All India Institute for Speech and Hearing, Mysore

It was nice to meet some of you on Sunday at Nikhil’s office. As
requested by some of you, I am sending the information about AIISH,
Mysore to the group.

Disclaimer: I would say as with most things your mileage may vary. The
sessions there have helped me through my late teens and now into my
early 30s. I am not associated with the institute in any way, either
financially or otherwise and have nothing to gain by people going
there or not.

AIISH: All India Institute for Speech and Hearing, Mysore, Karnataka.
http://www.aiishmysore.com/en/index.html
A training institute for Speech and hearing professionals (stammering
being one of the subjects or specialties under speech fluency
disorders). They offer BSc and MSc courses for people studying to be
speech and hearing therapists.

As a part of their extension program, and to help students gain real
world experience, the institute offers subsidized even free therapy
for people in all age groups.

Process:
You go there on a Monday morning at 9 am (when the classes are in
session). As a part of the standard process you get evaluated by
different departments. There is a schedule then drawn out depending
upon your needs and availability. The sessions (45 minutes each) are
held on Monday to Friday between 9 am and 5 pm. The sessions are led
by BSc or MSc students under supervision of their teachers. The
supervision is done by evaluation before the start of the sessions,
during and at the end of the duration.

Accommodation and transport could be a problem for a non-Mysore native
to attend multi-week sessions. There is a youth hostel about 0.5 km
away (http://www.yhmysore.com/). I have not used this and have no
direct experience. There paying guest and room to rent accommodations
available from a 1-3 km radius. Local buses run frequently and there
are rickshaws available.

My experience:
I had been there in 1993, 1995 and 2010. I stayed in Mysore for 2-4
weeks each time, had about 1-3 sessions (each about 45 minutes) each
day at the speech fluency department (was taught techniques including
slow speech – and a bit about bouncing technique) and the clinical
psychology department (focusing on situational confidence techniques
and relaxation techniques). These have helped me a lot. Personal
practice over the years has not been steady. With neglecting my
personal speech and confidence related exercises, my speech has gone
through bad cycles.

In my experience (over the 3), the quality of the students differs –
from very good to average.

As mentioned above these periods of of 2-4 weeks I was staying at
Mysore, and had to focus on only speech through the day – 3-4 hours at
the institute, followed by assignments that were about 2-4 hours each
day. I was able to focus on various languages English, Hindi, Tamil
(my mother tongue), and Marathi. Groups from 1 person to groups of 10
people have grilled me to simulate pressure in various languages.

What the institute recommends is to come back every 6 months initially
(or earlier if needed) for a week long period to get “tuned” up, and
later after longer durations.

As stated earlier your experience and mileage may vary.

From Pune SHG