The stuttering child

I started to stutter at the age of four. The fact that I developed this form of speech impediment was quite a shock for my parents, they could not believe that their youngest child was unable to speak fluently. To say that they were concerned would be an under-statement.

 

From what I have been told there has not been a single member of my family who has had any problems with stuttering and everybody was at a loss to understand as to why I had developed the stutter.

 

I found school to be one huge choir, why could I not be like everybody else - fluent? This was a question that I asked myself on many occasions.

 

There were plenty of people who enjoyed mocking me, others who would even pretend that they had a stutter, this was a further way of making fun of me. I found it hard to contribute to the classroom discussions and basically became a very quiet person.

 

 

Other people presumed that I was just shy, in a way I was but the real Steve was just bursting to come out.  

 

School was not a pleasant experience for me and I could not wait to leave. At the age of sixteen I did leave school hoping that this would lead to some improved experiences, how wrong could I be?

 

The social side of childhood was made all the more harder by the stutter. Where as most of my friends would be at the park or in the social club on the weekends, I would prefer to stay at home.

 

Some people may think that this would be quite a lonely existance but I have to admit that I actually quite liked it.

 

I have now been fluent for the last eleven years and still love to spend time alone, the fact that I have a couple of kids means that this is not always possibe.