Block Stuttering

As I walked up to the front of the classroom, I thought of how hard I had prepared for this during the last few weeks. I knew the material like I knew my own name. I had thought of every possible scenario, and practiced how I would respond to it. And as I looked around at the crowd, they looked genuinely interested to hear about my topic. Hey, I thought to myself. This will not be too hard. I started, and my mind was immediately changed. I stammered in the middle of my opening sentence. What a way to start the presentation, right? Well, for Kenneth Koch, that type of experience is normal, and frequently occurring. His poem displays how stammering can be a destructive event in someone’s life.

While the achievements I’ve earned are valuable, what I have learned from this process is significant. I’ve learned how to act in a professional environment and how to be a quality competitor in not just Speech, but in all my activities. Furthermore, I have acquired the ability to digest and comprehend criticism. As well as giving me the opportunity to be a leader on my team, Speech has also taught me to be a leader amongst my peers. To me, Speech is more than a place to excel in speaking, it is where I have gained knowledge and skills that will assist me in my future

When I was younger, I had trouble learning how to speak. I found this hard as I was growing up because I saw that many people were able to have full conversations, while I was only able to stand there in awkward silence. The 4th grade was the grade in which I struggle the most. Meeting new people, and being able to talk to them, was hard and embarrassing. In the same year, I was told that I was going to meet the mayor of the city. This was a great accomplishment, but what was I going to say to him? On that night, I do not know how, but I was able to use all the English I had, and was able to blurt out the most complete sentence I had ever used. This felt great! From

The first time I had to do an actual speech in front of the class my mind went blank. I had studied the speech for a couple weeks and thought I was going to blow it out of the water. As I began to walk up to the front podium, I felt like my stomach was forming into a twizzler as I looked back at all

One person, a young teen guy, even mocked me. I tried not to let it go too deeply under my skin. I had to keep reminding myself that this was just temporary, just for the assignment. I definitely can’t imagine what those who have or have had a stutter for the majority of their lives go through. Just one short experience of having to stutter made me feel so small. I can’t even begin to fathom how people with an actual stutter feel about themselves, especially when people treat them so cruelly for something that they can’t help. Overall, stuttering made me feel slower and more self-conscious. I felt like I was being judged solely on the stutter and nothing else. I felt as though all the eyes in the food court were on me, even though they weren’t. I felt slower in the sense that it took me longer to say what I wanted and for some reason, I had to deliberate more as to how I would say what I wanted to. When we watched the kids stuttering during the lecture last week and describing how they felt, I could sympathize with them. After having to experience stuttering first hand, I would definitely say that I developed empathy for them and anyone else with a

Heart racing, knees shaking, arms trembling; it was the first day of my sophomore year and I was about to enter my AP World History, class. My palms were sweaty; I didn’t know what to expect, but afterward, the teacher gave a brief overview of the course. He mentioned how it was rigorous and demanding course, and it would prepare us for college-level courses, such as developing our speaking skills and helping us receive college credits. We focused on teaching the class about the content, which was good opportunity to defeat my fear. At this point, I had to get over my fear of presenting in front of others, but the thought of it tortured me. All I could think of was my 10-year-old self speechlessly standing in front of many students with so

They are times I would sit and think of suicidal thoughts because I thought why God would let this happen to me. They are times I would feel alone and I would ask myself why lord? Why me??? Why can't I have a normal life? I finally decided to get help but it wasn't for long because I was informed this therapy was only for little kids. I never seem to give up on myself. Even when I didn't get the full therapy session, but somehow it gives me hope. The same hope that my therapist gives me in would like to do the same thing by majoring in speech pathology and Nursing. Whether its children's that have different speech impediment whether it is stuttering, lisps. I don't want any children's to feel alone just because they have difficulties expressing themselves. I believe that every child should be heard no matter what speech problem that you have. I want to make a change in children's life and let them know they are not

At first I could barely project my voice for the entire hornline to hear, I was always self conscious and afraid of messing up. My public speaking skills were questionable at best and my fear of messing up in front of everyone made them even worse. Dealing with my eight person section(including myself) wasn’t as taxing but relaying instructions effectively was my biggest problem. Teaching new material as well as

