Stuttering Help.

In light of Eastern’s Disability Celebration Month, motivational speaker Bill Deering came to EWU on Oct. 19 to speak about how he has overcome many obstacles in his life, including severe stuttering.
He has been a motivational speaker for six years.
Deering was seven years old when he started stuttering.
All throughout school, he was embarrassed and humiliated about his disability, which affected him psychologically and physically.
According to Deering, he gained 55 pounds his sophomore year of high school and was failing almost all of his classes.
He recalled a moment in ninth grade when he had to give an oral presentation and was absolutely horrified.
According to Deering, all he can remember thinking was, “Oh my God, what am I going to do? I stutter.”
Deering spent three months practicing his speech in front of a bathroom mirror.
On the day of his oral presentation, he couldn’t say anything.
“Stuttering was a living hell for me,” said Deering. “I dreaded school. I hated it.”
Deering remembers experiencing an epiphany while sitting in the bleachers of his high school gymnasium during an assembly.
According to Bill Deering, the junior class president went up in front of the school and said, “Go make next year the best year of your life.” At that moment, he knew he had to make a change.
He made it onto his high school football team and track team, his grades improved greatly and he was losing weight.
“I did it! I never gave up,” said Deering.
Deering attended West Chester University in West Chester, Penn.
After multiple changes in his major and having trouble passing his classes, he graduated on May 15, 1993 with a degree in communication disorders after being in college for seven years.
Even though he had just graduated from college, he still dreaded stuttering.
It wasn’t until a friend of his told him an advantage he had with stuttering that made Deering realize something he had never noticed before.
“He said to me, ‘Bill, you ought to consider that stuttering gives you an advantage over other people. … Have you ever noticed when you stutter, people tend to listen to you very closely? … That’s your advantage. … People don’t get listened to that way and you do,’ ” said Deering.
It took Deering a long time to overcome his stuttering with the help of speech therapy, yet the “best therapy is being able to accept it,” said Deering.
“Once you accept stuttering, you’ll be free.”
When asked what advice he would give people who are experiencing failures in their life, he said that he would “recommend that they reach out to friends and teachers and people who can support them … Find people that are willing to support you in achieving your goal and ask them to be your team and use your team to be successful.”
Alexandra Talbott and Sara Steinmetz, both freshmen at Eastern, attended his motivation speech.
They were many things that they found relatable.
Talbott said that she can relate with him on “all the teasing in high school. I think everyone in high school gets teased for different reasons.”
“[During my] senior year, I joined cheerleading to raise my grades, just like he did with football,” said Talbott.
Steinmetz said that “joining a sports team to feel involved in school” was a connection she felt while listening to Deering’s presentation.
“I liked how he shared his personal experience with us,” said Steinmetz.
“I couldn’t even tell that he has a stutter,” said Talbott.
According to Deering, if he could go back in time and tell his younger self one thing about the future, he would tell him to relax.
“I would tell him to enjoy life and enjoy every moment.”

Stuttering Help

The University of Maine at Fort Kent welcomes motivational speaker Bill Deering to speak on campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Bill Deering is a speaker who Disses the Dis in Disabilities and has gone from stuttering on every other word and taking three minutes to say his first name to now confidently speaking to thousands.

Deering inspires, empowers, encourages others to breakthrough their personal challenges in life. He has overcome many challenges in his life including learning disabilities. He speaks candidly about his self-hatred of stuttering and the growth process of accepting himself. Many challenges in his life have been overcome including; stuttering, learning disabilities, bringing his grade point average in college from a very low .7 to a 3.7, and the choice to lose 65 pounds and maintaining it for 25 years now. He shares specifics of how it was all accomplished, while bringing lightness, playfulness and fun to the conversation of stuttering.

Bill's message is enlightening and full of wonderful anecdotes that people can relate to

Stuttering: now a motivational speaker. Bill Deering

Samantha Sbashnig and Will Turner, both eighth graders, meet motivational speaker, Bill Deering, who overcame stuttering.

Bill just completed a motivational speech at Warren Hills regional middle school.

