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10 Tactics To Deal With Stammering
1. Commit Yourself What does this mean? I mean to mentally commit yourself to really tackling this and not giving up when the going gets tough. Because guess what? It will... Personal change is difficult and you're going to need to be committed first and foremost. 2. Become Knowledgeable About Stammering The fact that your reading this post is a good start! :-) Pick up a ton of books at your local library, or Amazon.co.uk, and read up about stammering. Find out what it's all about, the theories behind the condition, the mechanics of speech, what treatments are out there. Get surfing on the internet... there is a wealth of information on there. Many people are in the 'same boat' as you, and know some of what you are experiencing. You can talk and learn from their experiences and the strategies they use. They too might pick up something from your experiences (call it knowledge sharing!). There are many web support forums, national charities, blogs, speech and language therapy resources. You could also attend a local self-help group, perhaps. If you can afford it, how about attending a conference on stammering? 3. Get Those Close To You Ready For The Change Did you think changing yourself was difficult? Well, what may be equally challenging is telling those close to you. You're about to embark on a life transforming program. Family, friends may have become comfortable with the way you are. They may even resent you changing, as they themselves could be feeling threatened. Humans are like this in general so don't worry. Tell them you're trying some new things out... that you're still the same person and you would appreciate their support. 4. Do Some Deep Self-Analysis Armed with your new knowledge about stuttering, put your "researcher hats" on, and really experience what is happening inside you when you're stammering. Are you feeling tense in particular parts of your body? If so, where is the tension? Are you experiencing a certain negative emotion in a particular situation? What is the emotion about? Where did it come from? Make notes of such useful pieces of information, because you will be targeting them soon enough... 5. Choose A Good Speech Therapist With Expertise In Stammering If you have the money to find a private speech therapist then finding one who has expertise in stuttering will be handy. Generalists are cool, but specialists will know a lot more about what may be able to help you. Follow the therapist's instructions and get a good grasp of the techniques they are teaching you. Maybe it's a fluency technique, or an attitude changing approach. Whatever it is, if it seems the technique(s) may work for you, then remain positive, and keep at it. 6. Find What Works For You And Stick With It Ok. Now, you're out of the therapy room. You created some fluency when with the therapist. You're feeling positive. Well, the biggest test is NOW. Taking what you learnt during therapy into the real world. It's time to be courageous. It's time to do the things you are capable of doing. Try and use all opportunities to apply your techniques in speaking situations. Tell people what you're doing. Practice with friends, family, the dog, in the mirror... whatever. Believe me or not, people will admire you for making the effort. They'll call you "brave, because it's more riskier for you". In my own experience, I've heard this said a number of times. 7. Create A New Self-Image Why not try and work on changing your attitude? You could learn how to create confidence. How, you ask? There are number of approaches out there - such as cognitive behavioural therapy and neuro-linguistic programming to name just a couple. These areas have techniques to try and create new positive and powerful thinking patterns and outlooks on life, to help deal with stammering. Get hold of some basic books and you could try out some of the stuff in them. Experience them for yourself. Take a class. Start a new hobby, which will involve you interacting with people. Try public speaking, perhaps? 8. Learn Good Self-Talk This point is related to point 8. But it's a little more challenging. Why not try and change the way you talk to yourself. If your internal chatter is usually quite negative, and includes lots of "I can't...", " I shouldn't...", "I mustn't..." "I'm too scared..." etc, then you could reverse them to, "I can...", "I will...", "I am...". Try saying these positively and with conviction to yourself, and let the experience settle. It might feel a bit weird at first, but that's alright, isn't it? 9. Treat It Like A Project... The project in this case - is YOU. You could create a 3 month plan of what you want to achieve, maybe. Then why not break this plan into smaller chunks, of weeks and days? Maybe one week you're going to practice just speaking using a particular fluency technique on one sentence. The week after you might use the same technique when saying two sentences. Another day you may have planned to ask for exactly what you want when ordering a meal at a restaurant. As we all know, plans are important, but difficult to keep. Try hard, and stick to them. 10. Have Patience Chances are, you've been very hard on yourself for a long time. I reckon it's time to be kind on yourself, and to learn to let it go. Your goal may be to become more confident. Or it could be how to learn to try and speak more fluently in certain situations. Whatever it is, give yourself time. You've most likely been stammering for a long time. Progress also takes time, and tons of patience is needed. You could look at it as an experiment if that helps. You'll makes loads of mistakes on the way. We all do. It's our natural fallible nature! But you can keep learning from them to improve for the next time. Good Luck. I KNOW you can do it. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com |
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