stammering

Stammering

So! you have read this far, we are, as you should be aware by now, a Stammerers self help group, set up to help people in their quest to gain more confidence and to learn to control their speech more effectively, no methods are foolproof and it requires the utmost concentration for people to have any effective improvement, but we can help you to achieve this if you are willing to come along and make some input.

We have grown steadily since the early days of September 1998 when three other stammerers and myself decided to form this group, we now have many active members, many of whom have managed to gain more confidence by coming to our meetings, some members who were afraid initially to speak across the room, are now able to achieve this with ease.

Many people have tried different ways to overcome their Stammer or Clutter, some people have been successful, others not, but it needs determination to overcome the fear and to try and achieve a better speaking pattern.

We practice different therapies at our meetings, including the "Speaking Circles" method, along with costal breathing and relaxation exercises, some members have been on speech training courses and we try to give them encouragement to maintain the practice they have learnt. We know that many members of our group have gained more confidence just by coming to our meetings and talking to other people who have similar problems to themselves. The atmosphere at meetings is always varied, depending on what equipment or methods we are using.

We have telephone equipment donated by Kingston Communications that we use in our meetings and has also been used at the BSA national conference in workshops and has proved to be widely requested.

Our group has only been able to enjoy the many benefits of equipment through funding and donations, we have been fortunate enough to have obtained sufficient funding to cover our everyday needs including our office equipment, publicity material and training.

We have a DEFSTUT, a delayed audio feedback device, this portable unit has been secured through funding from the Hull Community Investment Fund, we shall be using this device at the meetings alongside a lap top computer with its own DAF programme installed, so that members are able to take advantage of this system to see if they can benefit by it.

An update on the DAF device:..... several members have tried this and have found it helpful in the short term, i.e. whilst being used, it certainly seems to help a person to collect their speaking pattern by forcing the user to slow their rate of speech.