Stuttering

Stuttering (alalia syllabaris), also known as stammering (alalia literalis or anarthria literalis), is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, and involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds.[1] The term stuttering is most commonly associated with involuntary sound repetition, but it also encompasses the abnormal hesitation or pausing before speech, referred to by stutterers as blocks, and the prolongation of certain sounds, usually vowels and semivowels. For many stutters repetition is the primary problem and blocks and prolongations are learned mechanisms to mask repetition, as the fear of repetitive speaking in public is often the main cause of psychological unease. The term "stuttering", as popularly used, covers a wide spectrum of severity: it may encompass individuals with barely perceptible impediments, for whom the disorder is largely cosmetic, as well as others with extremely severe symptoms, for whom the problem can effectively prevent most oral communication. The impact of stuttering on a person's functioning and emotional state can be severe. Much of this goes unnoticed by the speaker, and may include fears of having to enunciate specific vowels or consonants, fears of being caught stuttering in social situations, self-imposed isolation, anxiety, stress, shame, or a feeling of "loss of control" during speech. Stuttering is sometimes popularly associated with anxiety but there is actually no such correlation (though as mentioned social anxiety may actually develop in individuals as a result of their stuttering). Despite popular perceptions to the contrary,[2] stuttering is not reflective of intelligence.
Stuttering is generally not a problem with the physical production of speech sounds or putting thoughts into words. Apart from their speech impediment, people who stutter may well be 'normal' in the clinical sense of the term. Anxiety, low self-esteem, nervousness, and stress therefore do not cause stuttering per se, although they are very often the result of living with a highly stigmatized disability and, in turn, exacerbate the problem in the manner of a positive feedback system (the proposed name for this is 'Stuttered Speech Syndrome'.[3][4])
The disorder is also variable, which means that in certain situations, such as talking on the telephone, the stuttering might be more severe or less, depending on the anxiety level connected with that activity. Although the exact etiology of stuttering is unknown, both genetics and neurophysiology are thought to contribute. There are many treatments and speech therapy techniques available that may help increase fluency in some stutterers to the point where an untrained ear cannot identify a problem; however, there is essentially no "cure" for the disorder at present, although many treatments are available.[citation needed]

BillDeering.Info

Stuttering: What is it?

Stuttering is a speech disorder in which sounds, syllables, or words are repeated or last longer than normal. These problems cause a break in the flow of speech (called disfluency).

Causes, incidence, and risk factors

About 5% of children (1 out of every 20 children) aged 2 - 5 will develop some stuttering during their childhood. It may last for several weeks to several years.

For a small number of children (less than 1%), stuttering does not go away and it may get worse. This is called developmental stuttering, and it is the most common type of stuttering.

Stuttering tends to run in families. Genes that cause stuttering have been identified.

There is also evidence that stuttering may be a result of some brain injuries, such as stroke or traumatic brain injuries.

Stuttering may rarely be caused by emotional trauma (called psychogenic stuttering).

Stuttering is more common in boys than girls. It also tends to persist into adulthood more often in boys than in girls.

Symptoms

Stuttering may start with repeating consonants (k, g, t). If stuttering becomes worse, words and phrases are repeated.

Later, vocal spasms develop. There is a forced, almost explosive sound to speech. The person may appear to be struggling to speak.

Stressful social situations and anxiety can make symptoms worse.

Symptoms of stuttering may include:

Feeling frustrated when trying to communicate

Pausing or hesitating when starting or during sentences, phrases, or words, often with the lips together

Putting in (interjecting) extra sounds or words ("We went to the...uh...store")

Repeating sounds, words, parts of words, or phrases ("I want...I want my doll," "I...I see you," or "Ca-ca-ca-can")

Tension in the voice

Very long sounds within words ("I am Booooobbbby Jones" or "Llllllllike")

Other symptoms that might be seen with stuttering include:

Eye blinking

Jerking of the head or other body parts

Jaw jerking

Children with mild stuttering are often unaware of their stuttering. In more severe cases, children may be more aware. Facial movements, anxiety, and increased stuttering may occur when they are asked to speak.

Some people who stutter find that they don't stutter when they read aloud or sing.

Signs and tests

No testing is usually necessary. The diagnosis of stuttering may require consultation with a speech pathologist.

Treatment

There is no one best treatment for stuttering. Most early cases are short-term and resolve on their own.

Speech therapy may be helpful if:

Stuttering has lasted more than 3 - 6 months, or the "blocked" speech lasts several seconds

The child appears to be struggling when stuttering, or is embarrassed

There is a family history of stuttering

Speech therapy can help make the speech more fluent or smooth, and can help the child feel better about the stuttering.

Parents are encouraged to:

Avoid expressing too much concern about the stuttering, which can actually make matters worse by making the child more self-conscious

Avoid stressful social situations whenever possible

Listen patiently to the child, make eye contact, don't interrupt, and show love and acceptance. Avoid finishing sentences for them.

Set aside time for talking

Talk openly about stuttering when the child brings it up, letting them know you understand their frustration

Talk with the speech therapist about when to gently correct the stuttering

Drug therapy has NOT been shown to be helpful for stuttering.

It is not clear whether electronic devices help with stuttering.

Self-help groups are often helpful for both the child and family.

Expectations (prognosis)

In most children who stutter, the phase passes and speech returns to normal within 3 or 4 years. Stuttering that begins after a child is 8 - 10 years old is more likely to last into adulthood.

Complications

Possible complications of stuttering include social problems caused by the fear of ridicule, which may make a child avoid speaking entirely.

Calling your health care provider

Call your provider if:

Stuttering is interfering with your child's school work or emotional development

The child seems anxious or embarrassed about speaking

The symptoms last for more than 3 - 6 months

Prevention

There is no known way to prevent stuttering.

Stuttering Help

Getting stuttering help can be a very trying endeavor. it seems everyone has the answer in regards to stuttering help. Bill Deering suffered from a severe stuttering disability and overcame that disability and now is a successful motivational speaker for the stuttering and everyone else. Check out his website: www.BillDeering.info