Many of the 3,000,000 Americans who stutter have sought help at some stage of their life in the form of stuttering treatments or various forms of stuttering therapy a.k.a. speech therapy.

Traditional speech therapy is what the majority of people who stutter will start when trying to improve your speech. Because many people begin stuttering and an early age, about 4-5 years old, they will be in speech therapy for many years. Some of these people will actually stop stuttering, others will not. There is 3 main things to traditional speech therapy:

1. Speak slowly.
2. Take a deep breath before you speak.
3. Accept your stutter.

Those who stutter will tell you, “This does not seem to work very well.”

Then you have the group stuttering or speech therapy that is usually private courses run on a group basis. These may be of more value than traditional therapy because their aim is to eradicate or stop the stutter. Traditional therapy is more for controlling or accepting the stutter. Many PWS (People Who Stutter) will agree that this also gives them a moral boost because those around them accept their stutter.

Of course, there are also the one-on-one speech coaches. These therapists can give a more personalized form of therapy because each person will have our own individual stutter and needs.

Now we come to the technological or mechanical devices that help those who stutter. These devices, like SpeechEasy, help those who have been stuttering for years and therapy is not helping. It uses the choral effect to stop the stuttering.

Finally, you have online forums. This really does not help a person speech pattern, but it does help their moral. In fact, SpeechEasy has its own forum that you can go to to find out about the device, how it works, how to get one and what other stutterers think about it. All you need to do is go to the SpeechEasy forum home and register. There are many stuttering forums that you can go to, such as the Stuttering Forum where you can speak with other stuttering people.

A new device promises to cure stuttering in a matter of seconds. Zachary Taylor is one tough kid. He can kick flip, Ollie and then shoot it with the big kids. Only one hurdle slows them down, words. An experimental device could help Zachary and 3,000,000 other Americans who stutter. One moment a person is stuttering so badly you cannot understand them. Minutes later, they are speaking just as clearly as everyone else.

Zachary’s mother did not think he needed the device after she first heard about it, mainly because he is one of the best students in his third-grade class. Even the teenagers at the local skate park admire him for his bravery. Nothing seems to stop the young man. Yet, Zachary’s temper has gotten him into trouble. When another boy at a bike race teased him, he punched him.

Finally, Zachary’s mother took him to Portland to a speech pathology is who is trained to fit people with the SpeechEasy device. The therapist himself was not sure what would happen when he fitted Zachary with the device since only a few children have tried it. The device did not seem to help Zachary at first. However, with a few adjustments, Zachary began to speak normally. Mr. Goldman himself understands how Zachary feels because he uses the device himself. As the news report says, “Zachary is about to skate through childhood without anything to slow him down.”

Dan is a 27-year-old lawyer looking for a job. Stuttering therapy has not helped him, but thanks to the SpeechEasy device, he finally landed a job after months of searching.

Check out the video about Zachary and Dan to see how well this device works. The video will show you how the SpeechEasy device transforms Dan and Zachary.

The SpeechEasy device is like a small PA system. It plays a stutterer’s own voice back to them in their own ear. It delays the sound just by milliseconds and a changes the pitch. It allows the stutterer to speak more normally. This is called the choral effect. The manufacturers of SpeechEasy say that because stuttering is hardwired into children by the age of 12, those children under 12 like Zachary may develop normal speech patterns by wearing the device.

In an article by Kenneth Chu for ABC news, there are more than 3 million Americans whose spoken words might sound as if they were doctored by a disc jockey. Unexpected pauses, frequent repetitions and stretched sounds make saying “hello” seem to take an eternity. These people are stutterers.Dennis Drayna, a geneticist at the National Institutes of Health, says that stuttering “is one of the great medical mysteries of all time.” Scientists are not sure what causes the condition, but a new device called the SpeechEasy is helping more stutterers speak clearly. These people still had difficulty after going through the years stuttering therapy.

Those who have trouble speaking do not necessarily have trouble communicating in today’s world of text messaging, constant e-mailing, and social networking sites. Technology allows stutterers to communicate without the spoken word, and therefore without a stutter. But no technology can take the place of human speech.

Even today, as a speech pathologist who interacts with patients daily, Kalinowski still dislikes speaking on the phone because “we calculate in milliseconds if the listener will hang up, be patient, laugh, finish what we are saying,” he explained, adding that “the sting of the telephone is like a hot iron.”

As a result, Kalinowski and his team at East Carolina State University invented the SpeechEasy in 2001. The SpeechEasy fits comfortably in the ear and operates on a phenomenon known as “the choral effect.” When people who stutter speak the same material in unison with another speaker, or in a chorus, they no longer stutter.

