Speech Therapy and the NHS

I once read the same book over and over again. It was a book aimed at the 7-10 age range. I was 15 years old. This is ironic because when I was 7 years old I was told I had a reading age of 13. Confused? The book was full of simple words that I had to read aloud. And I had to read them aloud fluently, again and again. This was speech therapy when I was younger. Very, very boring and not something I looked forward to. Given such easy material to read it was a doddle for me to be fluent. But once you got me out of that room I was stuttering again. So what was the point? I think I went to appease my parents. I also had a slight crush on my Speech Therapist. She spoke in a slow, affected, delicate Scottish brogue. It was beautiful. When I turned 16 I decided not to bother going. My speech was something I would have to deal with for the rest of my life.

Gareth Gates? Remember him? I didn't rate his music but his stutter brought it to the public attention and my local paper ran an article about modern speech therapy. I wasn't sold on the quick cure method where your whole voice is changed from inflection to speaking in scattergun sentences. But this seemed different. I went one afternoon with an open mind. I was just hoping I wouldn't be reading Janet and John books! I sat down and just had a conversation. Little did I know that Linda (my therapist) was taking mental notes of my blocks and tics and knew exactly what she was talking about. It was so refreshing and uplifting. Any misconceptions I had were blown away by the sheer professionalism. Bear in mind this was also on the NHS so was essentially a free service.

The techniques she taught me were fantastic and seemed so obvious. I still use them to this day without even knowing about it. They come naturally to me. I could have spent thousands of pounds for private speech therapy but I will big up the NHS and the fantastic staff that work there. Speech Therapy has come on in leaps and bounds in my lifetime never mind generations. I highly recommend a consultation if you have a stutter.