Today, I called my father. I talked with him about 1 hour. I spoke fluently most of the time. I asked my father about my stuttering. He told me that I still stuttered some, however, I can speak continueously without hard blocks. He told me that I have been improving a lot recently. In my family, there are three people who stutter, me and my two cousins. My two cousins are older than me. My father told me that when I was five years old I speak very fast, however, not very cliear. I had a very good memory. I was asked to recite poems, to sing songs etc. I was so anxious to talk. I make joke of my two cousins by imitating their stuttering. I started to stutter after that. When I started to pay too much attention, to use force to get the word out, I become a person who stutters (PWS). My farther was very strict person and also had quick temper. When I was caught in a block, he feel very anxoius, impatient and angry. I was so afraid of talk, so afraid of stuttering.
Another contributor of my stuttering is that I am a person respecting olders, authorities so much that I do not have my own place in the world. I become so nervous to open my mouth. My father admit that these two points had great contribution to my stuttering. He told me that even a normal person have blocks when he get very nervous. I asked my father if anybody else had stuttered in my family. He told me that only three of us. I was told by speech language pathologist that stuttering is caused by genetics. Some researchers even claimed that some genes for stuttering were found. However, I strongly against this genetic determination theory. In my mind, I view speaking as a skill, just like other skills. The cause of stuttering is that we did not learn the correct way of speaking. Because of this, we had some temporary blocks which could be corrected easily when we gained more skill of speaking. However, during this transition period of time, we are teased, joked, reminded and scolded by other people. We become too concerned about our speech. We started to use force to get the word out. The force causes speech blocks.
As for my two cousins, the biggest cousin has overcomed his stuttering by slow down speaking speed, probably in his thirties. My father told me that he does not stutter at all now, however, his speech is very slow and soft. My another cousin still stutter very badly. However, he is very open and very brave. He is very anxious to talk, but with a lot of hard blocks and distorted facial guestures. The good things is that he does not care about his stuttering at all. He just say want he want to say. He is a character in his village.
I was in the middle. I still stutter and sometimes I still have a lot hard blocks. However, I can express myself effectively. I have to deal with two languages at the same time. I am facing a tougher situation than them. I beleive I can overcome my speech impediment with my effort and determination.