Wikipedia says Stuttering is a speech disorder characterized by repetition of sounds, syllables, or words; prolongation of sounds; and interruptions in speech known as blocks. Hello, my name is Stanley Page-Bates. With International Stuttering Awareness Day on October 22, it’s time to tell my stuttering story. I live in Richmond and I’m 15 years old. At three I started stumbling over my words. It soon became a habit and then progressed into a full-blown stutter – I was now one of the 1% of the worldwide population with a stutter. By the time I was five my stutter was the worse it had ever been. I can still remember sitting on the mat in my class, on my first term of primary school. We were passing a microphone around the class introducing ourselves – this is the definition of ‘terror’ for a stutterer. I used to dread a public speaking situation. It seemed to take minutes just to say, “hello, my name is Stanley”. I can remember kids laughing and I started to wonder if there was something wrong with me. My parents have gone on this journey with me and have had a huge impact on trying to correct my stutter, putting in countless time, money and effort with my speech. We tried many forms of speech therapy such as the Lidcombe Program and the Camperdown Program, while these helped me understand my stutter better and taught me techniques to improve my speech, as I got older, they all came out second best.
At the age of 14 my parents introduced me to the McGuire programme. The programme was generally for people who were older because it is a pretty intense course. However, I got accepted and in September 2016, I found myself in Christchurch for my very first McGuire Course. Right off the bat I knew this was different from other speech therapy courses I had been on. The four-day course was pretty full-on, they don’t call it a’ four-day intensive’ for nothing. The McGuire Programme in my opinion was my saviour. The programme is not about ‘fixing’ a stutter, it is about helping stutterers become confident, eloquent speakers. When following the correct speaking and breathing patterns, I spoke fluently without blocking. I had spoken fluently before – usually after each speech therapy session, I like to call it the “honeymoon phase” – but then slowly my old habits came back and I‘d revert back to stuttering profusely. But with the McGuire programme there is an international phone support system where you can call other members of the programme and practise the McGuire techniques to avoid relapse. I have used this on many occasions before speaking situations or when my stutter has spiked.
The instructors and coaches, who are all stutters too, are not a bunch of do-gooders and nerds lecturing you about how not to stutter. The people are great, understanding, supportive, funny, caring, and encouraging, all those good words. Because the programme is not a quick fix to stuttering, I know I need to keep up the practice, keep in touch with my coach, use the McGuire support network and go to courses when I can. Today I can confidentially speak in front of any number of people and the McGuire techniques I learned sure help me in difficult, as well as every day, speaking situations.
New Zealand is lucky to have its very own programme and support network – led by Aussie Denis Wright – with the next upcoming NZ course in Wellington on 30 January, 2019. I urge anyone who has a stutter, or if you know someone that does, to contact the McGuire Programme, it can help. www.mcguireprogramme.com/en/au or email Denis on anz@mcguireprogramme.com