Controlling your Emotions

This is also one of the important aspect that can help us to maintain our fluency.

Just last night I was drunk and enjoying with ma cousins and friends.My speech was so fluent coz i was uncouncious at that time. I talked non stop for atleast 1 hour and didnt stammered on a single word. But due to this I got too much excited and stammered a lil bit on a word unluckily.And that was it.

One of my cousins started copying my stammering speech and makingfun of me. There were about 15 people over there and all started staring at me.Suddenly I became councious and that feeling of embarrassment came back and I felt like crying. But some how I managedto control maself and kept on talking without caring much about all of them staring at me.

That whole time from that party untill i reached home was like a nightmare to me. It was a time during which I didnt thought of anything else other then that embarrassing moment.It was the most embarrassing moment in ma life.It was just that single incident coming into ma mind again and again.But I know that i ve to face these kindaa situations in future too. Soi ve to be strong from inside in order to face these kind of embarrassing situations.

And one more thing was, that my cousins were also drunk and may be he didnt mean to do that (copying my stammer).

Anywayz, bcoz of this incident I am able to learn how to control our Emotions, bcoz they also play a vital role in our stammering.

So If you are also a stammerer or stutterer and if some one makes fun of your stammer and tries to copy your speech in front of group of people , you should just pass a smile and dont bother about this.Dont let these embarrassing moments to get accumulated in the Emotional part of ur mind. Just let it go.....!!!

3 Mistakes that lead to Stutter

The path towards fluency may be rough, tough and difficult....but never impossible...

“It’s only words, and words are all I have, to take your heart away…” goes the verse from the famous song by the rock band “Boyzone”. Truly, communication plays a very important role today in our daily lives. People with strikingly good communication skills seem to win the hearts of people in society, and make a mark in their minds. Every classifieds in the newspapers coming from big multi-nationals, have “Excellent communication skills” as a requirement. Today’s is a competitive world, and the ability to ‘sell yourself’, has become a primary requisite, in the world wherein people are capable of selling peanuts for a billion bucks. I am a part of the same world, with challenges just a stretch more… It’s because I’ve been battling a battle against my words. Medically known as ‘Stammering’ or ‘Stuttering’, it’s a battle that is fought by billions of people round the country and the entire globe. And that’s a sort of consolation that it gives, that I am not alone in this battle. The million dollar question is – how we are going to win this battle, and climb the ladder of success, in this communication-driven world?

I was once asked why I stammer. I had no answer to the question that time. And if I ever had an answer, then I wouldn’t have been stammering. The causes of stammering as explained by medical science can be many. The therapists have many explanations for the factors leading to the condition. But, being a part of this battle, I can assert that, the real cause is the mind. You primarily stammer, because you think you will stammer.
People do have problems in this world. But most of those problems are being kept private. This is one problem that cannot be shielded easily as it is associated with the most important aspect of humans. The very aspect that separates us humans from the animals. Obviously, it would lead to many embarrassing situations, demoralizing the person, and consequently, affecting his or her whole persona.

Having lived with this problem over the years, I have realized many things related to the same. I have analyzed the problem through my experiences and my other friends with the same problem, and listed out three key things that lead to or aggravate ‘stammering’:

1. Hasty or fast speech: This phenomenon persists in almost all of the stammerers. In an anticipation that we would stammer, we want to get away with the sentence as fast as possible, because of which we tend to speak at a break-neck speed. This instead of aiding, worsens the problem.

2. Distorted or no breathing while talking: This is another reason many stammerers experience blocks while talking. There is no co-ordination between breathing and talking. If you observe a fluent person speaking, you will notice that he will always take a breath in, before starting to speak. We stammerers, are so concerned about stammering that we don’t bother to inhale before starting to speak.

3. Talking in excitement: This is a vicious cycle. Stammering or stammering experiences in the past, leads to excitement while speaking, which in turn leads to stammering the next time we talk.

Medical science has an antidote for everything. There are pain-killers for pain, and paracetamol for cold and fever. Do we have an antidote for stammering? Well, I would say ‘yes’. The antidote is ‘Will power’, and ‘Attitude’. In my quest for fluency, I have visited many therapist, and speech experts. I have received and tried loads of tips and techniques. I have realized that whichever techniques you may try, finally it boils down to your will power. You should have immense will power to do away with your faulty style of speaking, and dedicatedly follow the style that you think is right for you. The correct style can be realized by analyzing yourself with respect to your severity, external factors affecting your stammering, your strengths and weaknesses. And finally it’s the attitude with which you approach this problem that counts. The problem may well demoralize you, but it’s your attitude that gives you strength to come back strong and try again the next time. Brooding over the ugly situations of the past serves no purpose. But learning from the past is the key.

Finally, it always helps to have role models. The biggest role models for me have been the Bollywood star, Hrithik Roshan and Partha Bagchi. Both have been stammers at some point of time in their lives, and they overcame it. Somehow, it gives me hope that one can overcome stammering. If these people did it, so can I. The key to success lies in your own hands. And these great people have discovered this key and unleashed its magic. The roadmap towards fluency lies within us.

