Stuttering and the fear of public speaking

Having to deliver a public speech can be a daunting task for people who are fortunate to be able to speak fluently, can you imagine therefore how stressful it would be for a person who has a stutter?

The lead up to the big day is likely to include many a sleepless night and the person who has the speech impediment will probably attempt to think of a good reason to get out of having to give the speech.
 
It is often at this stage that he or she may start to look for potential stuttering therapies in a quest to overcome the stutter or to at least learn about some techniques that could help in delivering a successful speech.
 
The key to successful public speaking is extensive preparation. This is especially so for a person who has a stutter. One example of preparation is to only choose words that the person is comfortable and confident of saying.

The majority of people who have this form of speech impediment will have certain words, beginning with certain letters that they find harder to say.

This was certainly the case for me. I really hated saying words which began with the letter b and d.
 
I would advise people to keep the speech quite short, there is no problem with doing this, unless the situation requires something different of course.

Your main aim is to get through the speech without stuttering and to worry about what other people think is never a good idea, therefore who cares if people comment afterwards about how short your speech was?
 
On the day itself you are likely to be extremely nervous and there is a chance that you may forget what you had planned to say. It would be prudent therefore to take with you some written notes as a form of back up.
 
At the end of the day, all each of us can ever do in whatever task we attempt in life is to try our best; this is all anyone can expect of us.

This is something that I have tried to install in my children. Give it your best shot, try to think positive, try not to worry as this tends to make things worse, you never know you might just surprise yourself.