a problem
for Toastmasters, which could rely on 20
attendees at each meeting, and a member
list of 30 who paid fees twice yearly. But
the stammering group was nowhere near
this size, and charging for attendance was
unfeasible.
So, we moved to the new venue. The
member who had suggested this insisted on
a rigid hierarchy, with himself in command.
This came as a surprise to long-time
members, one of whom walked out early on
after being chagrined for lack of attention
in a secretarial role. Attendance dropped,
although it was hard to tell if this was due
to the location, or the new structure. After
a few more meetings, the member who had
“I quickly found
myself making
friends, whom I’ll
keep for the rest
of my life.”
One small step for Manchester
Max (left), Christmas party, 2012
At the NHS facility, complete with learning skeleton
(Max, second left)
12 SPRING 2014
SPEAKING OUT

SPEAKING OUT
initiated the move dissolved the new group
without consultation. This was our biggest
test yet. No meeting room, a scattered
member base, and nothing scheduled.
Try to let the members
run their own group
Fortunately, I was able to resuscitate the
group. I had some help, since the member
who’d walked out supported a move back
to the city centre. With the better catchment
in this location, we expected to gain visitors
as before, and pull back some of our former
members. In particular, by locating the
group near the Oxford Road student corridor
we could practically guarantee one or two
new visitors every week.
Rather than meeting in a public space, we
redoubled our efforts to find a private room.
As mentioned, this was difficult without
paying. However, the Lass O’Gowrie pub
provided us with a semi-private space, in
return for which we purchased food and
added to their bar takings. If they had no
other bookings, they’d even let us use their
public performance space, which had a stage
area and overhead projector.
Other changes were to run the group via
consensus decision-making; to abolish the
role of group leader; and have a different
member taking the lead for each meeting.
This sounds unworkable but turned out to
be a very good fit. It helps to keep meetings
fresh, and spreads out administrative
duties. The facilitator also puts together the
programme and sends out email reminders.
A further advantage is that it empowers
group members, some of whom have had
little experience with leadership duties.
We gained members rapidly, and they
attended more frequently. One of them has
recently negotiated a meeting room for
us at The Manchester College, which has
several advantages over the pub setting, not
least of which are that we can count on a
private space and presentation facilities for
every session. For me, it’s a pleasure to take
a back seat from the day-to-day running of
the group, and to be able to turn up and
enjoy meetings in the same way as any other
participant.
Quotes from
members
“I’ve been part
of various self-
help groups up
and down the
country and
the Manchester
group suits my
needs the most. It has a great variety of
people of all ages, ethnic backgrounds,
knowledge, skills and abilities. I quickly
found myself making friends, whom I’ll
keep for the rest of my life. The group
continues to enrich my knowledge of
stammering (benefitting from several
members being involved in current
stammering research), challenges my
own prejudices and hang-ups, and
furthers my journey into self-awareness
and acceptance. Quite simply, the
people who have attended the
Manchester group are some of the most
wonderful and inspiring people I have
ever met.” Laura Patryas
“We cover an
interesting range
of subjects (e.g.,
Mindfulness,
the telephone,
Acceptance and
Commitment
Therapy, etc.). The
meetings are always
well-structured and balanced. Time is
given for the topic of the night and then
the second half of the meeting is about
speech practice. I find this particularly
useful to work on my speech, whether
it be reading aloud or doing ‘table
topics’ (two minute ad-libbed speeches
borrowed from Toastmasters), etc. The
social element, with the option of going
for a drink after the meeting, is also very
important.” Clive Collins
The Manchester Stammering Support
Group meets every fortnight at St
John’s Centre, The Manchester College.
Email manchester-stammering@
googlegroups.com for further details.
“There are a lot of
things I really like
about this group,
so it’s hard to pick
out one thing in
particular. I like
the fact that there
is a solid core of
members who, despite still stammering,
are doing very well in their lives, and
have very definitely gone beyond the
common psychological hang-ups that
people otherwise often have about
stammering. Just being around such
people is very therapeutic. I like how
the responsibility for co-ordinating
meetings is taken by a different group
member each time. I like how the
group has successfully managed to
avoid promoting any particular brand
of therapy or self-help, yet at the same
time provides members with a lot of
useful (and accurate) information.”
