BS: Oct 22 - International Stammerer's Day

Subject: BS: Oct 22 - International Stammerer's Day
From: DMcG
Date: 22 Oct 15 - 01:54 PM

Actually, International Stammerer's Awareness Day.

Didn't even know about this! However, in line with the modern trend of openness about these kinds of things, if anyone wants to ask me anything about my experiences of living with a stammer for some 50+ years, I'll try to answer. PM me if you prefer.

Subject: RE: BS: Oct 22 - International Stammerer's Day
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Oct 15 - 04:51 PM

I've seen kids make great progress. I used to translate for cerebral palsy people. I believe many types of stammers exist including the silent stammer that exists in the mind but is not detected except for a hesitation or slow pace.

Subject: RE: BS: Oct 22 - International Stammerer's Day
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Oct 15 - 12:37 PM

Americans don't know that the British use stammer to mean stutter, by and large. In the case of Americans, quite large.

Subject: RE: BS: Oct 22 - International Stammerer's Day
From: Will Fly
Date: 23 Oct 15 - 01:51 PM

Mrrzy, Brits use stammer just as much as stutter.

From one who used to have a terrible stutter but now just has an occasional mild stammer.

Singing wipes out both.

Subject: RE: BS: Oct 22 - International Stammerer's Day
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Oct 15 - 03:57 PM

always works that way.

Subject: RE: BS: Oct 22 - International Stammerer's Day
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Oct 15 - 06:15 PM

"Singing wipes out both."

I saw an amazing example of that many years ago... fellow could barely talk, but sang perfectly.

Subject: RE: BS: Oct 22 - International Stammerer's Day
From: Paul Burke
Date: 23 Oct 15 - 07:50 PM

Back in the early 1970s there was a bloke in Manchester who stammered almost unbearably (for us and him). Except when he played and sang, when he was as fluent and expressive as you could hope for. The problem passed away later in life, he's still around and singing wonderfully. Steve Turner.

Subject: RE: BS: Oct 22 - International Stammerer's Day
From: DMcG
Date: 24 Oct 15 - 04:35 AM

As people have said, singing very frequently helps. Slightly less often, but still for many other people, so does acting. I have no great problems if I read a passage of a book aloud. I know someone who never stammers providing he adopts a Scottish accent, even though he has never visited Scotland.

As to why these things are so: speculation abounds. Of all the theories I have heard, I incline to the proposal that it is in some sense not you speaking. It is Hamlet, or the Molecatcher, or the narrator. Then with singing, and to a lesser extent acting, so much of your focus is on things other than the words

Subject: RE: BS: Oct 22 - International Stammerer's Day
From: GUEST, DTM
Date: 24 Oct 15 - 06:23 AM

I use to play in a band with a guy who had a bad stammer.
It never came out when he sang or made announcements over the mike.

Subject: RE: BS: Oct 22 - International Stammerer's Day
From: maeve
Date: 24 Oct 15 - 06:57 AM

We use and comprehend both stammer and stutter in North America. ;)