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From: Arne Hope
Date: 10 Oct 2007
Time: 15:18:28 -0500
Remote Name: 85.166.129.38
Hello, I`m Arne Hope, speaking Norwegian on the video. At the age of six, I developed a severe stuttering. It took a few months from speaking fluently until I stuttered on almost every word. My parents were of course concerned. They took me to the doctor, who gave me a glass of red pills. Unfortunately, they showed to be completely useless. When I was 8, I went to a speech therapist in my home town, Stavanger. This was also useless. For some reason or another, I was sent to a psychologist. He did not know anything about stuttering, but he said an important thing: "You are not the stupid one, Arne. The stupid ones are the ohter ones, the boys who tease you and bully you." That was good news, though I could not quite believe it... In August 1962 -I was almost 10 years old then- I was sent to a national school for stuttering children, called Halmrast. My father and I went by train all the night to Oslo, then by another train for many hours. I was shown my room, which I was to share with three other guys from other parts of the country. My father had to leave me imidiately. I was crying for weeks, but 3 months later, I could go home for a short christmas holidays. I stayed the whole year at that school. The therapy against stuttering was relaxing exercises (imagine ten years old boys try to relax!), toungue exercises, singing the words, speeeeekiiiing veeeeryyy sloooowlyyyy. Nothing helped. I stuttered as much as before. Four years later I went back to Halmrast. This time voluntarily. New methods of treatment had been introduced. I practised the non avoidance method for a couple of months, and I ws told that you should not try to hide my stuttering, or let my stuttering have any influence upon my choice of education and occupation. This was a good experience, though my stuttering was as severe as ever. I decided not to seek any professional help. I did not mingle with other persons who stuttered until 8 years ago. Then I became member of the self help group in Stavanger. We have practiced the 10 speechs of John Harrison. his group has been to a great help for me. You can read about one of my experiences at the "ISA Essay Contest" Today I made a 30 minutes presentation for about 40 official persons, with only a few, slight blocks. For me the conquering of the fear of speaking has been replaced by a joy of speaking. And when you feel well in a situation, the stuttering keeps away.