ADVISE FOR YOUNG PWS…..HOW TO CHOOSE A SPEECH THRAPY

A
third pws asking that everyone was telling that speech therapy would not give
100% cure. So the younger pws were confused so much that which path they have
to choose. 

Acceptance
of stammering is required to get rid of pws fear & shame. Then only, his mind
would be free and can do any speech practice with 100% dedication. Even after
completion of practicing period & started speaking fluently, due to some
neurological problem, he may stammer after few years. Since he had accepted his
stammering, he didn’t get depressed. To my opinion, simply accepting stammering
without doing anything, a pws speech may not be improved much. 

Coming
to speech therapy, a false impression was created in India that it was not
possible to overcome stammering by speech therapy. To my opinion, SLPs in India
were teaching slow reading with prolongation technique as speech therapy. Also
whenever some pws were talking about curing of stammering by speech therapy,
one section of pws always telling that it was not possible to cure stammering
100% and always putting negative thoughts on other pws minds. 

My
question is, what was wrong if a pws achieved 98-99% fluency. Was it not better
than 80 or 90% fluency. 
WHICH
IS THE BEST SPEECH THERAPY :

This
is the question every pws was asking. Yesterday I received the above question
from a few pws on the following lines 

1. I
am practicing prolongation & slow speaking.

2. I
am practicing slow reading with head movements for one hour

3. I
am practicing prolongation & bouncing techniques. 

4. I
am practicing your speech therapy. 

5.
Whether one year is sufficient to overcome stammering? 

6. I
heard that there is no cure for stammering, but now you are telling that it can
be cured 99%, hence I got confused. 

7. At
AIIMS, DELHI  the speech therapist taught me only slow reading with
prolongation technique with head movement.  I was doing it for a few
months, found improvement in the speech. But I got confused after reading your
posts. 

In
this connection, I wish to inform that it’s my duty to clear everyone’s doubts. 

Like
everyone, I was also having of questions & confusions on which was the best
speech therapy. 

Before
attending Mr. Bala’s course, I had also attended two speech therapy at Chennai
. Both were slow speaking with prolongation technique . After attending one of
the speech therapy, they informed me that I became a normal speaker, because I
have spoken very well  in the comfort zone. When I came out of the center,
I could not order “Tea”  in a nearby tea shop. I blocked
severely on the word “Tea”. That time I thought it was waste of time
& money only and no cure for stammering. 

Then,
I have attended Mr. Bala’s speech therapy in the year 2001, a 5 days in house
course. After the course, he advised everyone to practice the speech therapy
for one year. I also sincerely practiced for 6 months, started speaking really
well. I had given a 10 lecture at my office training centre with head movements
and without any blocks. Everyone appreciated my speech that time. There only, I
got some hope that there was a way out to overcome stammering. 

But
due to sudden illness, I could not practice for the next 15 days, which
resulted stammering badly again. Afterwards, somehow I lost interest and
discontinued practicing speech therapy . 

TISA
was formed in the year 2008. I started Chennai chapter on Jan”2009 with
much fanfare. About 100 pws were attended along with 2 English, one Tamil
dailies & one Tamil TV  channel. 

I was
very much elated by these events. I also liked TISA  acceptance concept.
Hence, I started conducting weekly SHG  meetings from 2009 onwards with
more importance on acceptance concept. 

But
steadily, the attendance of the subsequent meetings started decreasing. As
there was no fixed TISA centre those days , we have to pay around Rs.1000 per
meeting at YWCA guest house. 

Because
of the high cost and less attendance, I changed the weekly meetings into
monthly meetings. Even then, only 6 to 8 members were used to attend the
meeting. 

Because
of more office work pressure, I was not able to find out the ways & means
to improve the strength of SHG meetings.

Then,
I decided to go on voluntary retirement due to my health condition &
applied for it also. It was due on Sept ‘2013 and the Delhi NC scheduled to be
held on 3-5 Oct’ 2013. I have already decided to attend the NC as I attended
the previous two NCs. 

I
relieved from Government service in the Sept month end and I had attended Delhi
NC. At the Delhi NC,  I met Mr. Tarak from Bangalore and told about my
future plan of starting a permanent TISA  centre at Chennai in s flat
owned by me at Kotturpurm to serve pws. 

Mr.
Tarak welcomed my idea, but suggested to improve upon my speech first, as I
stammered more at that time.

The
reason he told me was, since you were going to be  the in-charge of the
centre, you should speak well first, though need not 100% fluently, but fairly
well. Then only, the pws coming to your centre would have faith on you continue
to come to the center . 

Then,
I told to Mr. Tarak about Mr. Bala’s speech therapy that I took and reasons for
discontinued it. He encouraged me to start practicing it again. 

Meanwhile,
the Chennai centre was inaugurated on 9th of December ‘2013. Subsequently, 1st
TISA  whatsapp group was started on 1st of January’ 2014. 

From
1st Jan onwards, I also started practicing speech therapy. 

Two
whatsapp groups were formed in January. Subsequently one each in February,
March &April were formed . I have also uploaded my practicing videos to all
the groups. 

Upto
March end (1st 3 months), I practiced  speech therapy for one  hour
in the mornings. Then, I myself revived my speech at the end of March, which
was not satisfactory to me.

Then,
I started doing some research on stammering as lot of time is available now at
my disposal after my retirement. 

Slowly,
I started understanding about PHYSICAL changes that taken place in a pws
speaking system due to some minor neurological problem by birth & continued
stammering by him over many years. 

