FRIENDS Stuttering Presentation Guide by John Ahlbach

The following Stuttering Presentation Guide, written by John Ahlbach co-founder of FRIENDS: An Association For Young People Who Stutter is reproduced below with permission.

FRIENDS wants to encourage and guide you in talking about your experience with stuttering to your class, your church group, your Boy or Girl Scout troop, or any other group of which you may be a part. What follows is why and how to do that. What if our hair turned green periodically? Imagine if we had a unique disorder that caused our hair to turn green every once in a while. Perhaps it would happen once a week, or once a day, or five times a day. In any case, we rarely knew for sure when it would happen. The question is, should we keep our green hair disorder a secret? Could we keep it a secret? Should we wear a hat all the time? Could we wear a hat all the time? Should we not talk about our green hair to anyone, neither our parents, our siblings, our relatives, our friends, nor people we happen to meet? Would that draw more or less attention to it? Would that make it easier or harder to be who we are in spite of this hair problem? I think it is obvious that talking about our green hair would make things easier. First, we could talk about what the causes and nature of it were: that it may be genetic, for example; that it happens more on some days than on other days; or that it may be the result of the lack of a certain chemical in our brain. Second, we could describe what it feels like to have this happen to us: how hard it is sometimes to have the disorder; how embarrassing it is sometimes; and, last but not least, we could describe some of the humorous aspects of it, and tell some funny stories about the green hair experience. Stuttering is much like this. It only happens to a few of us, and it is as much our fault as hair that spontaneously changes color. It is a challenge life has given us, and we just don't have control over it all the time.

Also, stuttering strikes many people as strange -- perhaps not as strange as green hair, but strange nonetheless. And it makes as much sense to try to keep it a secret! Why should you make a presentation about stuttering.

1. There is nothing good about hiding your stuttering. While stuttering is a scary experience, and it is only natural for us to want to avoid doing it, we only makes things worse for ourselves when we try to hide it.
   
   For one thing, it doesn't work. We cannot avoid it all the time. It does not make sense to live in fear that someone "will find out that we stutter." They will find out sooner or later, so why should we not be the one to tell them honestly and openly that we stutter. Then we can relax because we do not have that "secret" to keep anymore. It won't take the stuttering away, but it will make it easier. If the people we are talking to know that we stutter, and especially if they know because we have told them, it takes the pressure off of us. We don't have to pretend we talk just like everyone else anymore, and it gives people a chance to understand us and our stuttering.
   
   And, hey, if you get up to present a report on stuttering, you don't have to worry so much about stuttering before that group. You can feel free to do it -- you're, in effect, just modeling what you are talking about.
   
   
2. Stuttering is the thing we know the most about. One thing we can say stuttering does for us is it gives us an experience we can "teach" others about. We can become experts in it because we already know what it feels like. We cannot say this about our knowledge of insects, the American Revolution, or any other subject we might report on.
   
   
3. People will respect us after we present our stuttering to them. The young people we know who have given presentations about their stuttering report that the most common reaction their peers have is one of respect for them. "Wow!" many have said, "you have a lot of courage to get up and talk about your stuttering like that. I don't know if I could do that." They will respect your honesty and your knowledge about the problem of stuttering.
   
   
4. It will most probably silence anyone who has teased you about your stuttering. Teasing is tough to deal with. You can try to ignore it but that doesn't always make the person stop teasing you, at least right away. If you, however, get up and openly talk about your stuttering, it does not leave much for that person to tease you about, does it? We are teased because some person feels lousy about who he or she is, and wants us to feel bad or embarrassed, too. They also want to make public something we are trying to hide. Well, once you have "announced" your stuttering to your peers, it should take all the fun out of teasing you for that person.
   
   AND, you might gain allies in your battle with that teaser. It is very possible that your other peers will come to your aid when you are teased. They might say to the person trying to tease you: "Hey, Freddie, didn't you listen to Tom's report? He cannot control his stuttering all the time. We think he's pretty cool because he knows so much about it. What do you know a lot about? Maybe you should try stuttering so you would know what it feels like?"
   
   
5. Stuttering is a fascinating subject young people --and old ones, too -- will be interested in. Besides liking your presentation because they will respect you for doing it, your audience will also be interested in what you have to say. There are some very interesting aspects to the experience of stuttering. You can talk about the many famous people, past and present, who have stuttered, for example. (See the "What to Talk About" section below.)

• Stuttering runs in families. There is a very good chance that there will be at least two people in the family who stutter, perhaps one of your parents does or did growing up, or maybe an uncle or cousin.
  
  
• If one identical twin stutters, the chances are 80% that the other will stutter, too. If one fraternal twin (non-identical) stutters, the chances are only about 20%. This indicates that stuttering is something in our physical make up, a "tendency" we are born with, not something that we learn or something we do because we are "nervous." If being nervous caused people to stutter, a lot more people would be doing it all the time. A good way to explain this is to say: "I do not stutter because I am nervous, but I do get nervous when I begin to stutter. Wouldn't you?"
  
  
• About one percent of the people in the world stutter. This is true for every culture. No culture stutters more or less than any other.
  
  
• Boys outnumber girls who stutter about five to one. This is the same gender ratio we see for disorders like dyslexia, too.
  
  
• Some people will stutter a lot and some not so much, but all people who stutter report having good days and bad days. (You can talk about how this is true for you here.)
  
  
• Stuttering seems to have something to do with how we hear ourselves. In fact, when we cannot hear ourselves, we do not stutter. A device called the Edinburg Masker demonstrates this. It puts a "noise" in your ears when your vocal chords begin to vibrate. The stuttering will not occur for most people who stutter when it is on, even for people with the most severe stuttering.
  
