STOP COMMERCIALIZATION OF STAMMERING

Sir,
 Stammering is a very sensitive issue. One who suffers from it can feel the pain of it.
With due respect it is very sad to say that the stammering center present in our country only use to attract others with their advertisement to stammering people. When read by a person about their ads, the whole scenario of living their future in a different way through treatment is strongly felt by them. But the reality is that the total intentions of such centers is towards profit and money instead to cure the suffering patient.
A stammering center (not mentioning name) shows through their ads that they can treat a patient 100% in 14 days which is totally a cheat to a person. It is totally unfair too.
Another issue is the costly practicing materials in which two books of 100 pages each and 3 CD's of 15 - 20 minutes are sold for Rs 4000. For an average people it is too expensive and out of his/her budget to cure stammering.
After receiving a certain amount they don't give a fair attention to their patients and wastes a lots- n -lots of time. Oonce the person leaves the center they don't care to have any kind of follow up with them.
I spent an amount of Rs 15000(on my treatment) whereas my friends spent Rs 20000-25000  but their is no sufficient result !!
Today their is lack of awareness and stammering people is wandering from place to place in search to cure themselves.
Let's organise a camp or a workshop which maybe under small scale through which more and more people should be in profit through it.
thanking you

Ed: Dr. Vijay Singh (vijaysinghdr95 at gmail dot com) is a medical doctor and pws, working under NHRM in Gorakhpur and his letter above is based on his true experiences.

Best Speech Therapy, ever!!

I called up Dr Sachin this morning to discuss the schedule for Delhi workshop. As it turned out, he was facing another IT challenge. To me, it seems like he is facing more challenges in IT than in communication!! I agreed to help him and we planned a voice chat on gtalk along with a simultaneous session on teamviewer.

As I was guiding him around, instructing him to try out a few things (while watching him perform them :-), I was finding it a bit challenging and at the same time a lot of fun to first decide the probable sequence of steps that may solve the problem and then articulate in a way that he will understand and if it doesn't work then try again with a new approach.

Even though we were not able to completely solve the problem; at the end I requested him to contact me in case of any IT related issues and I would be more than happy to help him over, as I found it a bit challenging and exciting. And I plan to offer free IT troubleshooting with prior appointments from here on!

Think about it - you may also offer similar services and will get a chance to work on your communication in a REAL situation while helping someone out. It could be anything ranging from career counselling, Tax consultancy, helping people buy an automobile or just lending an ear as counsellor. I will try to create a page on this blog where you will be able to post the services that you offer along with you contact details. If you plan to use this as a speech therapy exercise or to expand your comfort zone, please send an email to - info(at_the_rate_of)stammer.in and we will add your details to it!

The Big Decision

As a child,I didn't know about the various stuttering treatments available to the pws and just though it was all about speaking slowly .That's it.As I grew up and with the introduction of internet in my life,I became more aware about the vast research being done in this area.It wasn't just slow talk,it was much more than that.But the more i researched,the more confusing it became.There were a number of techniques available like -Fluency Shaping,Stuttering Modification,Neuro-Linguistic,Yoga,Meditation,etc.etc.So the big question was-How the hell was I going to decide what approach to follow.So this article is dedicated to help you decide which approach is the best for you.Here are a few pointers:-

1)Awareness-Being aware on what is going on in the stuttering world is very very important.You cant just jump to a decision to go to any speech therapist just because he is promising you a cure.So before even thinking about therapy,you should research what stuttering is all about and then read about all the approaches together with their advantages and shortcomings.Then,with this knowledge in hands,contact the therapist and have a detailed conversation with him inquiring about the approach he will follow and what activities would be under taken both inside and outside the clinic.Don't just surrender yourself to him and give him the wads of cash.The more detailed the conversation,the better decision you would be able to make.

2)Know your problem-It is not just enough to say that I stammer severely,that's it.You should be aware of your physiological and psychological aspects of your stammer.To know exactly how you can do it visit this link where stuttering jack explains the stuttering scale and then visit this link to help you chose your therapy type according to your scale.

Now having chosen your approach,there are a few more pointers to make sure you can get the most out of the therapy:-
1)Only you can recover your stutter-The biggest mistake one can make during therapy is that he/she now doesn't need to do much work and it is the therapist's headache now,The therapist can just guide you and become your support system but its you who has to do all the work.Practicing the technique and then opening up to the outside world,that all depends on you.You have to help yourself.

2)You will fail a lot of times-The biggest thing that used to bother me(actually it still does) was the fear of failure.You need to understand that you will fail a million times before you can successfully apply a technique.Treat this process as a video game.You can't finish all the stages on the first try.You play,you die,you start all over,then die again,then start all over again.The same applies to stammering.You need to take it as a game and be prepared to start all over whenever you fail.

3)Make the process light-I always beat myself after a stuttering incident.This worsens the recovery process.Force yourself to be happy after an unsuccessful situation and it will slowly begin to work.The more relaxed you would be post a stuttering situation,the faster you will progress.

So,I hope I have been a little help to you in choosing the right therapy.See ya till next time !!!!!!!:-)