Speech Impediment

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I want to acknowledge something that always bothers me: class participation. I’m at the age now that I’m no longer extremely shy around my peers. I am not a dumb person because I receive excellent remarks on my papers. I’m eligible to do an Honors thesis next year. Yet, when it comes to formulating ideas verbally, I stutter badly. Sometimes I speak in fragments because I’m always forgetting mentally what I want to say. Sometimes, I rather not talk at all. I don’t really have this problem when I write. Do I have a speech problem?</p>

<p>This upsets me because I always want to participate in class. Teachers seem to praise students who can articulate very well. I’m not a dumb person. However, I believe my peers might think I’m ■■■■■■■■. I don’t want teachers to keep deducting points from me on class participation because I stutter and I rather save myself from embarassment. It’s very frustrating. I also want to go to graduate school.</p>

2

<p>I have heard people praise Toastmasters for help in developing their public speaking skills
<a href=“http://www.toastmasters.org/[/url]”>Toastmasters International -Unexpected Error;

3

<p>I would suggest getting evalauted to determine if you have an actual speech problem since you mentioned stuttering - or if you just get terribly nervous and are unable to form your thoughts. </p>

<p>I do not have a “stuttering” problem but found that when I was speaking in front of a class I said “um” about a million times. Some people teased me about it - but I never realized how bad it was until I watched a video of a presentation I gave. I went to a speech therapist for a few months -and now I don’t do it nearly as much now - I also take a beta blocker if I am going to speak to a big crowd and that helps alot too.</p>

4

<p>One of my friends said that I tend to slur my words. A lot of it does have to do with nervousness. I also used to attend speech classes when I was young because I could not pronounce my words correctly.</p>

5

<p>I took speech therepy in school for a lisp, early on. It was a good thing, too! I’m now in high school debate.</p>

6

<p>You might want to look at this thread:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=136759[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=136759&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

7

<p>I had a speech impediment as a child, as well. I have (for the most part) gotten over it, though sometimes my thoughts get far ahead of my words and my tongue stumbles because it can’t keep up<–that’s how I explained myself to my broadcasting sponsor. I don’t do it nearly as much now, and I attribute it to practice. I volunteered to do morning announcemets on the schoolwide TV system, and though I was awful the first six or seven times, I adapted. My advice is to push yourself. Speak up, don’t think you sound stupid. The more you get used to hearing yourself speak, the better you’ll get.</p>

8

<p>tenisghs, I am a student who participates frequently in class. By no means do I know what I’m doing, nor would I ever judge another student on any basis other than the quality of their statements. In fact the real reason why I participate is because I have a learning disability; if I didn’t participate it’s highly unlikely that I would retain any information/remain focused/etc. I would encourage you to participate in class; as long as you have prepared for that day’s discussion/lecture then you have nothing to fear.</p>

9

<p>call a speech therapist or ask to talk to the speech therapist through your school. stuttering can’t be cured but they can teach you ways to overcome it most of the time. Even if you are in a private school, the public school system still has to serve it’s tax paying public. Call and set up an appointment and let them help you through this!</p>

10

<p>tenisghs, public speaking is incredibly important, no matter what graduate school you wish to attend. Professors will judge your in-class contributions on the quality of their content, not your stuttering. (As will your peers, if they’re worth their salt.) </p>

<p>Speech therapy may be in order; contact your college/uni’s disabilities resource center. Depending upon your age, your state’s legislation, and whether or not you have previously been assessed, you may have to pay for new testing–even if you are at a public uni. </p>

<p>However, regardless of whether or not you have a speech impediment, practice and class participation will tremendously improve your speaking ability and the quality of your education.</p>

11

<p>You also might want to use your university’s counseling center. Your speech problem – stuttering – may be related to anxiety, which the counseling center probably can teach you techniques to reduce.</p>

12

<p>You can go to a speech therapist if you want. I saw speech therapists from the time I began speaking (when I was three) through the fourth grade. I think I went through four of them, and I drove all over at all hours for my appointments. You can’t tell I had a problem at all now; I find it difficult to pronouce a word or name every once in a while, but no one else ever notices.</p>

<p>But I don’t think that’s your problem. It sounds more like you just have trouble expressing yourself verbally, and the stutter is a side effect. I think that it would be very valuable for you to simply take time before you speak to think about what you want to communicate and how you are going to say it. It’s OK to be silent while you think of the right words; there is no need for you to begin speaking or sharing your ideas before you have worked out in your mind what you want to say. Do not try to speak while you think your way through, if that makes sense. </p>

<p>Do you think in words? If not, then that is an obvious reason why you have trouble; you would need to “translate” your thoughts into words that you can communicate to others. </p>

<p>I think that it’s fine, also, if you jot down a few words to help yourself remember what you want to say. If you have a few reminders of the key ideas you want to express in front of you, you will be able to stay on track while you speak (without going off on unnecessary tangents), and you won’t forget any of your points. That is especially useful if you become nervous or flustered. </p>

<p>When you write, do you spend some time thinking about how you want to phrase your thoughts of which words you want to use? It’s perfectly fine to do the same thing while speaking, and the chances are your thoughts will be more effectively communicated than someone who muddled their way through their statements. </p>

<p>My Philosophy teacher (who is also about to take over as headmaster at my school) is one of the most intelligent men I know, and he told me about a woman he knew who took an inordinate amount of time speaking. It wasn’t that she was extraordinarily precise with her words; it just took her a while to formulate her ideas. He said that many people wrote the woman off because it would take so long for her to come up with and speak her ideas, but he said that he soon learned that her ideas were extremely valuable and well worth the time.</p>

<p>You maybe also benefit, I think, from speaking to someone at your counseling center, as NSM mentioned, or from talking to someone who helps people in public speaking (more like a speech coach than a speech therapist).</p>

<p>…I didn’t realize how long this was. Sorry!</p>