Redefining Stuttering: What the struggle to speak is really about

by John C. Harrison

How to Conquer Your Fears of Speaking Before People: a complete public speaking program plus a new way to look at stuttering

New 10th Edition by John C. Harrison, The National Stuttering Association

This is a book written primarily for those who deal with chronic stuttering, their relatives and friends, and for those in the field of speech-language pathology. The author is someone who dealt with his own chronic stuttering for almost 30 years, and in the 30 years following has been fully recovered.

What is chronic stuttering? How do you live with it? And how do you prevent it from holding you back?

If you're a person who stutters, you may believe that you're not capable of being an effective communicator.

Not so. Although you may stutter, you can be an excellent speaker and have fun while you're giving a speech to a class, a civic group, a parent-teacher meeting, or a committee of business executives -- any audience you can imagine.

The author has found that good speakers practice techniques that anyone can learn, fluent or not. In fact, as you develop mastery of these techniques, you'll discover that your stuttering plays less and less of a significant role, because people will be relating to you and not your speech.

The first part of this book reveals some of the major secrets behind making yourself comfortable (and charismatic) in front of a group. It is made up of 10 speaking exercises, each of which introduces a different technique for putting yourself at ease in front of an audience. Although designed to be practiced in a group setting, these exercises offer techniques that are useful to anyone who wants to understand more about what gives a speaker "presence."

Parts 2 and 3 consist of a collection of essays that provide a new way of looking at stuttering -- what it is, how it develops and what you can do about it. This new paradigm characterizes stuttering, not simply as a speech problem, but as a problem that involves all of you—how you think, feel, see, interact, and speak.

Part 4 is a collection of life stories of people who have substantially or totally recovered from stuttering.

Part 5 provides information on various resources and programs.

The material for this book was drawn from the author's own life as well as his exposure to hundreds and hundreds of people who stutter during his extensive, 28-year involvement with the National Stuttering Association.

Published January 1, 2011