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From: Bob Quesal
Date: 10/17/02
Time: 11:14:21 AM
Remote Name: 143.43.201.67
Hi Joey:
My story is similar to Dale Williams's (but goes back farther). ;-)>
I started stuttering around the age of four or so, following a fairly severe case of rheumatic fever that put me in the hospital for (I think) about three weeks. According to my parents, I didn't speak for a while after returning home from the hospital, and after I began to talk again I spoke very rapidly and was disfluent. They advised me to "slow down" and other things like that. The doctor told them to leave it alone and it would get better.
My first recollections of my stuttering were when I had to go to speech therapy in first or second grade. It really didn't become a "problem" until I got older - around junior high or high school - when I began to try to "cope" with my stuttering because I started to suffer some social penalty because of it.
The more I tried to control my stuttering the worse it became. It wasn't until I got into speech therapy in college that I was really able to understand my stuttering, my speech, and myself. I wish groups like the National Stuttering Association and resources like the Stuttering Home Page had been around when I was your age.
I hope this helps.
Best of luck,
Bob Quesal