My Speech Impairment: The Freshman Basketball Team

Since I was young, there was a communication barrier that existed between me and the outside world. My shyness led me to many downfalls on my academic side. Not understanding a topic would mean that I would never be able to clarify any questions that were on my mind. Until around 6th grade, I always considered myself introverted; I had the inability to blend in with strangers, peers and teachers.

In 7th grade, I joined Speech, just like all the other Indian kids in the community. The first tournament I got up to speak, I remember the judge looking directly at me; their eyes seemed to pierce through my core. Hands shaking, bile gathering in my throat, and almost tripping, I walked up to the front. I began giving my speech and before I knew it, I was done. It didn’t seem that bad after I started talking and I was sure I could place. Well, I rarely won anything throughout all my middle school years, and when I did, I got dead last from the top 8. I know, it’s disappointing. Most people would think about quitting with such a low success rate, but I came back 9th grade. After picking myself up, I was determined to change my success story. I ended up getting 3rd at state in 9th and 10th grade. In fact, I got first for speaking at state student congress too. I used my determination to push through my rough, intimidated self and accomplish my goals. Now, not only did my determination make this my favorite activity, but it also gave confidence while public speaking.

Imagine someone, like myself, being shunned by her own peers in school simply by acting a little different. I was labeled as weird, annoying, and a whiner. The way that I approach with others may not be the most appropriate way to gain some friends. The way I act when I am cheerful, down, or irritated may also be different and the fact that I would leave class for speech therapy a few times a week may not be as normal as I thought it was. However, I did show some intelligence in class, especially math while struggling in Language Arts. Over the years, I manage to grew out most of my speech problems but retain my own unique personality and behavior. Eventually, I made some friends in my high school years and even graduated with honors from

The greatest challenge I’ve faced is a communication disability. It started before I came to the U.S., but it got worse after I started life in this new place. Adults might think I am just shy or being polite, however, I think my case is selective mutism after I did some research about that. Selective mutism is not a common anxiety disorder, and many overcome it without noticing. Unfortunately, I am not one of them. The anxiety makes me afraid to talk to others, and I cannot even look straight into their eyes. My voice is shouting in my head, but nothing can come out from my mouth. This obsticle blocks my way to make new friends.

When I began kindergarten, being incapable to communicate induced the ridicule from the other children that I would face for years. In elementary school it got worse, the children would blatantly refuse to play or talk to me and referred to me as horrible names. In fifth grade, I ended my speech therapy, and at this time I could communicate as any other kid with a fairly unrecognizable speech impediment. Though, this did not repair anyone’s opinion on me. People still refused to talk to me and reserved their views on me. I perceived middle school as a time to reinvent myself as a normal kid, I made my first few friends in these years; some girls who had gone to a different elementary school. I still never spoke of my speech impediment or any of my experiences with my friends for the fear that they too would judge me when they found

I was an athlete during adolescence, I had many acquaintances and was well liked. A pivotal moment that helped establish resilience happened my sophomore year of high-school. It was difficult, I was in a same-sex relationship and after my peers discovered this, I was no longer socially accepted. What others think of me affects me mentally. This was an extremely difficult time in my life, so much so, I moved to a new school. After the transition my grades and social life improved, which increased my self-confidence. I decided to wait until college to pursue any further relationships, and shifted my focus to sports and study. This particular milestone in my life affected my resilience in regards to my ability to face and overcome adversity, providing

Hoagland 's story, vastly connects to me due to growing up with a speech impediment. Kids in my class mocked me; this made me insecure, and I had a difficult time communicating with others. Even though my speech therapist at school helped me improve, I still slip up occasionally. These restrictions have cause sounding and spelling out my words to be tough, even to this today. Furthermore, people still pester me when I mess up and become nervous, talk to brisk, or read; similar to Hoagland, I have learned to manage it. When people tease me, I laugh with them and proceed forward.

