A different way of speaking

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 1st.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Stuttering!

Most people describe it as your brain generating ideas faster than your mouth can keep up.

It’s estimated, one to three percent of the population worldwide stutters. While it tends to run in families, stuttering is still a medical mystery with no known cause or cure.

But Myrna, as you found out, not everyone is looking for a fix.

BROWN: Very true. And Mary, this story also hits home for me personally. Here's why…

AUDIO: Good afternoon, gentlemen…

MYRNA BROWN: Sitting in our home office, my husband Stanley Brown kicks off his fourth online meeting of the day. He’s 62-year-old. He asks questions and chats fluently with his team members. Skills he struggled with growing up. Stanley stuttered. It began in elementary school and continued throughout his first two years of high school.

STANLEY: I felt a sense of shame and embarrassment really.

And then without any formal therapy, treatment or intervention, his stuttering stopped. Stanley says he can’t recall exactly when or why he stopped stuttering. But he does remember how he felt.

STANLEY: Felt good. Felt really good.

It’s estimated that 75 percent of children who stutter recover. But what about those who don’t?

DANIEL REESE: Something that I…I used to do….

34-year-old Daniel Reese…

GEOFFREY COALSON: Has any…Ha..has..anyone here who stutters ever tried…

…and 44-year-old Geoffrey Coalson have been stuttering since they were toddlers. As adults who stutter, they’re trying to change the narrative.

COALSON: It’s not anxiety. It’s not confusion. It’s not a disorder. It’s just a different way of speaking, much like an accent. If you were left handed and a person asked you why do you write like that. You’d say I’m left-handed and that’s the end of the conversation.

Coalson and Reese are associates at the Arthur Blank Center for Stuttering Education and Research. In 2007, the Center, based in Austin, Texas, developed Camp Dream. Speak. Live. It’s a free, intensive treatment program offered to children, teens and adults who stutter.

COALSON: This year we had eight camps in the U.S. and over 25 internationally.

Today, Coalson and Reese lead a team of clinicians in an Alabama classroom made up of eleven students, ages seven to sixteen.

AUDIO: What is the one thing…one word we don’t use when we’re telling other people that we stutter….. Don't apologize. (applause)

These boys and girls are learning to speak confidently and stutter openly.

COALSON: We don’t even attempt to fix the stuttering. We want you to speak how you speak because that’s how you speak.

Traditional treatments for stuttering include a variety of strategies, ranging from electronic devices that help control fluency to speech therapy classes. Reese remembers one from his childhood.

REESE: I would go into the speech room and I would get ten tokens and every time I stuttered, they’d take one away. I got so frustrated with going, I asked my parents to quit. It didn’t make me want to speak.

These students are exploring other tools, like improv. In this exercise, students participate in a mock spelling bee. The clinician first asks them to come up with a nonsensical word.

AUDIO: (laughter) Wingo…I think we’ll do wingo. So, I got my group right here. Remember you are one mind. We’re going to start our spelling bee by spelling wingo. X….Q…Z,minus sign, number,... wingo. That was perfect spelling.

Then, they switch gears and define the word.

AUDIO: Wingo…is…the…bomb (laughter) wingo! Wingo is the bomb… applause.

Coalson says improv forces kids who stutter to get out of their own heads.

COALSON: The number one thing that gets robbed from kids who stutter, who are trying to be fluent, is spontaneity. They are pre-planning. If I was having this conversation with you twenty years ago, I would have scripted it out. You’re planning out words, what you’re going to say and you’re not listening, which is also part of communication.

Another strategy used is role playing.

AUDIO: Hi, my name is Cara, I’ll be your dentist today….

In this skit, two other clinicians play a mother and child who encounter an insensitive healthcare provider.

AUDIO: [Role playing] What’s your name? My name is Ra…ra..Rachel. What’s the matter, cat got your tongue. Oh, so you’re one of those people who’s never met someone who stutters before. Some of the smartest people in the world are people who stutter. And if you have any questions, feel free to ask me. (applause) What did ya’ll notice that was different this time? (child) She talked about what stuttering is so the dentist could know.

Coalson says that’s another important component: educating non-stutterers.

COALSON: People who are interacting with people who stutter, 99 percent of the time are trying to help. And we understand that. The things that are done to help, don’t always help. So if I was to give a list of things to not do… don’t interrupt, don’t finish our words and also advocate for your friends who stutter.

Friends, like 16-year-old Leah. She says she’ll use what she’s learned this week, when school returns this Fall.

MYRNA: What are you going to say to your classmates or even your teacher?

LEAH: I would introduce myself saying my name is Leah and tell them that I stu…stutter and I might pause mid sentence or repeat some sounds sometimes.

MYRNA: And you’ve never said that before to anybody?

LEAH: No, I haven’t.

MYRNA: How does it make you feel to say those words to explain that, to teach, really?

LEAH: Well, makes me kind of nervous at first. Because you don’t know what they’re going to say to you.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Mobile, Alabama.

AUDIO: [Role playing] Who wants to represent the left side of the room? Alright me…Leah! (applause)

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