How to show CONFIDENCE WHEN U STUTTER?

[gowtheflo]

I just feel like as soon as i open my mouth, my weakness is out there and my confidence is just taken away from me. Also when i meet ppl, i tend to stutter right at the begining, then the rest of my words come out smoohter, which to my presumption, it makes me listener think im nervous at first when i meet them. How do portray confidence when we talk so differently? I just dont understand. I wish i cud only go with the flo.

[Box of Clocks]

I'm not really sure how to show confidence as such but maybe if you just explain that you have a stuttering problem near the beginning of conversation it will perhaps take a bit of pressure off you. At least then they will know about the problem and you won't feel as much stress to try and hide it.

[Zachary]

Maintain good eye contact, keep a genuine smile on you while speaking. It works for me. I rarely even have to explain my situation.

[grantM]

Maintain good eye contact, keep a genuine smile on you while speaking. It works for me. I rarely even have to explain my situation.

Ah yes..as some of you may know. I lecture with a severe stutter. Yet I maintain eye contact, smile and know my material..thus all is good even on a bad speech day. If you look like you are having fun or are at peace whrn you speak and stutter then people are also relaxed with you

[amey]

Maintain good eye contact, keep a genuine smile on you while speaking. It works for me. I rarely even have to explain my situation.

GREAT advice! I totally agree!

[solo321]

Thats great! The way I do it is just focus, Eye contact is a big one, and body posture. Have a straight back and sure of yourself. I let me stutter be an accessory, not who I am. It still s and is difficult to work with, but I rarely explain myself. I stutter moderatly.

[Bonafide]

Maintaining eye contact while stuttering can be very difficult; especially for severe stutterers. The best way to combat your urge to look away is to have a positive mindset. Keep telling yourself that people aren't judging you based on your disfluency. It's kinda like one day I went to school with a wrinkled shirt because my iron wasn't working. I thought every person I passed in the hallway was laughing at my shirt. When in fact, no one made a comment about my shirt but it ruined my entire day nonetheless.

OK, maybe that wasn't the best analogy :o

[thenextnoel]

If the word is incredibly hard and the listener is getting uncomfortable, sometimes I stop talking and start laughing on purpose and shaking and nodding my head as if to say "well, here I go again!". This disarms the listener completely and he'll start laughing with me, and asking me what just happened. Then you can say you stutter or not.

When in a defensive position I generally show that I'm not being intimidated by not talking at all and just stare at the person, or ignore him altogether. Works quite well when you're in verbal argument with somebody and you can't get the words out.

[emily445455]

To act as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. This is hard to do...I hope to be there one day.

[ramseyedison]

The main thing when attempting to learn how to stop stuttering, is to never stop trying to improve your speech. Each time you stutter, don’t allow it to discourage you from speaking. Talking and conversing with others, is the only way to train yourself.

[Evy182]

Maintain good eye contact, keep a genuine smile on you while speaking. It works for me. I rarely even have to explain my situation.

thats good advice for some, but i hate the feeling of people staring at me when i stutter so i guess this would seem like the last thing i would want to do, but then again if you look at them, and they feel awkward when you stutter, they look away! everyone wins!

[Zachary]

thats good advice for some, but i hate the feeling of people staring at me when i stutter so i guess this would seem like the last thing i would want to do, but then again if you look at them, and they feel awkward when you stutter, they look away! everyone wins!

That's kinda the point. If they still can't respect you, they will no doubt feel awkward. In which case, you win.

[MariaGostrey]

It's SO true that most people look away when you stutter. I have definitely lost the ability to maintain eye contact. :'(

I don't know if this really conveys confidence, but I think it's good to feel like you're in control of the mood of the conversation. If the person I'm talking to seems sympathetic or even a little alarmed by my speech, I try to joke about it some, keep the dialogue light, make it okay for us to laugh. If the person seems like they're going to be a jerk about it, or laugh at me, I inject a little solemnity about my difficult situation.

As for acting as if everything's normal-- this may work for some people, or for shorter conversations, but personally I found that it led to covert behaviors when I was more fluent and an overall unresolved tension/nervousness in the conversation when I am less fluent.
But maybe this is also because I don't have a traditionally recognizable stutter.

LOL. Hope this makes sense.

[Miko]

I never explain that I stutter. You never know what the other person is thinking, maybe they are even more shy than you and think that you are cool! I always smile and dont try to read other people's thoughts. When my heart is beating I just saying to myself 'cmon you are the best, you can do it'. :-)

[Lenny]

miko's advice was good....