When I was little I struggled with being myself and speaking up in social events. I would always be the quiet one in front of people, but with my friends, I wouldn’t. I struggled with presenting in front the whole class because of I looked. I would get a panic attack, and I would stutter and look at the floor. I had other friends who struggled with it but there’s been as bad as mine they could get through the day without having a little panic attack. If you ask anyone who has self-esteem issues from little to mild they will tell you it’s not something you would wish on your worst enemy. It can stop you from being the person you want to be. You miss out on the chances you didn’t get to take; you lose opportune to meet new people. The pain is

Throughout the years, my stutter slowly became more prominent. Tasks such as reading a paragraph out loud in class became extremely stressful. I wanted to be able to effectively express my words to people. However, no matter how hard I wanted to, speaking just became

One of the most challenging experience I went thought was during all of my elementary school career I had a speech impediment. I went through seven years of speech therapy to correct my mispronunciation of the letters l, r, and t. The speech impediment caused me to be teased and be put down as possessing a learning disability. I did struggle with learning how to read and how to spelling words, because I would sound out the word wrong. Today I see it as a learning experiences because I never look at someone with disabilities as being stupid or unable to do something. If I was to ever do that it would be looking down on myself because I still have moments where I cannot say a word correctly or it affects my spelling or reading. Having a speech

In present day one of my best friends had noticed that when I’m at home I talk excessively. She and my mom both agree that I say it how it is, I don’t care what people think about my opinion, and I’m very loud. I seem to be a confident person, and for a while that side of me did show up at school, but it was because the training gave me self assurance to feel it’s okay to be yourself. Now that I had to recently stop all that training, it’s harder for me to use my voice to speak up or state my opinion at school. I went back to the shell I tried so hard to get out of and I am aware that the way I articulate my words changes based on the environment. For example, if I’m in a classroom I speak very quietly, I don't participate as much as I used to, and I try to avoid class discussions. I truly think it’s because I’m still very intimidated by the students who used to tease me in elementary school and in past recent years. Since in the past I didn't stand up to those particular students who hurt me, it’s hard for me in present day to read a sentence off the SmartBoard in my English

As a child I suffered from severe stuttering. I came to America at the age of five therefore, English is not my primary language. This made it difficult for me to learn English. I had the capacity to develop abstract ideas and understood what was being told to me. I could not articulate what I wanted to say. I didn’t not have the ability to communicate with others around me. My stuttering was so severe that it stunted my progress in learning English. The bullying I received in school caused me to become mute for sometime. My perspective at that time was detrimentally negative. In my mind if I am being bullied for the way I talk than why talk at all. My elementary school ended putting me in ESOL and special needs classes. I did not apply myself in school at all and had a lot of unpleasant behavioral incidents. People don’t talk about this much, but I whole heartedly feel like my school kept me in special needs classes because they receive funding for the amount of special needs children they have. When I reached fourth grade my ESOL teacher looked at my FCAT scores and fought for me to be put in a regular class. She motivated me to apply myself, which I did. They eventually took me out of special needs, gave me more hours of ESOL and made me work with an SLP. Overtime, my stuttering decreased tremendously. Now, when I get nervous my stuttering comes through but not as much as before.

It all started when I was 8, I was in speech therapy for my expressive language disorder. It was a pretty dark time for me because I felt like an outcast. I was unable to communicate well, not only with my friends, but also with my teachers, and family. This obviously made it extremely difficult to make friends or connect with virtually anybody. To no surprise everybody around me assumed that my silence meant I was unintelligent. This was not true; academically I did very well in most subjects such as math, science, and social studies. In all honesty what people thought of me was not a concern, nor did it cause me to stress. The only concern on my mind was whether I would ever make friends.

From a young age to about eight years of age, my mother homeschooled my siblings and I until she obtained employment to support our family. Being introduced into public schooling at the age of nine, I not only struggled with social anxiety, but also was diagnosed with dyslexia. Being dyslexic not only made academics difficult, but because of the difficulty I had, I was held back a year in second grade. After many months, from the assistance of many teachers, I began to manage my social anxiety and face my dyslexia. With having to work harder than my peer group to maintain decent grades, I often found myself making comparisons of my attributes against those of my classmates. This caused me to become self-aware and extremely self-conscious of what others thought of me. Furthermore, this caused me to hide my age from many people for fear of them calling me stupid.

I am a very competitive person, especially as it relates to my older sister, Meghan. I wanted to be just like her, act the same way and participate in the same sports. Because she is two years older than me, in order to keep up with her, I had to push myself physically but I was lacking with my verbal ability. My parents believed that because I was so focused on my physical development, I didn’t have time to focus on speech.