When using the SpeechEasy, stutterers hear a delayed playback of their own voice, at a slightly different pitch, which emulates the choral effect. The ability of the choral effect to aid speech fluency has been widely established, but only recent technological advances have allowed researchers to create a device that would be small enough to fit inside the human ear. The device does not cure stuttering, it aids speech, just as eyeglasses help people with poor vision see clearly.

According to the Stuttering Foundation of America, present-day individuals who stutter include athletes Tiger Woods and Johnny Damon, actors James Earl Jones and Bruce Willis, and ABC’s John Stossel.

The future generation, comprising an increasingly wired youth, will benefit from technology in the form of wireless communication and devices like the SpeechEasy, Kalinowski says. “If I had text messaging when I was an adolescent or young adult, I would have used the phone rather than driving my car all over town trying to locate friends at their home.”

Kalinowski, whose own childhood was marred by painful stuttering experiences, believes that “those who stutter have nothing to be ashamed of today and devices like the SpeechEasy open doors to new jobs, social endeavors, educational opportunities and more.”

Stuttering affects 1% of the world’s population. That is about 2.8 million Americans stutter and about 75-80% of those stutterers are male.

A stutter can manifest in a variety of ways, including sustained repetitions of syllables or sounds, or silence while the stutterer tries to get out a word but refrains from articulating sound repetitions.

Stutterers do not stutter because they are nervous or because they want to. No one knows for certain the cause of stuttering. Stuttering may be caused by a number of factors working together that including neurochemical reactions, faulty brain function and learned responses.

A stutter block can be distressing, to the stutterer, who may feel alienated by other people, because the world at large is easily taken aback by a stuttering person.

A person can use psychological treatment to help them unlearn pattern of response that results in stuttering. But, stutterers do not stutter because they have psychological problems. Speech or stuttering therapy can result in fluent speech for a little while. But, many stutterers, after achieving fluent speech, soon reacquire their stutter.

If you have a congenital stutter, the object of a speech therapy program should not be to get you to speak fluently, but to teach you how to communicate effectively in spite of your stutter.

Stuttering cannot be cured. But it can be alleviated to some degree by a device called a SpeechEasy. This device was developed when it was discovered that some stutterers stop stuttering when in a large group of talking people or when singing in the choir. This device duplicates that environment.

More than 3 million people in the US stutter. Chances are you who stutters, since there are more than 3 million people in the US who stutter.

Stuttering is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is broken by repeating or dragging on sounds or syllables and by involuntarily pausing between words. A person who stutters might say “H-how’s it g-g-going?” instead of “How’s it going?” Stuttering makes it difficult to speak smoothly and feeling nervous or self-conscious about stuttering can make talking even harder. And contrary to popular belief, stuttering is not a disease or a nervous tic and it has nothing to do with a person’s intelligence. They are just as smart as everyone else!

No one knows for sure why people stutter, but it could be caused by genetics, it runs in some family. Developmental problems or a delay in learning to walk or talk, neurophysiological problems, problems in the brain and nervous system, or stress may cause scattering.

There is no cure for stuttering, but stuttering therapy can help make talking a lot easier. A speech and language therapist can help you with your speech by having you talk, read out loud and pronounce different words. With time and practice, the frequency of your stuttering can be reduced to the point where people may not be able to tell you had a stutter to begin with!

Some people are able to use a small device that is placed in the ear that is produced by Speech Easy. It has been discovered that some people when they saying or are in a large group of people will not stutter. This device simulates this very thing.

Did you know?

• About 1 in 20 kids stutter.
• Stuttering affects guys four times more than girls.
• Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts, Kenyon Martin of the Denver Nuggets, Tiger Woods and Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke all have a stutter.

What should people who stutter due to move through their episodes of stuttering?

There are no quick and easy solutions for stuttering and it has no to cure. There is a lot of hard work and practice involved control involuntary stuttering behaviors. Some remedies involve using a metronome talk in a rhythmic fashion or talking in a monotone. These are only temporary solutions. These can become habitual way of talking and they no longer help the person control their stuttering. But there are some things that can help a person overcome the stuttering, like slowing the rate of speech, relaxation techniques and learning to smooth out the involuntary stuttering behaviors. These are just a few things involved in stuttering therapy.

Many sources offer strategies that may work for you: do not conceal your stuttering, do not substitute words, stick with the word you are trying to say, speak slowly and stutter on purpose. And when dealing with difficult people, do not lose your calm, say what you meant to say and go on about your business.

What should you do when talking with a person who stutters?

It can be an uncomfortable situation for someone who is listening to a stutterer as well as the stutterer. You may want to laugh, speed the conversation up or even leave the situation when hearing someone stutter. Here are a few simple guidelines that can make the situation easier for you and the stutterer.

