Stuttering: a Comprehensive approach

Listen to Others

Nobody is 100% Fluent

According to statistics, stutterers account for about 1% of the population. Does this mean that 1% of the population stutters and that 99% of the population is perfectly fluent? As a stutterer you probably think that is the case but in fact reality is not that clear cut.

Listen carefully to others as they speak and you will be amazed to notice that very few people are perfectly fluent. In fact, we can probably safely assert that nobody on earth is 100% fluent 100% of the time. Most people stutter slightly each time they open their mouth; they stutter so slightly that it usually goes unnoticed, but the fact is that they do stutter.

In some cases, it might not really be stuttering but some other type of disfluency. A person might have difficulty finding the proper word and will say “uhhhhh” for a few seconds. Or a person might start saying the first syllable of a word, realize that the word is inappropriate, stop, say “uhhh”, start the sentence all over again with a more appropriate word. Never mind if it is not really stuttering; they are having fluency problems just like you, only milder.

These disfluencies usually go unnoticed because they are so usual.

What Does it Mean to You?

1) You are not a stutterer living in perfectly fluent population. You are a strong stutterer living in a population of slight stutterers. I am not sure this news will really make you feel great but it should at least make you feel a bit better about yourself!

2) When a stutterer decides to control his stuttering, his goal is naturally to become 100% fluent. I think you now understand that this goal is impossible to achieve. Even a so-called non-stutterer cannot achieve such an unrealistic goal.

3) This is something very important to understand as it will prevent one from setting unattainable goals. A stutterer that doesn’t understand that it is not possible to achieve 100% fluency will have the impression that he has failed in his efforts to control his stuttering each time he slightly stutters.

If your goal is to become 100% fluent, you are bound to fail. Your goal should be to become a slight stutterer. Your goal should be to stutter as slightly as the average person. Even if you stutter a little bit more than the average person, it will probably go unnoticed.

4) Coming to realize that everybody stutters slightly will change the perception you have of stuttering. If you stutter slightly, you know it’s OK because everybody stutters slightly. If you stutter severely, you know it’s not that terrible because everybody stutters. You only stutter somewhat more than the others. You now know that stuttering is a condition that affects virtually everybody. It only hits you a bit worse than the others.

Remember

Your goal should be to reduce stuttering to an acceptable level not to completely eradicate stuttering.

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