(i)
pws was shallow breather & hence not using his full lungs capacity. Also he
was not giving enough pausing. More & more he become shallow breathers, he
blocks more & more compared to nomal pws. 
(ii)
pws was not fully utilizing his speech mechanism  for fear of stammering. 
(iii)
pws was always speaking fast. 
(iv)
pws seldom uses his body language including the important head movements. 
(v)
All the physical activities of a pws was always faster than a normal person’s
activities. 

So, a
pws to speak well,  has to practice speech therapy which take care of all
the above five problems. 

The
speech therapy (invented by Mr. Andrew Bell of Scotland) which I learned from
Mr. Bala addresses all the above five problems. The sequence of this speech
therapy actions &it’s benefits were described below. 

1st
bend down & take a deep breath (breathing exercise) , then move the head up
& down for the pronouncing 1st two syllables with maximum  mouth
opening (exercise to speech mechanism) and moving the hesd left & right
ways for the rest of the syllables (head movements).

Since
only one syllable has to be pronounced for one head movement, he has to wait
for sometime to pronounce the next syllable (speech speed has been controlled
by this way). Since all the activities in the above speech therapy were slow in
nature, after practicing this speech therapy about one hour, a pws all physical
activities would also slowed down (slowing down of physical activities) 

So,
all the five problems were very well taken care of by this speech therapy . As
I already stated, even after 3 months of my speech therapy, my speech
improvement was not satisfactory to me. 1st, I thought of this was due to my
age factor. But immediately, I dismissed this idea as I did not wanted to
excuse myself on age factor. 

Then
something struck on my mind. Leaving 8 hrs sleeping, & one hr practicing
period, in the balance 15 hrs, I was not doing any acto to overcome stammering. 

Weekly
5 days, I used to go to Chennai centre. The time taken for one way journey is
one hour (15 min bus + 30 min train + 15 min walk). For both up & down
journey, the total time taken is 2 hours. I decided to make use of these 2 hour
for practicing silent speech therapy. I started practicing silent speech
therapy from April onwards. I have already posted about silent speech therapy
to all the groups one month before. 

I also
started extensively used head movements throughout the day while both
speaking & listening. 

Then
at Chennai centre, I started practicing slow writing also for 30 minutes
whenever I got free time. 

I have
started all the above three activities simultaneously from the 1st week of
April onwards. 

From
the 3rd week of April, I started speaking really well and improving day by day. 

From
the 1st week of May onwards , I started speaking 98% fluently. The best part
was I could able to tell by name very calmly, clearly & authoritatively
wherever it was asked. I could take bus ticket also without stammering. Now
ordering food at restaurants was a pleasure for me. I used to chat extensively
with the bearer about speciality of food in the hotel, about today’s special
etc. Hitherto, my wife used to give orders for me. For any pws, the above three
activities were really an acid tests . I hope I succeeded well in all the above
tests . 

In a
nutshell, 
(i)
one hr speech therapy in the mornings. 
(ii) 1
to 2 hours of silent speech therapy. 
(iii)
Maximum use of head movements throughout the day while both speaking &
listening. 
(iv)
30 minutes slow writing if possible. 
(v)
Slowing down physical activities such as walking, eating, drinking, reading
etc. 

Though
the above list seems to be lengthy, you have to spare one hour only in the
mornings for speech therapy. For practicing other activities, you can do it on
a piecemeal basis, whenever you gw free time.

Though
you have to practice above activities for a minimum period of one year, you can
start observing your speech improvements after 2 to 3 months of practicing.

After
enjoying the speech improvement, nothing could stop you from practicing till
you attains fluent speech. 

Five
months were passed since the commencement of whatsapp groups. We were in the
middle of the 6th month (June ’14). 

So far
4 members at Chennai showed lot of improvements. Another 4 members from North
India spoken to me very well informing that they had improved a lot after
practicing speech therapy. (but honestly, I don’t know their level of
stammering prior to speech practicing.) 

I have
already planned at the formation of whatsapp groups to convene an all India
whatsapp groups meeting at Chennai after completion of one year. 

I have
planned to convene a meeting at Chennai in the last week of January’ 2015 if
everything goes well and of course if God willing also. 

My
plan was to make ready about 25 members to speak fluently in the meeting in
front of media explaining how these members learned speech therapy through
whatsapp groups without spending anything and speaking fluently. 

Hence,
I request all the members especially the younger generation to do speech
therapy for one year, overcome their stammering and enjoy the life fully. I
wasted 57 years of life by choosing so many paths but came back to the starting
place only. After 57 years only, I had chosen a right path to overcome stammering. 

Some
of the members sending messages like (1) I completed 30 minutes of slow reading
practice (2) I have completed 30 minutes meditation etc. For those members, I
wish to inform that they may have marginal improvement in their speech, but to
overcome stammering speech therapy is a must.

Here I
also wish to inform one more thing.  I was not telling that Mr. Andrew
Bell’s speech therapy is the best one. You can choose any speech therapy, but
it should should addresses all the five issues that I stated earlier. 

Finally,
I thank you all by sparing considerable amount of time by reading this very
lengthy message. 

I will
be very happy if all the members understand this message & starts
practicing some kind of speech therapy, successfully overcome their stammering
and started enjoying life fully. . 

I
hope, I have done my part to the best of my knowledge. It’s up to the members
to take further necessary action. 

Any
suggestions, comments & clarifications are always welcome.