The journey towards fluency has never been a smooth ride, but a roller-coaster ride altogether. You have your ups and downs. But the goal is to be persistent in your ‘ups’. I’ve been battling with words for years. I may have won some battles, and lost some, but in the long run, I feel I am on my way to win the war.

written by :- Harish Usgaonkar

Stammer Sent Bruce Willis to Bullies

Bruce Willis was bullied as a child because he stuttered. The 'Live Free or Die Hard' actor developed a stutter at the age of eight and was teased as a result.

Bruce said: "I could barely talk sometimes. I still had friends but I was bullied a lot. The bullying meant I also learned how to fight. Everyone knew not to f**k with me because they knew they'd get their ass kicked."

Bruce discovered joining a drama club allowed him to express himself and by the time he turned 16, his stutter had disappeared when he performed. He said: "I was in a play and when I got onstage I stopped stuttering - I couldn't believe it. I realised that the reason the stutter stopped was because I was acting."

His speech impediment continued throughout high school. Bruce eventually enrolled in a New Jersey drama college, and his professors helped to cure his stutter completely.

An important observation...!!

Today I was interacting with some of the guests in a party. One of them asked me about the college from where I did my graduation.And believe me, i was not able to speak out the word "Rayat", thatz my college. I was doing "Rrrrrrrrrrrrr". So this means that I am having difficulty in speaking out the letter "R". I don't think so. I already spoke the word "R", so the difficulty was not with this word.

The main problem was the sound "A". Bcoz i already said "R"... but the rest of the word was not coming out i.e. "ayat".This means the problem is with the letter "a" and not "r".

So in order to overcome this problem , I am practicing by saying the rest of the word i.e. "aaaayat" again & again. And when i am comfortable with that word, just add "r" before that .So this becomes "Raaaayat".
There you go..........

Why we dont stutter while singing..??

I posted this question on ISAD online conference .There are many experts who will write an answer to your question and clear your doubts.

So here are some of the replies I got from the Experts :-

1)Charley Adams said :-

We have lots of ideas about why people who stutter can sing without stuttering.

First, think about speech rate; if you listen to words in a song carefully, you will realize that they are produced much more slowly than they would be produced in speech. We know that dramatically slowing down your speech rate is a powerful fluency-inducing condition, so this is a partial explanation.

Second,many people who stutter can read aloud with greater fluency than they can speak spontaneously; singing is much the same, as the words are chosen for you.

Third, music has a more regular rythym than speech, which also tends to enhance fluency.

Finally, and perhaps most compelling, is that speech and language are processed predominantly in the left hemisphere of the brain for most people, while music tends to be processed in the right hemisphere. So in an important sense, you are using a different part of your brain when you sing, vs. when you speak.

2)Greg Snyder said :-

Singing uses different neural circuitry, which (apparently) bypasses the stuttered neural fault.

3)Ed Feuer said :-

Singing as in singing songs is communication neutral. Add a message in real-world communication and you have what these days they call a game changer. Van Riper had people who stutter go out into stores, singing their questions such as: "Do you have bananas?" etc. Very quickly blocks began to appear. The old adverse signal-to-noise ratio kicks in.
— Ed Feuer, edfeuer@mts.net

4) Klaas Bakker said :-

Singing differs in many ways from natural speech, and so any physical difference of singing could be part of the explanation of why you don't stutter (as much). When someone sings, or speaks in a sing songy manner, you may bypass some of the brain centers you typically use for speaking (I don't think people sing from the right brain entirely though). When you sing, usually much of the expression is in how you produce the vowels of your speech (they have a certain pitch, intensity and duration, while their stress is related to a rhythimical pattern). All of this could explain why there is less stuttering. Finally, often singing involves speech already formulated by someone else, so it comes from memory. However, if you speak in a sing songy manner, like you described, obviously you are still in control of that. These would be some of my first thoughts looking for an explanation. But any explanation would still need more research to definitely tell.

International Stuttering Awareness Day.......!!!

International Stuttering Awareness Day (ISAD) occurs on October 22nd and is designed to raise awareness about the challenges that people who stutter experience. ISAD is a joint endeavor by persons who stutter and their families and professionals (educators, researchers and clinicians) interested in stuttering. ISAD provides a framework for building a more humane, just and compassionate world for millions of people who stutter.

2009 presents many challenges that face people who stutter such as economic recession, job loss or anxiety about employment or personal fulfillment. It is vital to create a society, in which people who stutter can develop talents, become advocates for better understanding and become active participants in their future. This year in particular there are many conferences or workshops held around the world. It is an opportunity to take personal steps in changing: you can go to www.isastutter.org for a listing of conferences you can attend.

The online International conference has started on 1st october and you can participate in this conference by clicking here

The contributions in this conference reflect professional and consumer interests about stuttering and are presented by over 70 individuals representing twelve different countries on five different continents. Each paper also has a threaded discussion page for your comments and questions. By October 22, 2009, International Stuttering Awareness Day, the authors of the papers will respond as they wish. Feel free to post your questions/comments at any time and check back on International Stuttering Awareness Day for any response from the author.

So Guys and Gals, participate in the conference, read articles,ask questions,post comments, clear your doubts and spread awareness about stammering .After all its ur day.