A stammer shouldn’t slow you down
Eating something you don’t want simply because you feel unable to order what you do want, or failing to put your hand up in class even though you know the answer, can be just some of the implications of having a stammer.
That’s according to Jonathon Linklater who’s had the condition since the age of three. Now 37, he says it’s had some effect on his life:
“At times I avoided some words that I perceived to be difficult, such as ‘hamburger’ or ‘here,’” he explains.
A sociable and happy child with lots of friends, Linklater wasn’t particularly aware of his stammer until he grew older — but throughout adolescence his self-consciousness deepened:
“I was conscious of not wanting to stammer. In my teenage years I’d have been avoiding some words and not saying things I wanted to say, because the older I got the more aware I became of it.
Although he still stammers, his participation in speech and language therapy and courses on the condition have made him more relaxed and confident about it — in fact Linklater is now a speech and language therapist himself.
Up to 5% of children go through a phase of stammering between the ages of two and six, but four out of five overcome the problem, either with the help of speech and language therapy or through a natural resolution of the problem. In all, about 1% of Irish adults, or 45,000 people in this country stammer.
Everyone who presents to the HSE’s Speech and Language Therapy Service has an initial assessment to determine their need for help. After this assessment the patient is prioritised for therapy.
The waiting period for intervention, according to a spokesman, is dependent on the nature and severity of the disorder following assessment.
As of last June, more than 7,000 people had been waiting for up to four months for treatment, but just over 1,800 were waiting for more than 18 months.
The HSE claims there has been significant investment in the recruitment of speech and language therapists in recent years, with a range of new approaches developed and used in many speech and language therapy services across the country.
It’s crucial to get the right treatment, Linklater believes:
“I think children can be very self-conscious, so the sooner children and teenagers discover that it’s ok to stutter, the sooner they can help reduce the anxiety, embarrassment and even shame around it,” says Linklater, who is also development manager with the Irish Stammering Association.
He compares the condition to an iceberg. Although there’s something visible to the casual observer above the surface — signs of embarrassment or facial struggle — beneath the surface can be a multitude of negative experiences which build up and make a person with a stammer more anxious so that the condition affects their life in numerous small but often significant ways.
Speech therapy can help by changing your attitude to stammering and teaching you to be less anxious about it, he believes — and it certainly worked for 16-year-old James Boland from Cloneygown in Co Laois.
As a child he never took much notice of his slight stammer.
“I was sent to speech therapy for a year or so but I didn’t find it very helpful — it seemed to make no difference,” he recalls, adding however that at that time, his stammer “didn’t really get in my way”. But, “as I got older, I became more conscious of it. When I was talking to my friends I was getting stuck now and again.”
Then the condition became more acute this January and February:
“I found I wasn’t able to hold a conversation; I was stumbling and stalling over words so much, it was hard for people to understand what I was trying to say.”
He started speech therapy and this time it worked: “I’ve become much more fluent in day-to-day life. I learned techniques like how to ‘slide’ over certain letters in words. It helped me change my attitude so that I was not as self-conscious about it.
“I find that I’m more relaxed about it and I’m not stammering nearly as much. I think the more you think about stammering the more you do it — the secret is not to worry about it because if you get anxious you’re more likely to stammer.”
National Stammering Awareness Day 2013 takes place in the Hilton Kilmainham Hotel from 10am to 5pm tomorrow.
This is the seventh year of the event whose 2013 theme is People Who Stutter Supporting Each Other. The event will feature speakers, including people who stutter and professionals in the field. There will be a workshop for parents of children who stutter, a drama group for children who stutter and a group for teenagers to meet and talk about stammering. Admission is free.
* For more information visit www.nsad.ie
