Stuttering Hub

Worse Than A Stutterer

It was always going to be a difficult one to beat.

But, there is a worse excuse than a stutterer blaming everybody else for his/her problems - Ashley Cole blaming his mother-in-law for his infidelity!

My Feature In Sensazn Magazine

There's a 3 page spread about me on p.47-49 of issue 11 of the Sensazn Magazine.

I talk about stuttering, life and being of South Asian origin.

You can read it by going to this page. Just type 47 into the search box at the top of the page and hit Enter. Click the forward arrow at the top to read the other pages...

A Cure for Stammering is Now a Real Possibility

Exciting news this week about stammering has confirmed what many of us always suspected - it is in the genes.

This took me back to my PhD days, researching the development of information systems for health care and personalised medicine. Identifying genes and proteins involved in medical conditions and disorders is fascinating... even more so is the use the use of genetic material to treat them.

With stammering, this is now a real possibility.

Being Aware of the World We Live In

I read an article in the Sunday Times a few months ago. It was about a guy who was 18 years old and he wrote up what he would get up to on a typical day. To cut a long story short, throughout the day, this guy used every modern communication technology you could think of, from iPhone to MSN to communicate with his friends and family members.

Indeed we're in an age where there is an entire generation who don't know the world without the Internet.

Exciting stuff.

But if you're a person who stammers, then this should be warning signs...

With so much less communication taking place face-to-face, don't let it stop you from getting out and about and talking your socks off.

Enjoy the digital age. But use it also as an excuse to continue talking in the real world.

Raise Awareness But Don't Forget Self-Awareness

I was pleased to see Ed Balls talking about his stammering in the press recently.

Regarding journalist Liz Hunt's mocking of Ed Balls in her column, it was extremely inappropriate. But, honestly speaking, I wasn't surprised.

There is still deep prejudices against stammering. This is obvious.

Naming and shaming those who do such thing is essential. Raising awareness is key.

However, in all the raising awareness, we should not forget empowering ourselves and our children to deal with the 'rubbish' that's out there.

It's there.

It will be for a long time.

We need to be strong when facing it.

Happy New Year!

I would like to wish all the subscribers and readers of Stuttering Hub a very Happy New Year!!!

Thank you for your continued support.

I would like to extend my best wishes to the global stammering community. I'm proud to be a part of such an amazing and strong community.

I hope you had a good 2009.

If you haven't, there's a fresh new year just hours away...

What changes will you make in the new year?

Have you thought about your goals for 2010?

Good.

Have you written down your goals?

Great.

But honestly guys, you have to take the next step.

Make your goals into reality. Only you can do this, by taking small steps to make a difference in your lives.

Let 2010 be the speaking year. In fact, lets all try and do more speaking in 2010, then we have our entire lives...

Now there's a challenge!

 

Stuttering Appreciation Day

Friends, today is Stuttering Appreciation Day!!!

To quote Daniele Rossi's words:

Let’s spend 1 day seeing our stuttering in a good light. Stuttering is a great social filter... On Stuttering Appreciation Day, take a moment to write your positive thoughts on stuttering.

So, please take a moment right now, and write down all the good things about your stuttering...

My positive thought has to be about my experience of public speaking the other night. I was giving a speech about my experiences with stuttering. Towards the end of the speech I told the audience I was fund raising to provide more resources for stammering (this bit I had made up!).

I asked the audience to each donate £1.00 each to the cause. At the end of the speech, members began to walk up to me to give me their money!

So, stuttering is definitely a positive thing for me.

I think I might be able to use it to make a few quid!! All in the name of charity of cause! :-)

The Impact of Stuttering on Crime

The number of recorded crimes in England and Wales was down by 4% during the second quarter of 2009 compared to the same period last year.

However in those crimes that did occur, were you a victim?

Or did you see a crime in action? If so did you report it? Or did you not bother because you felt it would be too much of a struggle to talk about?

I've been thinking a bit recently about how stammering could affect a person's ability to report a crime. I'm wondering if crimes are being committed against people who stammer, who are been deterred to report them. And if so, how many criminals are still out on the loose.

I can remember reading on one of the stuttering forums a while ago about a guy who was stopped and arrested by the police. The police thought the man was drunk because of his dysfluent speech and all the poor guy was trying to do was speak.

A Good Week of Stuttering Awareness

Coinciding with the International Stammering Awareness Day this week, I was pleased to see some articles in the UK press about a £500,000 programme launched by the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls, and Michael Palin. The programme will offer information, training and support to teachers to help children who stammer reach their true potential.

Following on from the Bercow Review, the programme has been developed by the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children. I've met some of the Speech and Language Therapists from this centre and they are good, so I have high expectations for the programme. Prince Charles is patron for continuing fund raising for the initiative. Pretty high profile stuff.

Let's see how it goes...

The Power of Stress

For a person who stutters, stress is said to be contributing factor to stuttering more often. You may have experienced it yourself. You might have been going through a particular bad patch, and found yourself just blocking more in general. We can't really explain it. It just happens...

The best explanation I can give is stress, because that's what it most likely is!

Anyway, life has been quite hectic recently. Work has been busy. Deadlines looming. I've been under a lot of pressure and times have been stressful as of late... BUT... I've found that when I've been communicating with others while in this state, I've been speaking very calmly and quite fluently.

I've noticed that I've been under strain, but the strain is making me speak peacefully!

Now, how do you explain that? I've haven't got a clue. Let me know if you do...