Paul Brocklehurst
Max’s suggestions
for starting a group
1. Recruit members from your local NHS
Speech and Language Therapy service
and ask BSA to list your group on their
website;
2. Choose a meeting place near to public
transport links. Try to get a private
room. Colleges or community groups
may help;
3. Have members take it in turns to
facilitate meetings. This will reduce the
pressure on you, keep the agenda fresh
and make members more confident;
4. It may be preferable to resist a formal
leadership hierarchy. Try instead to
make decisions by consensus;
5. Once the group is running, make
yourself dispensable. Contribute as any
other member would, and allow the
group to come to its own conclusions.
That said, you may occasionally need
to steer and chivvy things along;
6. Structure meetings so that all
participants have an opportunity
to talk, if they want to. One way to
ensure this is do ‘table topics’, which
are a good way to round off the
evening.
See also the BSA’s guidance and
resources on self-help groups, or see if
there’s a group in your area, at www.
stammering.org/shgs.html.
Meetings usually end with a visit to the pub

SPEAKING OUT
Study on
pre-school
children
draws
criticism
An Australian study recently published in
the journal Pediatrics, entitled ‘Natural
history of stuttering up to 4 years of age’,
has prompted some in the dysfluency
world to question its findings and
methodology. We asked one of its authors
to provide a summary of the study, and a
leading Speech and Language Therapist
to respond to it.
Professor Sheena Reilly, from the
Department of Paediatrics at the
University of Melbourne, writes:
Recently we reported findings from a study
of early stammering1
that surprised many
and continues to be the subject of debate.
We recruited 1,910 infants, aged 8-10
months, to the Early Language in Victoria
Study (ELVS). Within ELVS we embedded a
study to examine the onset and development
of stammering. This study was different from
many others in that:
• The children were recruited at a
younger age, that is, before many of
the children had started stammering;
• Information was collected on all
participants before they started
stammering, as well as at frequent,
regular intervals once they started;
• Participants were recruited from
the community (e.g., maternal
and child health centres, magazine
advertisements), rather than speech
therapy clinics where children were
seeking treatment;
• In addition to stammering data,
information was collected on the
children’s social, emotional and
behavioural development;
• When each child was reported as
stammering by their parents, and had
it confirmed by one of our speech
pathologists, the child was visited at
their home on a monthly basis for 12
months.
All parents participating in the original ELVS
were eligible and invited to participate in
the stammering sub-study. The majority of
parents elected to participate. Participating
families were provided with a fridge magnet
displaying examples of different stammering
behaviours and prompted every four
months to telephone our research team if
they noticed that their child had started
stammering. Once a parent telephoned to
report that their child was stammering,
a 45-minute face-to-face assessment was
conducted at the
child’s home. For
those children
confirmed as
stammering,
monthly home
visits then took
place for one year.
In addition to this,
a questionnaire
was completed by
parents every year
around the time of
their child’s birthday.
At 4 years of age,
the child’s language
skills (comprehension
and expression)
and non-verbal
cognition were
measured. Parental
reports of the child’s
social, emotional
and behavioural
development and
quality of life were
also obtained.
The main findings were as follows:
• Childhood stammering was more than
we expected; 11.2% of children were
confirmed as stammering by 4 years of
age;
• Being a twin, being male and having a
mother with a higher level of education
were all associated with stammering
onset. However, this doesn’t mean
that these factors together will predict
stammering onset.
By 4 years of age:
• Children who had stammering onset
had better language development and
non-verbal skills than non-stammering
children;
• The negative social, emotional and
behavioural effects commonly reported
to be associated with stammering,
were not evident;
• Children who stammered were not
more shy or withdrawn compared to
the non-stammering group;
• Children who stammered had better
health-related quality of life compared
to the non-stammering group.
• Only 6.3% of children recovered from
stammering in the first 12 months after
onset. This recovery rate was lower
than had previously been reported.
Recovery rates within the first 12
months after onset were higher for
boys, for children who did not repeat
whole words at onset and for children
who had a lower stammering severity
at onset.
Conclusions
We concluded that stammering seemed to
be more common in the pre-school years
than was previously thought. We were
surprised that the negative consequences
associated with stammering were not
apparent in the majority of children by 4
years of age.
