Speech On Stuttering In School

One of America’s finest essayists, Edward Hoagland, in his essay, “On Stuttering” describes how his handicap has affected his life. Hoagland’s intention is to suggest that although his disability has made his life more difficult, it is a part of his life none the less, and has pushed him to become a better person. He adopts a somewhat scholarly tone, using complex vocabulary in an effort to convey to his readers that his disability has allowed him to excel as much as it has held him back.

In the short stories, “On Stuttering,” by Edward Hoagland, and “Me Talk Pretty,” by David Sedaris, the authors discuss how they dealt with their speech impediments. They wrote about the way they handled their difficulties with speech, the different strategies they used, and how their limitations affected how they felt about themselves. Although the two author’s handicaps were not identical, they both used similar approaches to overcome them.

I was born severely developmentally delayed, meaning that it takes longer for me to reach basic milestones in life, such as being able to consume solid food, the ability to even speak simple words, and etc. When my mother disliked how I wasn’t able to speak at the age of six my mother took me out of the public school

However, I refuse to let it hold me back. English homework that takes classmates thirty minutes to do takes me twice as long. When teachers ask students to read out loud, I never raise my hand because of fear I’ll mess up. I slump down in my chair praying the teacher doesn’t call on me. Instead, I participate in other ways like answering questions teachers pose to the class. When people ask what it’s like to have dyslexia, I try to explain, but there’s nothing I can say that will allow them to truly understand. Often, I share one of my earliest memories. In preschool, we were learning the difference between right and left. The teacher kept saying your left hand is the one that makes an “L.” I stood there staring at my hands in confusion. I didn’t know which way “L” faced. It’s hard for those who haven’t experienced this to fully comprehend the obstacles I’ve had to overcome to get where I am.

I went out with my sister and mom to the mall this past Saturday in my home city. I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to do the stuttering assignment. We went to a small restaurant within the mall, somewhere we had only been to one other time. I was the last person in my party to order my food, mainly because I was quite nervous to stutter. When I opened my mouth to tell the cashier what I wanted, she looked at me in disbelieve as she heard me stutter. Her judging eyes actually made me stutter a little unintentionally, her stare being pretty unnerving. By the time I finished speaking, I felt myself become a little choked up. Partly, because I felt embarrassed and partly because I couldn’t imagine being treated that way every

The King’s Speech (2010) follows King George VI, referred to as Bertie throughout the film, as he seeks stuttering treatment while managing his increasing responsibilities in the years preceding World War II. One of the ongoing thematic elements of The King’s Speech was Bertie’s on-going struggle with his self-confidence and self-worth, especially as the looming responsibilities of kingship magnify his feelings of inadequacy.

While in elementary school I was diagnosed with a type of dyslexia, which did not make school easy for me because I already had a speech impediment due to being tongue tied. I got taken out of class everyday in elementary school to work on my speech and reading skills. Most teachers just thought I was not intelligent and put me in the lowest reading groups. Third grade was a turning point for me; my teacher, Mrs. Eddy, saw that I was intelligent enough to understand the hardest material, and she did her own research online which no other teacher had done for me. She helped me come up with techniques to help me read with my dyslexia more than any other teacher or reading coach had in school. I even started to attend a speech class in Edinboro every other day after school. I eventually learned how to work around my dyslexia and speech impediment. By the time I was in sixth grade, I did not need any more special attention for my impediments, and I started to take school more seriously. Now that I am over that tedious obstacle in my life, I am always striving to be the best version of myself as I can possibly be. I have worked way too hard to be stopped by anything that stands in between me and my

I had a hard time pronouncing words that contained the letter r; therefore, I had to attend speech class twice a week. Going to a speech class helped me correct my language, but lowered my self-confidence. I was that student that did not want to read or speak in front of the class because my language was constantly being corrected. I still sometimes feel very uncomfortable speaking in front of people. Therefore, I have to remind myself that confidence is the key to success. I realize from my experience when I was a child, that if teachers or adults over correct children, especially when it comes to language differences, children are more apt to be silent and not talk. Children tend to lack social needs and self-confidence because they are told their language is bad or not right according to the American Standard

Even worse, I couldn't utter a single word in English and was forced to use hand gestures to communicate.To my horror, a speech therapist took me out of class everyday, as kids snickered behind me. Soon enough,I was drawing attention to myself everyday-and not in a good way. A group of boys always huddled around me during recess and would taunt me to say sentences in English, as I stood silently, praying it would be over soon. Over time, those comments began to pile up and eventually, something in me broke.I had to

“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.” was a quote my mom said before my first day of high school. My mom use to tell me that every morning before I started my day. Unlike others, my brain works in a different way. Everyday, I struggle with reading numbers, writing papers, even spelling basic words. Not everything comes natural to me. It all began in second grade when my teacher noticed I was not like everyone else. The feeling of being talked down to in front of your peers was mortifying. For awhile, I never understood why I was treated different from the rest of the class. Once I figured out that I had a learning disability and my brain was not at the level of where it should be, I began to relinquish. From then on

I first started out my learning experience at a school called River Valley Charter School (RVCS). This school was a montessori school that relied heavily on independence and alternative styles of learning. At RVCS their were multi aged classrooms so I grew quickly with helping and learning from those younger and older than me. This eventually helped me in building skill for the real world environments. This though was overcome with negatives. The school was ill prepared for any student with learning disabilities. The group of teachers and students that understood dyslexia was next to none. Everyday that I went to school I felt different in one of the worst ways possible. I knew that I was the same as everyone else but when the teacher took me into the other room for special teaching, that I knew never worked I felt stupid and at the time retarded. The teachers that taught me at RVCS everyday taught me little skills that would help me accomplish my daily goal. And because of this lack of teaching and care I lost confidence in myself. I stopped caring about the

My first encounter with English was at my mother’s workplace. I picked up some words when my mother spoke to customers, but had no idea what each word meant. When school started, I didn’t talk to anyone since most of them spoke English so I felt like an outcast. Still, I tried my best to do well in English, however in fourth grade kids found it humorous that I struggle when I spoke English and they would bully me. When they teased me I would get frustrated and would sit there sobbing and feeling morose for hours and hours. Finally elementary school was over and its time to go to middle school

In the fourth grade, my mother told me that I had Asperger’s. After learning about this, I felt more like an outsider that I already was. As far as I knew, no other fourth grader was going to a psychiatrist, social skills group, or was medicated. One year later, I told my mother that I wanted my class to know about my condition. We did so by reading All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome by Kathy Hoopman to them. Afterwards, some of my friends told me that they would always have my back if anyone tries to bully me because of it. A year later, I was the target of bullying, mainly by boys who weren’t in my class last year. The worst part about it was that nobody did anything about it except my mom. The girls who said they’d stand up for me broke their promise.

The other kids started laughing because I could not read fluently. This experience lead to me having problems talking to large groups of people. The other kids mocked me, and most of them refused to play with me. My math teacher realized that I was afraid when was asked to explain a question to my classmates. She talked with my parents and advised them to take me to a counselor so that I could stop having that problem. The counselor really helped me and after some sessions, I could talk to a group of people with ease. The counselor told me that many kids have the problem of reading and writing when they are young, but the problems end with

The following is a summary of a journal article titled, “Is Parent -Child Interaction Therapy Effective in Reducing Stuttering?” by Sharon Millard, Alison Nicholas, and Frances Cook. This article was published in the Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research in June 2008, to report the findings of a research conducted on the effects of parent-child interaction therapy approach (PCIT) on children who stutter. It was conducted to add more research and evidence to the efficacy of using the PCIT approach (Millard, Nicholas, & Cook, 2008 p 636).