No. What could be the difference?
Really? REALLY??? You’re asking if there’s a difference between a speech therapist who may have a basic grasp on stuttering compared to a seasoned one who has focused countless of years on it?
Not enough :smack::smack::smack: in the world for you.
I Googled “stuttering speech therapy” and found this site:
I was interested to learn that not all speech therapists are comfortable working with stuttering. The ones who are more experienced with it can help with communication skills in general.
@Silvorange, thank you for the info.
I can imagine the difference. I am just wondering if it’s really helpful. Because, as you may know, there is no cure for it. 
You’re right. I am an idiot.
There aren’t “cures” for a lot of things. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t anyone who can help you figure out how to address those things in your life.
You know, I was going to say that any job working with computers that doesn’t involve a lot of verbal interaction would be appropriate for a stutterer. Then I remembered the most severe stutterer I ever knew. He was in a small seminar class that I took in college (one with a dozen people sitting around a table). It would sometimes take him several minutes to get a single sentence out. I decided to Google him, and it turns out that he is now a partner in a software firm that does development and has a proprietary programming system.
My brother had a horrible stutter when we were kiddos. I mean so bad that he’d at times repeat the same sound 5-10 times. Seriously, t-t-t-t-t-talking to him s-s-s-s-s-some-t-t-times was like th-th-th-this. It wasn’t always that bad, or else he’d have been incapable of having a conversation, but it could get pretty horrible. Went to a speech therapist, et voila. Perhaps “voila” might be the wrong term; it wasn’t magical, and it took years for him to get it under wraps, but it did work. These days he barely has a stutter at all. There is some very occasional light stuttering that you wouldn’t think anything of unless you knew about his stuttering problem. You would never be able to guess by the way he speaks now that he has such a sever stutter once.
Of course, your experience will depend on a lot of factors, and I don’t know if this kind of thing gets harder to correct with age (maybe someone more knowledgeable or more willing to Google can say), but I do know that speech therapy for some can and does work.
I just wanted to chime in with my one and only anecdote:
A friend of mine from high school had a pretty serious stutter. We would (unfairly) tease him about it, but he always took it in stride and was readily accepted by everyone based on his cheerful demeanor. We were all in the marching band together, and by the time he was a junior he was in a leadership role. Not only did he bark out orders (with some difficulty), but he had to give instruction to younger band members.
Today he’s working for a garage as a tow truck driver while pursuing a nursing degree. Every summer he works with me teaching at a music camp. He still has his stutter, but he’s learned to handle it quite well. On the first day of every camp, he explains to the kids that he has a stutter and there’s nothing that he can do about it. He politely asks them to be patient with him if he has trouble with his words. The children have always respected him (most like him quite a bit), and there has never been an incident of the kids mocking him. His honesty and acceptance of himself seems to be the key. The stutter has never gotten in the way of his ability to instruct the students.
ETA: The dude isn’t anything special to look at, but he’s always got a cute girlfriend too. Just goes to show that the ladies like a man who takes his time with his words.
There’s no cure for it in the sense that there is no pill or potion you can take that will completely fix your stutter forever. But as others have anecdotally noted, targeted therapy DOES help a great deal, to the point that some people can almost completely eliminate their stutter. Some might respond better or worse than others, and it will take patience and hard work, but working with a specialist over time will almost certainly give you some improvement. I don’t know you obviously, but it sounds like even a small improvement might give you a huge boost in confidence, which will make dealing with your stutter much easier. I’d strongly encourage you to make an appointment with a specialist, and keep us updated. Has there been an “Ask the stutterer” thread yet?
Here is a list of more people who stutter whose names you may recognize… many work in theater, film, TV, broadcasting–all fields where speaking in public is common.
There isn’t, AFAIK.
I’m a middle-aged stutterer. I’m not terrible – I’ve known people with far worse stutters than mine – but it’s there.
There are things one can do to work around it. I have no problems with rote material or (oddly) with public speaking to a group, or with reading out loud. One thing I can do (and I don’t know if other stutterers are able to do this) is, when I feel it happening (I feel it more than hear it) is just stop. And then it sort of passes. So although others will hear an abrupt, maybe long, pause, they don’t hear the t-t-t-t-t-t-t thing that is typical of stuttering.
Also (and this is definitely a non-FDA-approved treatment), alcohol, in moderate quantities, helps. Obviously that’s not something that can be done at work, or in many circumstances, but in social settings it helps. I’ve often wondered if being self-conscious about stuttering makes it worse, and so alcohol, by easing or eliminating the self-consciousness, helps with the stutter.
Interview through Skype. Any stutter can be blamed on a poor internet connection. 
I’ve briefly developed a stutter twice in my life. Both times from extreme stress and lack of sleep. The worst was my final semester in college. I was carrying 18 hours and under tremendous strain. Finishing school and rest got rid of the stutter.
Here is a link to the disability law handbook. https://www.disability.gov/viewResource?id=13847806
Basically, it covers ADA and the amendments to it. You should also Search your State, as individual States will also have laws to protect those with disabilities.
taskmgr.exe, do you live in the United States? If not, then I can’t speak to your individual situation culturally. No matter where you live, one thing that will be true is that you should get your education. Put whatever caused you to flunk out behind you. Start college again, get educated, and learn skills.
I’m not aware of anyone in my circle with a stutter. There could be people I know, but it isn’t noticeable. A couple of years ago there was a saleswoman with a stutter at a local Banana Republic. She was in a customer-facing position. I asked her about jeans, and it was apparent right away that she had a stutter. She was beautiful, which might have factored in to her hire. She was able to help me find jeans the same as anyone without a stutter would.