  
• We will also not stutter when we are speaking in chorus with someone else (even someone else who stutters), nor when we whisper or sing or are talking to ourselves when we are alone.
  
  
• Various methods have been used to treat stuttering throughout history. One German doctor in the 1840's thought the tongue was to large in people who stutter and surgically removed part of it for some desperate people - it didn't work. Some experts have had people not talk for long periods of time (perhaps thinking they would forget that they stuttered). Some have had people talk to the beat of a metronome or to make a figure-eight with their finger when they talked. Another had people eating carrots.

  We encourage you to do your own research about stuttering, too.

3) Talk about the famous people who have stuttered. We encourage you to use the FRIENDS poster in your presentation. In fact, if you are doing a presentation and do not have a FRIENDS poster, we will send you one FREE. Just contact Lee Caggiano at 145 Hayrick Lane, Commack, NY 11725 (516-499-7504). Not only that, but we will send you one FRIENDS postcard (each depicts one person on the poster) for everyone in your audience. You can give everyone a souvenir of your presentation. Lee can send you those, too. You can talk about the people on it and quote from their messages for young people. One thing to point out is how many different walks of life are presented there, from actors to writers (a lot of writers) to poets to athletes to photographers to film producers to artists. Here is a list of some of the famous people from the past who have stuttered. You might type this out and pass it out to your class or group:

Moses (Read the story of Moses and the Burning Bush in Exodus)
Aesop
Demosthenes (famous Greek orator)
Vergil
Aristotle
Isaac Newton
King Charles I of England
Erasmus Darwin (an eminent physician and grandfather of Charles Darwin)
Charles Darwin
Charles Lamb
Winston Churchill
Lewis Carroll (author of Alice in Wonderland)
Somerset Maugham
Kim Philby (British spy)
Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross)
Marilyn Monroe
King George VI of England

Contemporary people who stutter include:
Mrs. Annie Glenn (Wife of senator and astronaut John Glenn)
James Earl Jones (The voice of Darth Vador was "almost mute" until he was 10 years old. He still stutters when, for example, he is giving an interview.)
Bruce Willis
Eric Roberts
Carly Simon
Greg Luganis (American diver)
Lester Hayes (former NFL defensive back)
Senator Joseph Biden
Rep. Frank Wolf
Peggy Lipton (Actress)
Jimmy Stewart (Actor)
John Updike (perhaps America's most respected novelist)
Rowan Atkinson (the actor who portrays Mr. Bean)
Bo Jackson
Chris Zorich (NFL lineman)
Ken Venturi (golfer who won U.S. Open in 1964)
Ron Harper (guard for the World Champion Chicago Bulls)
John Stossel (ABC 20/20 reporter)
Dave Taylor (former L.A. Kings star)
Bob Love (five-time NBA All-Star with Chicago Bulls)
Robert Heinlein (great science fiction writer)
David Shields (gifted young American novelist)
Sam Neill (Australian actor - Jurassic Park)
Jake Eberts (producer of such films as Dances with Wolves and Gandhi.
Margaret Drabble (British novelist)
Bill Walton (NBA star and now sports broadcaster)
P.F. Bentley (Time-Life photographer)

There is a more complete list in the back of the Listen With Your Heart book.

4) Take a survey of the attitudes about stuttering of your class or audience or any group of people. Either a couple of days before your presentation or at the end of it, have people fill out a survey, the results of which you can report on in Reaching Out. You may also just pass it out to a random group of people before you present and make the results part of your presentation. People are always interested how their attitudes relate to those of others. Your survey may also highlight some of the myths that people have about stuttering (for example, that it is a "psychological" problem that "nervous" people exhibit). Here are some sample questions you might ask:

• What do you think causes stuttering?
• Do you think it runs in families?
• Do you know someone who stutters?
• What percentage of the population stutters: 10% / 5% / 1% / Less than 1%?
• Who stutters more, boys or girls, or is there no difference?
• Can you name any famous people who stutter?
• Do some cultures or ethnic groups stutter more than others?
• Has stuttering always been around, or did it just start happening in modern times?
• Do all people who stutter, stutter in the same way and to the same degree?
• Do people who stutter, stutter when they sing, too?
• If you stutter, are there some jobs you cannot do?
• Could a person who stutters become president of the United States?
• What advice would you give a person who stutters?
• Does Porky Pig make people who stutter seem stupid, clumsy and not very coordinated?
• Can you think of a film that had someone who stuttered in it? If so, what did you think of that person? Was it realistic?
• Can stuttering be cured?
• Is stuttering a disability, like being visually, hearing or physically impaired?
  

5) When you are finished with your presentation on stuttering, write us about it so we can put your experience in Reaching Out. This will encourage others to make such presentations. Tell us what it felt like to make the report. Were you very scared beforehand? How did it feel during it? What were the reactions of your class or group? What did your teacher or leader say? How do you feel now compared to before the presentation? If you took a survey, what were the results and what did you learn from them?

6) Suggested Readings: In order to prepare for your stuttering presentation -- or to ease your mind about it -- we suggest the following from Listen With Your Heart:

• "A Speech to Fifth Grade" by Alyssa Young
• "I Slowly Got Up" by Vlad Tchekanov
• "I Chose Stuttering" by Gino Sarti
• "What I Taught My Teachers About Stuttering" by Maggie Hansen
• "Levi's Math Teacher" by Debbie Zorn Further, we suggest you read the articles in the December, 1998, Reaching Out by Peter Reitzes and John Ahlbach. Remember: We will send you a FRIENDS poster and as many FRIENDS postcards as you want for your presentation.