Current best practice recommends waiting
12 months before starting treatment
unless the child is distressed, parents are
concerned, or the child becomes reluctant
to communicate. This recommendation
is based on research conducted about the
Lidcombe Programme, which is the only
speech and language therapy treatment
for early stammering that is supported by
randomised controlled trials2,3
. The evidence
indicates that waiting 12 months after onset
Prof Sheena Reilly (centre), with Dr Elaina Kefalianos
and Peta Newell

SPEAKING OUT
before commencing treatment may actually
improve a child’s response to treatment.
However, this period involves ‘watchful
waiting’, which requires parents to monitor
fluctuations in their child’s stammering
severity as well as changes to their child’s
response to stammering.
Given that (a) so few children recovered
from stammering in the first year after onset;
and (b) there were no detectable negative
outcomes by 4 years of age, we suggested
that treatment for some children may be
delayed for slightly longer than 12 months
to allow more time for natural recovery
to occur. Limited resources are available
to manage early childhood stammering;
therefore we argued that these resources
should be allocated to those children who
do not recover naturally and/or those who
experience negative outcomes.
Given the low rates of recovery reported
in our study, we were unable to determine
what predicts which children will recover
from stammering, but this will be the focus
of our research in the future.
References
1. Reilly, S., Onslow, M., Packman, A., Cini, E.,
Ukoumune, O. C., Bavin, E. L., Prior, M., Eadie,
P., Block, S., & Wake, M. (2013). Natural history
of stuttering to 4 years of age: A prospective
community-based study. Pediatrics, 132(3),
460-467.
2. Jones, M., Onslow, M., Packman, A., Williams,
S., Ormond, T., Schwarz, I., & Gebski, V. (2005).
Randomised controlled trial of the Lidcombe
Programme of early stuttering intervention.
British Medical Journal, 331, 659-661.
3. Lewis, C., Packman, A., Onslow, M., Simpson,
J.A., Jones, M. (2008). A phase II trial of
telehealth delivery of the Lidcombe Program of
Early Stuttering Intervention. American Journal
of Speech Language Pathology, 17, 139-149.
Response by
Elaine Kelman,
Head Speech
and Language
Therapist at The
Michael Palin
Centre:
This ongoing study of 1,910 children in
Melbourne, Australia, caused a significant
stir when the investigators published their
paper last year, reporting their findings
on 142 children who stammer up to the
age of 4 years.
The popular press responded in typical
fashion, selecting snippets of information
from which they created dramatic and
misleading headlines, such as ‘Pre-
schoolers’ Stuttering Not Harmful’ (USA
Today) and ‘Children who stutter do not
suffer disadvantage at school’ (Daily Mail).
This was extremely unfortunate, given
that the study’s most significant finding,
namely that many more children experience
stammering and fewer of those stop within
a year than was previously thought, became
somewhat buried. There followed a flurry
of exchanges, beginning with the Stuttering
Foundation of America’s ‘A Blunder from
Down Under’ electronic correspondence
between the authors and commentators
Joseph Donaher and Ellen Kelly in Pediatrics
(read at http://bit.ly/1j7D9in); the Michael
Palin Centre’s ‘Good news? Bad news? There
is such a thing as bad publicity’ (http://bit.
ly/1gezaOS); verbal presentations on the
Stutter Talk podcast (www.stuttertalk.
com/tag/sheena-reilly/); and most recently
an article by Ehud Yairi in the Stuttering
Foundation’s winter newsletter (http://bit.
ly/1gCLzqc). In this article, I will attempt to
outline the key areas of debate that have
arisen.
The primary concern among professionals
arose from the potential unintended
consequence of the above media headlines,
that “parents may be
discouraged from seeking
advice, doctors will assure
them that the child will be
fine and the opportunity for
early intervention will be lost”
(Kelman).
There was also concern
that the findings indicated
that children in this sample
“showed little evidence of
harm to their mental health,
temperament, or psychosocial health-
related quality of life”. Donaher and Kelly
questioned the authors’ interpretation of
this data and pointed out the importance of
clinicians continuing to evaluate and address
the psychological wellbeing and emotional
reactions of a child who stammers. There is
no question that stammering can have an
impact on these areas from an early age in
some children and this is often the reason
why parents seek therapy for their child. One
of the limitations of large group studies is
that the results of a minority can be lost in
the process of exploring the group average.
