I only have a slight stutter, would your course benefit me?

I have been running one to one, three and five day, speech courses for the last twelve years.

During this period, I have been amazed by the number of times that people have contacted me asking whether a course would be suitable and of benefit to them due to the fact that they only have a slight stutter or stammer.

This is quite a difficult question for me to answer as I do not know how much even this slight stutter is affecting their life.

I had the type of stutter which at times would have to be classed as severe but which at other times was more like the above. For me, the more anxious I became, or the more pressure I was under, the more severe the stutter would become.

I also would stutter on certain words; such as words beginning with b and d. Over the years I became an expert at hiding this by either avoiding these types of word or by substituting the word.

At the age of around twenty I met a new girlfriend. After dating her for about three months I suddenly realised that I rarely stuttered when speaking to her, this was mainly due to the fact that I was very comfortable in her company.

The contrast when attempting to speak to her parents was quite incredible, I struggled to speak two words, this was no doubt because I was not comfortable in their company.

At the end of the day we are all individuals, there will be people who have a slight stutter which does not impact on their life at all. In reality these people will be quite rare and the majority of people will be looking to achieve total fluency.

Even a slight speech impediment can be very frustrating and can have a damaging affect on one’s confidence.