United States, by Tim B.

I live in the United States and I think stuttering is where kids get stuck on a word like b-b-b-ball. To me I think lots of people stutter. I read in a book once that over 500,000,000 people stutter. I would like to know more about stuttering in the world. Right now I am doing a Type 3 investigation on stuttering. That's when you do research about a real world problem. A real world problem is something that kids and sometimes adults don't know about that is really important. Stuttering, of course one of those problems. So I decided to inform my school about stuttering. I think it will be very interesting. I am going to use Supercard to make a program that allows you to find out more about stuttering. I am going to put the program in the computer lab and give it to my speech therapist. It's really fun. If I could get some more information on stuttering around the world it would be really neat!!

added February 19, 1998

Spain, by Pedro

Hi, my name is Pedro (Peter in English) and I'm from Spain. I'm 15 years old. Here in Spain stutterers are called "tartamudos." I started stuttering when I was 10. I knew that I stuttered but I didn't give importance to it. When I was 13 I stuttered more and I began to hate it. I felt that I had to do something to solve my stuttering because it was destroying my life. So, I went to an speech therapist when I was 14. I had one session per week and I went to the therapy about 6 months. It was a good experience, I learned a lot of things. I learned to get air before speaking. I learned to be more expressive... Now I speak almost fluently and I can say I'm happy. I still stutter when I have to read aloud, but this is because I get nervous. It is still problem and with time I will solve it.

added February 24, 1998

Greece, by Damian

When speaking English, my native language, I have enough problems with my stuttering. However, my troubles with speaking in English proved infinitesimal compared to my problems speaking Greek. I lived in Greece for five years. I attended an American school. My speech therapist in Greece was an American. Fortunately or unfortunately, an encounter with the outside (and very foreign) world was inevitable. Most of my peers at school were Greek or half-Greek, so I eventually picked up some Greek. Learning Greek was a wonderful experience but speaking it could be a real hassle. I found myself constantly struggling with hundreds of sounds, most of which don't exist in English. It was very hard to get used to the language. However, Greek is such a beautiful language that, though I have left Greece, I am continuing my study of it. I have no intentions of admitting defeat to my stuttering, ever more so because of my experience with the Greek language.

added February 28, 1998