Methodology
It is also important to note that the
population reported on by Reilly and
colleagues is not a clinical population. It
represents a population of all children who
start to stammer, rather than those who
stammer severely or are concerned enough
to seek therapy. So for therapists, it is
important to understand that the results
and recommendations of this study do not
necessarily transfer to the child in the clinic
and therefore Donaher and Kelly are right to
state that the impact of the stammer should
continue to be considered.
Yairi celebrated the excellent use of a “good-
size” longitudinal sample, representing the
general population of an area, starting in
very early childhood and employing multiple
variables. He expressed concerns about
previous studies that were not referred to,
pointing out that the findings regarding
incidence, the children’s superior language
skills and their temperament characteristics
had been reported in articles dating back to
1957. In response, the authors stated that
this was due to insufficient space and the
different nature of this study.
The 12 months
recommendation
There have also been concerns about
the authors’ suggested guidelines for
intervention. Firstly, relating to the
recommendation to delay treatment for
12 months unless the child is distressed,
there is parental concern, or if
the child becomes reluctant to
communicate. Some of those
responding to the article and ensuing
publicity were worried that parents
and other professionals will focus
on the ‘wait and see’ aspect of
this recommendation, rather than
the proviso, to be watchful and
commence intervention if there are
certain indicators. The second concern
was the recommendation that when
therapy is indicated it should be the
Lidcombe Programme, which is not the only
evidence-based approach and is not the
only option. In the discussion that followed,
the authors emphasised their original point
that these recommendations arose from
the original research into the Lidcombe
Programme, not from this epidemiological
study.
This is a longitudinal study which will help us
to understand more about the development
of stammering over time; the factors that
contribute to the disorder; and the impact
that it has for different age groups. It is
exciting that this new research stimulates
debate which subsequently encourages
accountability and open-mindedness and
above all moves us forward as we seek to
understand, support and ultimately help to
improve the lives of children who stammer.
Elaine Kelman

SPEAKING OUT
Irish Stammering Association board
member Sarah McCormack discusses
her study into the experiences of people
who stammer, and the role of support in
mental wellbeing.
I did a Masters
in Health
Psychology in
2012 at Ulster
University. Health
psychology
focuses on how
people behave
in relation to
their health,
which includes factors like stress and coping.
Research has shown that those who seek
emotional support have greater quality of
life outcomes and a better quality of life is
increasingly linked to measures of success
in stammering therapy. I myself stammer,
and for my university research module I
chose to explore the availability of emotional
support for people who stammer as they
grew up, for my thesis Emotional Support in
Stuttering:
Childhood
Experiences
Recollected.
I chose
to use an
in-depth
interview
method
with a small
number of
participants,
an approach
known as Interpretative Phenomenological
Analysis (IPA), which seeks to explore
the lived experience of a person. IPA is
particularly suitable when trying to find out
how individuals are perceiving the particular
situations they are facing and how they are
making sense of their personal and social
world. Invitations to participate were sent
to the Irish Stammering Association (ISA)
support groups. Three people responded;
two men and one woman, with an age
range of 29-40 years. I recorded the
interviews, typed all the transcripts, then
carefully analysed them for major themes
and ideas.
Among themes which emerged from my
research was that participants had feelings
of helplessness and a lack of control in
relation to stammering. I also found that
they had personalised stammering, that
there was a lack of openness in discussion
and that the psychological burden of
stammering went unsupported. Another
prominent feature was that people in the
study had experienced a silence about
stammering when they were children. There
was little or no discussion about it in the
home. They felt isolated from some social
groups, and as children they thought they
were the only ones who stammered. They
also felt that their difficulty in speaking
was misunderstood by others. School
was recalled as having been a particularly
negative experience for those I interviewed.
Implications for the
role of support from
parents and others
For participants in my study, there was
evidence that no realistic explanation for
the causes of, or any basic knowledge
about, stammering was provided to them
as children. The lack of an obvious cause or
explanation of
stammering
in some cases
led them to
conclude
that they
themselves
were
somehow
to blame for
their stammer.
Furthermore,
this lack of
knowledge
meant they had no information to provide to
others (such as classmates) as an explanation
for their difficulty speaking, and this caused
them some concern as children.
