any good tips please

[dannybunes]

hi all im 25 and have stuttered since forever, and i have now had enough of it...
ive been reading some of the posts on here and get what you say bout acceptance,, but i accepted my stutter long time ago, ive worked in construction for 8 years, and since losing my job, have enrolled at college am now qualified electrician so getting out and meeting people is no problem for me,,
is there any breathing techniques i could try, im at the end of my tether with it, as i feel i will stand a better chance in life,
any help would be great,
ant advice on making telephone calls too

[theboxer5]

Have you read the book by William Parry "Valsalva Control" or Yoga for Stuttering? They have some good tips.

[Jeska1026]

hi danny..im glad that u didnt give up and continued to further ur education. some tips that help my speech are:
1) talking without thinking about what your going to say
2) try to keep the focus off of yourself
3) speak in a flowy manner..when people say "sing" your words..it is often misunderstood. its NOT really singing..its more like connecting your words with a flowy tone- instead of having a monotone throughout your speech
4) pat your thigh or arm or something to give yourself rhythm- this indirectly causes your speech to follow a rythm or a beat.


hope these help in some way!

[howeee]

Patting you arm or leg is a bad idea. The others are probably useless but the patting of you arm or leg will just be another secondary symptom. Most persons stutter start out rather mild. Then they add things that complicate and increase their struggle making their stutter much worse and in some cases ugly.

These things like patting your arm and leg are distractions that work initially, then dont work at all and add to the discomfort of stuttering.

My tip is to improve yourself as person in anyway you can, like going back to school like you did. Except yourself as a person who stutters and try not to add things that complicate your stutter.

Ill breifly tell you my story. From the age of 5, I was taken to and subjected to many many therapies. I can remember that my stutter was hardly even noticed by myself till I was subjected to being swept outta class and outta school to go to one therapist after another. By the time I was 20 i was a severe stutterer. With all these crazzy secondary symptoms I didnt have at first. Slapping my leg, blinking my eyes, pursing my lips using many starter words over and over. All these secondary symptoms being much worse than the initial stutter.

When I reached 40 I looked back on my life and realized all these therapies had made my speech much worse and damaged my self esteem. So I decided to accept myself as a person who stuttered and swore off all therapy.

Today 16 years later I am a mild to moderate stutterer, almost all the secondary symptoms are gone. Before stuttering was like a heavy monkey on my back 24 hours a day, dragging me down everyminute with almost not a moments of relief.

Today its somthing I dont even think about most of the time. Even if i have a bad episode its usually very short and not intense. After I dont even think about it. Before I would think about it for days after.


I would be very carefull of taking technical tips from people who are not therapists. Even therapists have very little success helping persons who stutter improve thier speech, Taking tips from backyard therapists is dangerous.

[theboxer5]

hi danny..im glad that u didnt give up and continued to further ur education. some tips that help my speech are:
1) talking without thinking about what your going to say
2) try to keep the focus off of yourself
3) speak in a flowy manner..when people say "sing" your words..it is often misunderstood. its NOT really singing..its more like connecting your words with a flowy tone- instead of having a monotone throughout your speech
4) pat your thigh or arm or something to give yourself rhythm- this indirectly causes your speech to follow a rythm or a beat.


hope these help in some way!

For #1 tip, it may help some people but not other people. For me, it's better if I THINK what I want to say first so I can arrange the words & sentence in my brain so I break it down to 4 to 5 words at a time. This help me speak better because I know what to say and I know I won't run out of breath since I stop every 4 to 5 words.