If you were asked to list various communication disorders, stuttering would likely be one of the first on the list. Most people are familiar with the term “stutter,” and unlike some of the more subtle forms of communication disorder it presents itself in a clear and noticeable impairment of speech. When one thinks of stuttering a repetition of the same sound is generally what comes to mind. While this seems to be the most prominent feature of stuttered speech, other impairments, mainly prolongations (drawing out a single sound) and blocks (a pause in speech, usually in the form of a wheeze or huff), also occur. My cousin - for the purposes of this paper I will refer to him as Dexter - has dealt with a mild stutter for most of his life.
Dexter's stutter is generally very mild. At it's most severe he will stutter two or three times in a single sentence, though normally an impairment will only occur roughly ever fourth sentence or so. While he would sometimes produce the expected repeating of the same sound, usually in the beginning of a word, more often his speech suffered from the less-expected “block.” Rather, before saying the word, he would make a sort of wheezing sound vaguely reminiscent of the phoneme he was about to produce.
When asked how long he had been stuttering Dexter replied, “As long as I can remember.” He had essentially been stuttering as long as he could speak. In early childhood he began presenting the stereotype repetition you would expect from one who stutters. Back then the blocks (which nowadays are more common than repetition in his speech) didn't seem to occur at all. The problem was mild at first, it would come and go. Later it began to get more persistent.
My cousin stated that, while his stuttering had been present all his life, it was certainly not constant. Some days it was hard to speak at all; others it was barely an annoyance. In a lot of ways the severity of his stutter was conditional. He pointed out that talking to friends and family has always been a lot easier, for example. The more relaxed atmosphere seemed to reduce the amount of blocks he would run into, and even if he did stutter he knew we understood his condition. However, more formal speech was hard. This could be seen in the interview itself. In the beginning his stuttering was worse than what I've usually seen. I assumed he was probably nervous when it came to talking about his impairment. As the interview went on it became more relaxed; we would pause to chat idly about family matters and other fond topics. The lighter atmosphere definitely seemed to improve Dexter's ability to speak more consistently and fluently.
“It was especially hard back [when I was a kid].” While stuttering is something that he continues to deal with today, my cousin says the bulk of his hardships had occurred when he was younger. Classmates would frequently mock or insult Dexter, which frequently resulted in him lashing out at the bullies. A good amount of his difficulties came indirectly, in the form of the trouble he had gotten into as a result of other people's comments. Stuttering affected him outside of the classroom as well. When my cousin began working at a fast food restaurant they immediately had him working on the grill. “Most people,” he stated, “started working at the registers [and worked their way up].” While it could be viewed as a “promotion” of sorts, Dexter pointed out that it wasn't exactly flattering to be treated differently.
Throughout his school years my cousin received help from various speech counselors. At first he learned to speak slowly. It helped a little; if he spoke slowly enough he rarely stuttered. However, this wasn't very practical. Not only was it tedious to listen to someone speak at a crawl, it was tedious to talk that way as well. Later he learned to imagine what he said before he spoke. This was also helpful to some degree, but it's not always possible to take time and plan out what you are going to say to someone. In the end, Dexter feels that the speech therapy made a little difference in his speech, and that little difference made a huge difference in his life.
There was a considerable pause when I asked my cousin if he had any advice for someone facing the same issues that he was. To be honest I wouldn't have been surprised if he didn't really have any comments on the matter. Until this interview I had actually never heard him address his stuttering directly before. After a bit of thought he said “Don't lose heart.” He stated that, while working with a speech therapist over the years can be difficult, and the improvement unnoticeable, it's important to not give up. The small changes can make all the differences. For the closing statement in our interview he eloquently stated that we are defined “by what we say, not how we say it.”
The interview made me realize there was a lot I didn't know about communication disorders, despite knowing someone who suffers from one. While a lot of the expected outcomes (bullying, speech therapy, etc.) do occur, there's a lot that can go unnoticed by an observer. While we generally think of someone who stutters as repeating the same sound over and over again, that is really only one of a number of different difficulties (both direct and indirect) that these people face.