I also found that there had been little or no
open and objective discussion of stammering
in the normal family, school and social
situations. Thus, for those people and their
families a culture of avoidance was created.
This lack of openness had a limiting effect on
the contexts into which stammering could be
brought. For these participants, stammering
was really only talked about in the speech
therapy setting - if they had attended
speech therapy. One participant said that
although he was comfortable talking about
stammering whilst in speech therapy, he was
very uncomfortable discussing it outside that
context, and considered the discussion of it
to be a ‘threat’. Previous research has shown
that people who normalised their attitudes
towards their speech (i.e., felt comfortable
discussing their stammer) had lower risks of
relapse than those who did not (Guitar, 1998
and Helps & Dalton, 1979). It was expressed
by all three participants in this study that
they wished stammering had been more
openly discussed in the home when they
were children.
In my research, the participants as children
reported being keenly aware of their
parents’ discomfort about their stammering.
One person said they had the view that their
parent felt guilty about it, and this made
that child feel even worse about themself.
As children, the participants seemed to draw
their own conclusions about their stammers,
leaving them feeling bad about themselves.
They had nowhere to discuss their feelings
or their experience of stammering. It would
follow that a child who is not used to open
discussion of stammering when they are
young might well find it difficult later on.
It is interesting to observe that actively ‘not
discussing’ it might serve to protect from
difficult feelings, but it may create another
issue of a significant silence as a by-product.
Parents’ feelings
It is interesting that research published in
recent years with parents of children who
stammer found that parents have similar
feelings as the child (Plexico & Burrus, 2012).
They experience anxiety associated with
being the parent of a child who stammers.
They are concerned and want to do what is
best for their child. The parents in that study
were uncertain whether to acknowledge the
stammering; they were afraid it would make
the child embarrassed or uncomfortable.
Parents also felt that if the stammering could
not be fixed then it should not be discussed.
The majority of parents said they had a
general unease about discussing stammering
in the home; some parents felt guilty in case
they had somehow caused the stammering
or had failed in fixing it.
The parents interviewed said that family
and friends could also be a source of stress,
as they had to deal with reactions to and
criticism of how they manage their child’s
stammer. This highlights that parents of
children who stammer may have to seek
out the right sort of support, and that
sometimes relatives and friends may not
“A child who is not used
to open discussion of
stammering when they
are young might well
find it difficult later on.”
The role of emotional support in stammering

SPEAKING OUT
provide it in the context of stammering.
Although often well-meaning, they may lack
awareness of it and the best things to do.
Speech therapists and support organisations
such as the BSA and ISA can help to figure
out how best to discuss stammering in the
home and how to be more open about
it. Nowadays the internet provides great
sources of information for parents, such as
the BSA website and its parents’ resources.
Plexico & Burrus’ study, mentioned above,
found that discussions with other parents
of children who stammer through a
parents’ support group were very useful.
Support groups can help in the process
of desensitisation to stammering (for
both parents and children) and provide
information on how to
support the child who
stammers to cope with school
and other situations outside
therapy. BSA’s closed Facebook
group is a good place to start
(www.facebook.com/groups/
stammeringbsa). Parents could
even think about setting up
groups in their own areas. BSA
has resources for doing this at
www.stammering.org/shgs_
resources.html. Open discussion can help
‘normalise’ stammering in the same way as
other topics, and therefore create a forum
where the child, adult or parent can discuss
their feelings about stammering.
Stress in adulthood
The stammering condition can be a
considerable stressor on the person at
various points in their life. Research on
coping skills has found that when a person
does not have access to resources, they
become more vulnerable to stress and have
reduced ability to adjust (Lazarus & Folkman,
1984). People become less vulnerable to
stress and more resistant to negative effects
of stress when resources and support
become available. From my research the
participants reported that they carried a
significant extra burden of emotional pain.
As people who stammer, if we have not
discussed or shared this burden, then we
may have carried this difficult ‘companion’
alone a very long way. Studies show that
seeking emotional and social support is
a coping strategy that results in higher
quality of life outcomes (Plexico & Burrus,
2012). Developing a perspective of self-
understanding and compassion provides
emotional support; the understanding that
we didn’t choose to have the condition of
stammering, and that in all situations we
deal with things as best we can, with the
resources and support, or lack of, that we
have at that point in time and place.