1. Listen to the content of the message, not how it is being said.
2. Let the person know you are listening through your body language and natural eye contact.
3. Do not fill in words or finish sentences for the stutterer. You do not know for sure what they are going to say and no one likes to be interrupted.
4. Do not tell the person to slow down, take a breath or relax. This does not help in the long run and may make the problem seem simpler than it really is.
5. Slow down your conversational speaking rate, but do not go so slowly that you sound unnatural. Slowing down lets the person know that you have time for them.

Remember to treat the person who stutters with the same dignity and respect that everyone deserves.

Who stutters?

Many people do, like James Earl Jones, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Marilyn Monroe. Besides being famous, these people stutter. Stuttering is present in every country and in every cultural group in the world. In the United States and Canada about 1% of the population stutters. That is over 3,000,000 people. Stuttering begins in childhood, usually between the ages of 2-5 years. It is about three times more common in males than in females. Do you know anyone who stutters?

Though stuttering generally requires professional help, there are many supplemental things parents can do at home to help their child overcome this relatively common problem. Here are some simple techniques suggested by the experts that may be used in connection with stuttering therapy.

Let your child know they are not alone. That famous people like James Earl Jones, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Marilyn Monroe also have a problem with stuttering.

Talk like Mister Rogers. That means slow down and speak clearly. Although many parents find this television personality’s delivery annoying, his rate of speech does closely match a child’s speech-processing abilities. Remember, your child will try to mimic how you speak. By slowing down, you are modeling a way of speaking that your child is can realistically be able to achieve.

Take the pause this encourages. Do not be too hasty in responding to a child’s comment or question. This will encourage the calm, the slow pace of conversation and make it easier for the stuttering child to keep up his end of the conversation.

Set aside a special time to chat. Life is busy for everyone these days and parents cannot always drop everything and engage in slow, measured conversation. But it will help if a child knows that he has a certain time each day when you are going to listen to him. Even if you can only set aside 5-10 minutes, this will make life seem less busy and rushed.

Let the child talk. When you set aside some time to be with your child, let the child direct the conversation. Children who are going through a tough period may have a lot of feelings and thoughts that have gone unexpressed. It can really be magical if you create an environment where the child feels free to talk about feelings and where all feelings are considered okay and normal.

Use the saltshaker trick. A child who stutters may get shut out of fast-paced dinner conversations. One way to make things easier is to give dinner-table talk a special structure. Use a saltshaker that is passed around the table. If you had the saltshaker, it is your turn to talk and no one can interrupt you. This kind of structure is good for the stutterer because he does not feel he always has to struggle to get a word in.

Avoid talking over the child’s utterance. Though you sometimes may be tempted to finish your child’s long, labored sentences, complete his thoughts or interrupt him in a rush to get the conversation moving, let him finish. Otherwise you could possibly make his stuttering worse.

Do not be so picky. Kids who stutter need to know that they do not have to be perfect, that they can make mistakes and still be okay. Many of these children worry more about how they talk than what they say.

Let speaking skills come naturally. Parents who are constantly correcting speech mistakes or stressing verbal skills can worsen their child’s stuttering problems. ‘Kids will develop language and speech skills on their own just by hearing conversation.

Make the teacher your ally. It is important that your child’s teacher understand how to handle speech problems. Do not ask the teacher to excuse your child from giving oral reports, volunteering answers in class and reading aloud. These are all difficult things for the stuttering child. Your child may be willing to strike a deal with the teacher that he’s only called on when his hand is up, so his good days can be taken advantage of and his bad days forgiven.

You will find anyone suffering from stuttering will have had a difficult childhood as so-called friends and peers who did not know any better always make fun of those who are ‘different’ from what is termed ‘normal’. Thankfully, advances in medical science can see an end to all this taunting. Now there is the SpeechEasy. What is the SpeechEasy exactly? This is actually a revolutionary anti-stammer device that helps stammerers speak with more fluency.

Each SpeechEasy device is custom made to fit completely within the ear canal and unlike other predecessors in this field it is not as bulky and definitely looks invisible at times. How does it help wearers reduce stammering? It utilizes the ‘Choral-effect’, or better known as the echo effect, where the wearer hears his/her own voice with a time delay and a pitch shift. This will produce the desired effect of another person speaking in unison with the stammerer and most of the time it will reduce the wearer’s stammer by a significant margin.

Doctors do not know exactly why this kind of device works, because they do not yet know the neurological roots of stuttering. Scientists are using brain scans to try to pinpoint its origins, but progress has been slow, in part because spending for stuttering research has not been as robust as for deadly diseases.

The SpeechEasy does make life much more manageable when used in conjunction with stuttering therapy. It will still take a lot of hard work to overcome this and the SpeechEasy is not able to counsel a child whenever he/she is teased at the playground whereas a speech therapist is always ready and willing to lend more than just a listening ear and good advice.