How can you tell a person you've just met is going to stutter? Well, you can't. You're caught off guard when it happens.
Unknowingly, many well-intentioned people will just say the last thing someone who has a stuttering problem wants to hear. That would be, "Relax!", "Take it easy" or something along those lines.
If only it were that simple. Stuttering, also called stammering, isn't a psychological disorder. It is not caused by anxiety or nervousness. It can, however, worsen when the stutterer gets pressure from hurried listeners.
As one stutterer put it: "The problem isn't that I can't talk fluently, but that you can't listen patiently."
So, what should you do when communicating with someone who stutters? Here are some tips offered by Gan Hui Hui and Robyn Foo, speech therapists from the Speech Therapy Department at Singapore General Hospital (SGH).
Listen up, because 1 per cent of the population stutters. You're bound to encounter a stutterer, probably a "he", as four times more males than females have this speech impediment.
- Let the person finish.
Wait patiently and politely for them to continue speaking at their own time.
Avoid finishing off the person's sentences or words. This can be very frustrating for the person who has a stutter.
Related article: Is stuttering normal in preschoolers?
- Maintain the connection.
Keep appropriate facial expression and maintain eye-to-eye contact (don't look away). It shows that you respect them and that you're listening to what they're saying.
- Don't exclude the stutterer from the conversation.
People with a stuttering problem may be slow in expressing their ideas, but you can be sure that they will go straight to the point.
- Don't make assumptions about the stutterer's intelligence and emotional state.
Stutterers are not lower in intelligence. They don't lack confidence, nor are they unsure what to say. Stuttering is a physical disorder that involves the loss of fine control and coordination of the speech muscles.
Related article: 10 little known facts about voice
- Don't make fun of the way the person speaks, for example, by mimicking the stutter.
Yes, there are people this rude, and no, it won't lighten up the situation. Some will just burst out laughing out of sheer panic and embarrassment. Just recognise that facing a stutterer can confront you to your own fears of speaking failure.