Support options
Emotional support can take many forms
and there are a lot of options out there.
It can begin in the form of discussing our
feelings about stammering in a variety of
everyday or therapeutic settings. It can be
telling a trusted friend how it feels to be a
person who stammers. It can be joining a
self-help group, or an online stammering
forum, such as BSA’s closed Facebook
group. Social support can be as simple as
being determined to maintain friendships in
spite of a fear that we will stammer. Other
approaches can be used as standalone
support or in conjunction with speech
therapy, and indeed are increasingly being
used by Speech and Language Therapists.
Approaches such as Cognitive Behaviour
Therapy (CBT), Personal Construct Therapy
(PCT), Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
(ACT), Narrative Therapy and Mindfulness
are support models for stammering
that can help to manage psychological
distress, increase awareness, develop
non-judgemental self observation and de-
personalise stammering.
Stammering can affect us over our lifespan,
and there are many forms of support that
we can access at various points in our life.
The context of how we talk about things
(when, where, with whom and what words
we use) or indeed how we choose not to talk
about things, matters because it influences
and frames how we view the world and
ourselves.
The Irish Stammering Association’s
website can be found at
www.stammeringireland.ie.
References
1. Guitar, B., (1998). Stuttering: An
integrated approach to its nature and
treatment. Baltimore, MD: Williams &
Wilkins.
2. Helps, R. and Dalton, P., (1979). The
effectiveness of an intensive group of
speech therapy programme for adult
stutterers. British Journal of Disorders
of Communication, 14, pp. 17–30.
3. Lazarus, R. and Folkman, S., (1984).
Stress, appraisal, and coping. New
York: Springer.
4. Plexico, L. W. & Burrus, E., (2012)
Coping with a child who stutters: A
phenomenological analysis. Journal of
Fluency Disorders. 37 (4), 275-288.
“Seeking emotional
and social support is
a coping strategy that
results in higher quality
of life outcomes.”
How to
start a
conversation
with your
child about
stammering
When and why is it important to
speak with the child? As soon as you
observe that the child notices their
stammering you should no longer
ignore it. It is easier to deal with
problems when one can identify and
discuss them. It is also better for the
child to talk with you first, before they
experience negative reactions. It is
easier to find solutions for problems
arising from stammering when the
dysfluency has a name. This name
does not necessarily have to be
‘stammering’. You can use expressions
like ‘bumpy speech’, ‘making words
jump’, ‘stumble’, ‘get stuck’, etc.
How can I start talking about
stammering? Choose an everyday
situation, not loaded by emotions, to
start the conversation, to avoid giving
stammering more importance than
necessary. Showing pity or making
light of problems (if there are any)
is inappropriate. Assume a basic
attitude of interest, without claiming
to find an immediate solution or to
have an answer for all of the child’s
questions. Once you have made a
start further talks are generally easier.
Taken from the BSA website.
Read more, including an example
conversation, at www.stammering.
org/first_time.html.

SPEAKING OUT
Why so
few
teenage
referrals?
Speech and Language Therapist Alex Ford
explains how low referral numbers have
prompted The Fluency Trust to re-think
referral procedures.
The Swindon-based charity The Fluency
Trust was created out of a desire by people
who stammer and
Speech and Language
Therapists (SLTs) to provide
intensive residential
courses for young people
who stammer. Since
1995, its unique courses
combine speech therapy
with outdoor pursuits.
The combination of
challenging activities and
therapy is highly effective
in developing confidence
and the ability to manage
stammering positively.
Every year The Fluency Trust run two courses:
the ‘Blockbuster’, aimed at 10-13 year-olds,
and the ‘Teens Challenge’, aimed at 13-17
year-olds. Funding for the residential aspect
of the course (e.g., outdoor activities, food,
transport and board) is funded by The
Fluency Charity and therapy time funded by
the young person’s local service provider.
Questionnaire
In recent years we have noticed a reduction
in referrals to our specialist courses, which
prompted us to investigate why this might
be happening. We wanted to know: are
local services running their own groups and
therefore don’t need to refer to The Fluency
Trust?; are there any barriers for local
services running groups?; are SLTs aware of
our courses?; is there an issue that funding is
no longer available from the young person’s
local service provider or that SLTs are not
aware of how to access funding?
