Accepting My Stutter Made Me A Better

Teacher

Originally published November 2020

By Adam Black

The world can be an intimidating place to live for people who stutter and can often
leave them feeling isolated and alone. Stuttering is a hidden disability that affects 3
percent of adults and up to 9 percent of children. With numbers like these it is likely
most teachers will at some point encounter a student with this speech impediment in
their classroom.

Renowned speech pathologist Joseph Sheehan talks about stuttering as an iceberg.

Only 10 percent of the behaviours associated with stuttering are visible (blocking,
freezing, sound repetitions) and the other 90 percent lie beneath the surface (shame,
embarrassment, lack of confidence, sadness). The invisible symptoms often present
the greatest challenges for people who stutter.

I have stuttered for as long as my parents can remember, but it wasn’t until I was
around 9 years old and reading aloud in class that I really noticed. I just couldn’t get
the words out and if I did, they sounded completely different from what other students
in the class were saying.

Years of conventional therapy made little impact on my progress, and I still stuttered
quite noticeably. I really hated my stutter. I would avoid speaking at all costs, change
words, and even avoid saying certain sounds. I never spoke out in class and didn’t
enjoy meeting new people.
Thoughts of going to university, and of all the new people I’d have to introduce myself
to there, made me quite anxious. I really wanted to be a teacher but knew I wouldn’t
get through the teaching side of the course—there was just too much speaking
involved. I ended up enrolling in Sport Development, a course that involved little to no
public interaction, and while I enjoyed my studies, I knew it wouldn’t lead to the career
I actually wanted.

So I decided to do something drastic to improve my speech and signed up for an

intensive therapy course called The McGuire Programme in March 2007. The McGuire
Programme focuses on a new way of breathing when speaking. This breathing
method, known as costal breathing, gives power behind a breath and helps you
control what you’re saying. This is done in tandem with psychological techniques which
centre on accepting yourself as a person with a stutter on your own terms and
choosing how to speak.

Learning to accept my stutter was something I found challenging at first, but now fully
embrace. The more I show that I’m comfortable speaking in a different way, the less it
bothers me, and these days it doesn’t have any impact on how I live my life.

Three years after enrolling in The McGuire Programme, I eventually qualified as a

teacher. The decision to finally pursue my dream job came about after realizing that
the content of what I had to say was more important than how I said it. I knew I had
something to offer young people, but I also knew I wanted to work in additional
support needs (ASN) to help pupils with special needs—stuttering or otherwise.

I’ve found that my stutter has been useful in helping to show students that being
different is a good thing. I also know what it is like to be overlooked in class because of
difficulties. As a student I had a few teachers who chose to see only my stutter and not
my other qualities. With this in mind, I’m always looking past what conditions children
might have and instead, paying attention to what things they can do really well. I’ve
found that celebrating the positives, instead of focusing on the negatives, can do so
much for a child.

Adapted from Accepting My Stutter Made Me a Better Teacher - TEACH Magazine