Speech impediment and making friends?

[quackly duckling]

At some point in my life, I developed a speech problem that makes me stutter and stammer. This continued all through out high school which played a key role in presenting me a major challenge in making friends.

Now in college, the problem persists, and I have zero friends mainly because of my speech problems. People come and talk to me generally, but when I talk back to them, they look at me funny and then eventually keep their distance away from me.

I have no social confidence at all, and I had less than 5 friends in my entire life. As you know, humans are naturally social creatures that require them to verbally interact with one another in order to carry out what you call normal every day lives. I can't go see a speech therapist because I'm just a student, and financial status is definitely an issue for me.

How can I make more friends or at least maintain my relationship with other friends?

[RWPossum]

First, I wouldn't overlook the possibility of receiving therapy. If you're located near a university with a speech pathology department, consider getting therapy from a student clininician who's supervised by a certified therapist.

This is an informative article on neurogenic stuttering, which I believe is the problem you're talking about.

http://www.stutteringhelp.org/neurogenic-stuttering


"Neurogenic stuttering is a type of fluency disorder in which a person has difficulty in producing speech in a normal, smooth fashion. Individuals with fluency disorders may have speech that sounds fragmented or halting, with frequent interruptions and difficulty producing words without effort or struggle. Neurogenic stuttering typically appears following some sort of injury or disease to the central nervous system i.e. the brain and spinal cord, including cortex, subcortex, cerebellar, and even the neural pathway regions."


"Because many conditions can cause neurogenic stuttering and affect the frequency with which it co-exists with other communication impairments, there is no single treatment approach that is effective in alleviating its symptoms. Treatment is often carried out by a speech-language pathologist working in conjunction with the clients’ physicians. Some therapy techniques that help reduce the symptoms of developmental stuttering may also be effective with neurogenic stuttering.

These include:

=Slowing speech rate (saying fewer words on each breath by increasing the duration of the sounds and words).
=Emphasizing a gentle onset of the start of each phrase (starting from a relaxed posture of the speech muscles, beginning with adequate respiratory support, a slow and easy initiation of the exhalation and gentle onset of the first sound).
=Emphasizing a smooth flow of speech production and use of relaxed posture, both in terms of general body posture and for specific speech production muscles.
=Identifying the disruptions in the speech patterns and instructing the client in the use of more appropriate patterns."


The first rule in making friends is being a good listener. At least your stuttering won't hold you back there. The key is sincerity - a genuine interest in other people and being supportive. A good book - How to Win Friends and Influence People For Teen Girls by Donna Carnegie, daughter of the legendary self-help author. Also, Dying of Embarrassment by Barbara Markway has been clinically tested and shown to help with social anxiety.

[Bud B]

Try these resources:
http://www.stutteringhelp.org there are videos online that show speech therapists working with stutterers; watch them and learn some techniques.
http://stutteringselfhelp-stutteringself...gspot.com/
http://stutteringhelp-bud.blogspot.com/
http://notesonstuttering.blogspot.com/
Meet others who stutter here
http://www.stutteringforum.com
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/stutteringchat/
Stuttering Foundation and Stuttering Community on Facebook

"Self Therapy for the Stutterer" published by The Stuttering Foundation worked wonders for my family members who stuttered after working through it step by step. The book can be found here http://www.stutteringhelp.org/sites/defa...1th_ed.pdf
It is great for those who do not have access to speech therapy.

Advice to Those Who Stutter book
http://www.stutteringhelp.org/sites/defa...ay2010.pdf

Great Video Advice for those who stutter http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...374424394#

The Foundation also has a list of speech therapists worldwide who have been trained to work with stutterers. http://www.stutteringhelp.org/Default.aspx?tabid=109