We sent out a questionnaire focusing
on services for teenagers (13-17) to SLTs
throughout the UK, in return sending their
department a copy of our ‘SPEAK!’ DVD
(see below). A total of 86 responses were
received. The following results were noted:
On average, services reported around three
referrals per year for teenagers requiring
support for stammering;
Of the 86 responses, 58% reported to have a
specialist stammering service for teenagers;
60% of respondents said they were able to
provide group therapy, with 71% saying they
could provide group therapy specifically for
teenagers.
Barriers
Despite the ability to run local groups, these
are not always run due to certain barriers.
When examining why group therapy is not
offered, the following themes emerged.
The most significant barrier to running
local groups appears to be low numbers
of teenagers on the caseload, with other
factors such as geography/travel times and
staffing being other reasons why groups
are not run. This data is interesting as The
Fluency Trust courses were specially set
up for this reason. My colleague, Claire
McNeil, gives her thoughts on why that
might be: “I think it may be, in part, due
to a lack of specialist services available at
times suitable for teenagers; also they may
not want to have therapy
at this time. If children have
received effective therapy, by
their teenage years they may
be managing well and not
need more. If they haven’t
benefitted from therapy they
may not want more, thinking
it will be more of the same. Also, teenagers
tend to have other demands on their time
and may not want to focus on their speech.
I do not have evidence for this other than
comments from young people I have worked
with.”
For the young people that do seek therapy,
another barrier was that they did not
want to attend a group. However, in our
experience this age group may initially
decline group therapy but as individual
therapy progresses they want to take up
this opportunity. A common comment from
young people attending our courses is how
valuable it is to meet others who stammer.
If there are low numbers of teenagers in
a local area, the course is an ideal way for
them to meet others, receive therapy and
help manage stammering.
Lack of funding
awareness
Over 60% of SLTs reported they could make
referrals out of their local area including to
The Fluency Trust (some from services local
to London chose to refer to other specialist
centres). Despite this, 73% reported they are
unaware how to access the funds to send a
young person on one of the courses.
In summary, the main findings appear to
show that numbers are the main barrier for
trusts running local groups, which supports
The Fluency Trust’s residential courses,
bringing young people together from all
over the country. Over 60% of SLTs reported
they were able to refer to us, however
73% were unaware how to access funding.
In addition to this, it appears some local
services are unable to provide therapy for
this age group at all. It certainly appears
there is a need for our courses, but our
challenge now is how we support therapists
to access funding for them. One action we
have taken is to encourage parents to refer
their child to us directly,
especially targeting those
young people who are
unable to access a local
SLT. A referral form for
parents has now been
added for download on
our website and we hope
this will increase referrals. The challenge will
then be to find support and follow-up for
the young people after they have completed
the course. We hope to continue to raise
awareness of stammering and The Fluency
Trust to ensure the support continues for
those young people who need it.
For further details on The Fluency Trust’s
courses and referral forms, visit www.
thefluencytrust.org.uk. Watch ‘SPEAK!’,
a short film for, and made by, young
people: http://bit.ly/1iCjmol.

SPEAKING OUT
Stammering gallery
We asked people to express their
stammer, or their feelings towards it,
through art. Here’s what came back.
I have started to explore stammering using creative arts in recent months,
something I really took an interest in doing when I went to the last BSA
conference in Lincoln, where I took part in an art workshop. This is the
first painting I have done on the subject of my stammer. The little girl in
the picture is me! Art can be a great means of self-expression and very
therapeutic in many ways. Amanda Littleboy
I created this picture on my tablet. It represents my collision with my re-emergent
stammering problem when I was 40 (the two black lines forming a scissors cross). A lot of
pain caused by fear (the red triangular base) that transmuted into constructive personal
change (orange), then understanding (yellow), especially as I practiced Mindfulness
meditation, and finally, into a certain degree of wisdom I’ve been scattering around (white
sprays) since. I chose a landscape presentation to signify that I think of the process as
organic, showcasing a certain type of growth for myself and, hopefully, for others.
Ellen-Marie Silverman
This bold painting was done
by Johnny Ashton, who has
kindly donated several of his
works to the BSA over the
years to be auctioned at our
events. The first letters of each
of the words on the left spell
out the word ‘freedom’.