Are you actively applying for jobs? Are you qualified for any work in particular? At 19, would it be possible to get something in construction? If you’re going to college, and you have a “college job”, it may not be what you’ll do for your career. The school might have job opportunities. If you aren’t applying for jobs, start there. The worst that will happen is you won’t get a response. If you get interviews, then that at least provides interview experience, even if you don’t get the job. A positive attitude, and good work ethic can make up for any other (perceived) short-comings.
I use a wheelchair. Obviously our situations are different, but we both have disabilities. I graduated from college, and I have a job. People generally want to be helpful. It makes them feel good. I think most people will understand your issue. If someone is a jerk about it, try not to let it bother you. I don’t know what it was like for you growing up with a stutter. Kids can be cruel. Adults can be too, because people can be cruel, but people will grow out of it, or you won’t care so much. The people who don’t care about your stutter are the really good ones. Think of it as a filter. People who don’t want to be around you because you stutter aren’t people you want to be around anyway. The main thing is to get an education. Wherever you’re going to school, check if there is a disability services office on campus. They might have some therapy available, or maybe the school has some kind of speech therapy school where you could go.
There was an episode of True Life on MTV about young people and stuttering. I don’t know if it will do anything for you. There was one about paralyzed people too. It helped me remember that I’m not the first person to go through it.
I had a severe stammer (as we call it in the UK) up until I was in my mid twenties. These days most people I meet don’t notice it. That’s not due to my being cured but having learned better strategies for managing it.
Number one is the one nearly all stammerers develop – avoiding the problem words or finding substitutes. A lot of people see this as a problem in itself, and it can be, for example if you’re not saying things you want to say. I seem to have developed a large vocabulary to give me a better choice of words. I never liked my first name and found the initial letter really hard to say, really horrible in the first week of a new school year when teachers were demanding that we say our names all the time. I happily adopted the nickname my friends gave me, which begins with a sound I can say, and use it to this day.
Number two relates to the weird sounds that some stammerers, me included make when they’re struggling for speech. In some cases making a particular noise can somehow free up the words. There was a British TV personality, Patrick Campbell who would whistle. As a little kid I would make gobbling noises and contort my face with the effort of speaking then I graduated to clicking my tongue, which still made strangers look at me a bit funny, and now use a soft whisht sound, which passes under the radar… So find a mannerism that is socially acceptable. A stammering friend would gently thump his chest, quite a common strategy, which doesn’t seem to bother people.
Number three is very important. Recognise that no one, not professional speakers, not even newsreaders speak with perfect fluency, everyone hesitates, stumbles over their words and occasionally seizes up completely. (Incidentally that’s why people don’t notice my residual stammer. ) Recognising this helps with the vicious social anxiety feedback loop that stammerers can get in to. You are worried that you will stammer, when you actually do you feel worse. The people you are with notice your stress, you notice them noticing and get worse and so on… The thing is it’s OK to stammer. Just keep talking. If you can get your point across and seem unfazed then your listeners will relax about it too. Yes, it will be a case of fake it til you make it.
I never had any speech therapy. My parents believed it would make the problem worse. I wonder if it would have helped me to find my management strategies earlier. OTOH my chest thumping friend did have some speech therapy but it was useless as he didn’t stammer when in the therapist’s office.
If they know which words/phonemes give them trouble and the filming is prepared, they can make sure those are avoided. Depending on the situation they can also have retakes.
Not a stuttering problem, but I had a teacher who couldn’t pronounce R and his name included two, three with the honorific… on the first day of class, he’d go to the blackboard, write
“Doctor Irurre”
and say “that is my name. Why w’ite it? Because I can’t say it well! I say doctod iduddde, but I do expect any of you who don’t have a medical pdoblem to say it nodmally. Thank you!”
We had much more of a problem with his agoraphobia than with his Rs.
Years ago I happened to meet an Australian who stuttered. We were in NYC; him, his friends and another person were the only native English speakers in a group of about 20 people. Dude lit up like the sun when us foreigners (including several pretty girls near his age, which was clearly a plus) told him that we actually understood him better than his friends because he spoke slowly and carefully.
As many have eluded to, a stutterer can do any job if he applies himself.
I am a stutterer, elementary and high school was very hard for me, especially the other kids, as you can imagine. One of the schools enrolled me in a speech therapy class, but it wasn’t productive (looking back I don’t think they really knew what to do with a stutterer in the 70s) I had few real friends, and if it wasn’t for sports and books I probably would have dropped out.
When I left school, I felt I had no real future with the stutter and I let it hold me back for many years (too many years), working in a mill for ok money. Many times while working there I was told “you should do more with your life, you’re too smart to be here.” Yes even there, there were the jerks who laughed and made fun of my stutter. I hid in a shell for many years and just worked and ‘lived’.
When the mill announced closing and lay-offs, I had to make a decision with my life. With the echoes of the friendly advice, I took the plunge at 33, went to college, got my degree and now work for a utility as an electrical engineer, where I have to work with and speak with customers and co-workers on a daily basis.
Over time, I began to realize my reason for not moving forward was me, not my stutter. My self-consciousness and tendency to focus on it when I talked, caused me to stutter even more. I found myself doing little tricks to avoid it altogether like changing the pitch of my voice slightly (usually lower), and spoke slightly slower. If I get excited, I force myself to stop, take a deep breath and relax. Like Saintly Loser, I feel it, and have learned to recognize the feeling, and make adjustments accordingly, and it is slowly becoming nearly an unconscious reaction now.
I’m now 43 and am forever grateful to those people who made me realize I can do better and push myself beyond my ‘disability’. They didn’t see a stutterer, they saw someone who was holding himself back because of it. My self-esteem is better, my career is better, and overall my life is better.
Don’t let it hold you back, strive for your hopes and dreams.