When I was in the second grade we had a new student in our class named Yvonne. Yvonne had recently arrived from Haiti and knew very little English. Due to the fact that she didn’t understand English a whole lot, the other kids in my class thought it would be funny to call her names and bully her. One day we were at electives. Our class was divided into two, some going to Dance others going to Drama. The doors were across from each other so we could see what was happening. I was in Dance, as well as Yvonne. We were practicing our routine for Ciara’s “1, 2 step”. Yvonne was quick to pick up the dance and was amazing at it, which I think made the other kids in our class resent her. Our instructor dismissed us 5 minutes early to pack up our things. I quickly went to my corner and grabbed my backpack. When I looked up I saw a bunch of girls surrounding Yvonne. I remember hearing them calling her names like ‘ugly’ and ‘loser’. I noticed that no one moved to defend her. One of the girls actually pushed her to the ground and took her backpack dumping all her things on the floor; that’s when I acted. I pushed my way through the girls and placed myself in front of Yvonne. I grabbed her backpack out of the girl’s hand pushed her and called her a ‘mean witch for making fun of Yvonne’. I also told the other girls that if they messed with Yvonne, they would have to

When I was a toddler my parents discovered that I could not form words the way most children do. I was capable of making sounds, but I could never communicate my thoughts fully. After a visit to the doctor, they decided I had childhood apraxia of speech. Many children are diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech, and with therapy they can learn to speak like children unaffected by apraxia. After my therapy I spoke the same way all of my classmates spoke, but I still had shy tendencies that would often get the better of me. I began taking dance lessons, and a few years later I began auditioning for community theatre. After not getting cast in multiple productions, I finally had a chance to be in a musical. I quickly fell in love with theatre

It was the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning. I remember being excited for this day because I did not have school, and, like most six year olds, I loved to watch cartoons every Saturday morning. As I watched, however, my father came into my room, and instructed me to put on my clothes and prepare to go to the doctor’s office. I immediately became excited as I loved to go and visit my pediatrician. When we arrived there however, it was not the doctor I anticipated. It was a speech therapist. While I did not realize why I was there, my doctor explained that she was going to help me with my stutter. Being a kindergartener at the time, I was not bullied or picked on for my stutter. However, as I got older, my classmates started to point it out

Starting elementary school, I was a very shy child which worked against me when it came to our class readings. Each student took turns reading sections of the stories our teacher provided, with me being so shy I often read quietly. I recall many times when my teacher asked me to speak up so others could understand what I was reading which most time I was embarrassed but ultimately led me to leaving my comfort zone. As middle school approached I felt scared but also prepared. My brother told me horror stories about his middle school experience which included doing speeches and reading papers he wrote aloud to his class. That frightened me enough to spend most of my summer preparing. I read five books that I can recall that summer and I also practiced my brother’s old vocabulary words. I went into the school year

December 8th 2012 began the battle of finding my voice and becoming more confident. It was the first day of Hanukah and I was looking forward to lighting the menorah with my moms. However, this was also the weekend I needed to visit my father. Cancelling was an issue because I am not very good at handling angry people, especially when they accuse or insult me. I immediately started to panic at the thought of what my father would say and how he would respond, knowing that he would not be happy. With a sudden burst of confidence, I dialed his number and waited patiently for him to pick up. Throughout the conversation, I was able to defend myself and my moms, staying persistent and confident while talking to him and not allowing him to take advantage of me. I had not only boosted my confidence that day, but also realized that I would not stand for people being rude to me, my friends or my family.

I rarely spoke at a volume that startled people or echoed across the room without my legs shaking. However, the moment came in my middle school 8th grade art class where my inner voice finally spoke out loud at a volume that made people listen to me. It was the day my friend and I were targeted for speaking Spanish in the classroom. A student had commented that we were “wetbacks” and that we should speak English while the class laughed in the background. What surprised me more was my art teacher’s passivity and direction for us to stop speaking Spanish. While I heard these comments before, I could not let it go when the teacher, a figure who I respected as part of the academic institution, had made it okay for others to treat my friend and I in such a manner. I declared to the class that I will not stop speaking Spanish and I turned around to ask the teacher a simple “Why?” I wanted to why she said to stop and why she did not direct her comments at the other students instead. I stepped outside of the classroom and the teacher apologized. While this experience led me to advocate for myself, I still was not at the level where I could advocate for others. It was not until I entered college that I met an English professor that become my mentor and helped me find and refine my

When I was failing my reading class I tried to do as much as I possibly could. I went to tutoring to do missing work. Although, I only had a C in that class for like the entire year, that's all that matter to me because I was passing. I tried to turn things on time, which I mostly did expect when I was gone for the day. When I didn’t understand something I’d ask for help, which I had a big problem with asking for help in the beginning of the year because it made me feel dense. But now I know, it’s okay to ask for help because it doesn’t mean you’re dull it means you actually want to learn. I never really got over my fear of public speaking, but I have been working on it. Which I feel is better than not doing anything about my public speaking phobia. Instead of letting myself get a bad grade, I actually try to speak in front of the class, and I feel like I’ve a huge improvement doing