Katie Flynn, aged 8
Kirsty Pollard, aged 12
I asked Olivia how she would draw her
stammer... it’s not quite a picture but
nevertheless her interpretation.
Olivia Bailey’s mother, Michelle
Olivia Bailey, aged 11

SPEAKING OUT
Reviewer Mandy Taylor:
I usually find ‘stammering
books’ fall into two
categories: one being full
of research, jargon and
facts I have no wish to
know, and the other the
self-help variety, and for me, the less said
about them the better.
And then we have Mr Rossi’s little book
of genius! I hate to think it falls into the
‘self-help’ category, but its theme is of a
young guy having now made friends with
his stammering, letting the world know that
there are tools you can use so that you too
can appreciate the person you are and will
become.
There are great sections in this ‘stammering
toolbox’ discussing self-advertising,
desensitisation and building support. The
‘secret weapons’ of positivity and strength
training make great reading and it’s all
done in a non-patronising way that will
appeal to teens, young adults and older
folk alike. The ‘toolbox’ is interspersed with
comic strip drawings throughout, featuring
Franky Banky, a cute little character who
goes through various situations from job
interviews to asking girls on a date. It keeps
the book from becoming yet another one
that will gather dust on the shelf.
The page numbering system is very funny,
with a different joke for each one. For
example, page 7 is written as: ‘ssssssseeeee...
ssssssseeee... 8 minus 1’.
Personally, I think
this would be
a great book
for Speech
and Language
Therapists to give
to teenagers;
however, saying
that, I think a lot
of adults would
benefit from it. It
is done with such
fantastic humour that anyone can relate to
it. As Daniele says towards the end, “You are
the only one in charge of making positive
changes in your life. If you want a better life,
make it happen!”
Gavin Bergin writes: The
first thing you notice
about Stuttering is cool
is the way it is presented.
Daniele is a very talented
cartoonist. I imagine that
for young people this is a great way to learn
and the cartoons will keep them interested.
I had to turn the book around quite a lot to
read it, which was distracting at times but
added to the fun of it.
The themes throughout the book were
positive. The overall message I got from it
was not to hold back, to enjoy speaking
and most importantly to have an open
mind about what people think about your
stammer and in turn, you. The book tackles
some really big areas such as voluntary
stammering and self-acceptance. Daniele
does this very well. He tries hard to break
down the pre-conceived ideas that I am sure
every person who
stammers has felt or
does feel.
However, these
huge areas are
covered in just a few
pages each, which
is maybe a good
thing; after all, we
tend to complicate
things way too
much and often that
makes things worse. I think most people will
require professional support/therapy to be
able to go out and practice in the way that
the author describes. Hopefully people will
be encouraged to explore the themes further
through therapy or joining the BSA.
Overall, would I recommend this book?
Yes. It’s a light, fun read and gives a very
good overview of what can be achieved
with a positive mindset and a good level of
support.
Stuttering is cool... is suitable for those
aged 10+ but the author notes that it is
not a children’s book. It is available to
buy online at www.stutteringiscool.com/
book.
O C S T U T T E R C
T V O T O A V O I D
S E E V A L I N F Y
P I N R E M R I F S
E R T S T R M C E F
E E O B E H T E A L
C P B L O C K B R U
H E T I O H E E K E
I A N N G N S R S N
P T E K E C G G H T
Competition
We have three copies of Stuttering is cool... to give
away. Simply find all 14 stammering-related words
from the list in the wordsearch grid and the unused
letters will spell out two things very familiar to
people who stammer.
Once you have the answers, either email them to
sh@stammering.org or send them on a postcard
with your contact details to: BSA, 15 Old Ford
Road, London, E2 9PJ by 31st July 2014. Correct
answers will be put into a hat and we will draw the
winners. Good luck!
AVOID
BLINK
BLOCK
COVERT
DYSFLUENT
FEAR
ICEBERG
OVERT
PROLONG
REPEAT
SPEECH
STAMMER
STUTTER
TENSE
Book reviews
Stuttering is cool - A guide to stuttering in a fast-talking world,
by Daniele Rossi

Speaking Out Spring 2014 low res

Speaking Out Spring 2014 low res

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