TONGUE TROUBLES • ΪΣ S.B. V, RENEN. My first experience of tongue troubles begins during a reading lesson when I was brought out to the front of my class at a junior school and asked whether I was trying to annoy ray teacher or attract attention by reading in such a hesitant and tense manner. When I was unable to give a satisfactory reply it was taken for granted that I was just being awkward and I was beaten before the whole class and ordered to stop "stuttering". Prom that point onwards I took the-same path as hundrede of perfectly normal "stutterers" had taken before me and, however much I regret it, others will continue to suffer unless an attempt is made to change the attitudes and policies, the evaluations, of parents and teachers concerning the child as a person and speaker. Prom that moment onwarde I apparently ceased to be a "normal" child to so-called "normal" people, and I was looked upon as somebody quite different. In fact I was looked upon as a stutterer. At High School teachers soon realised that in Standard VII there was a stutterer, who thue had to be handled gently. I wae never to be asked to read aloud or recite - in fact my stutter was to be made as obvioue as possible to all the others in the class. Fortunately for me I was. able to hold my own amongst the boys as I excelled at sport. If I could not speak normally to my superiors (I never stuttered other- wise) I could at least run faster, or tackle better than any- one else my age, which gave me some sense of satisfaction and c onfi dene e. Everything went on quite normally until I left school. I was a stutterer well enough - by now everybody knew it - in spite 5 ^em Jpretending that they did not. Then something happen- ed which brought my "stutter" horribly to the forefront, bince myj childhood days I always had the ambition of one day Becoming a soldier. I had been at school during the war but by now I had annexed a Matriculation certificate, two athletic: records and a fine testimonial, I accordingly applied for admission to an officers' cadet course. My application was accepted and I was called before a selec- tion board. I remember entering the room feeling confi- dent and at ease but all of a sudden I found myself face to race with a major general. He asked me a question and I , opened my mouth to answer, but I was concentrating more on the thought "don't stutter now or show him that you are at stutterer" than the reply to his question. The result - R ep ro du ce d by S ab in et G at ew ay u nd er li ce nc e gr an te d by th e P ub lis he r (d at ed 2 01 2) . rejected as unsuitable for training as an officer. Here I was brought face to face with the truth - I was a stutterer. Could anything "be done about it? I racked my brain, I read books;· in fact, I even thought of doing away with myself. Then I was referred to a speech therapist. It was not long before I was walking into shops and asking the prices of different articles - definitely faking as I asked, though it required some courage in the first instance. I was beginning to face up to my problem more objectively as I stopped trying to hide the fact that I stuttered from others. Slowly it dawned on me that if I walked up to a person and stuttered - yes, stuttered as if it· was the most common thing in the world - he would not notice that there was anything particularly defective about my speech, and would therefore not react differently towards me. To prove to myself that it was the way I reacted to people first that mattered I pur- chased the most "zoot" tie (yellow with pink elephants) and colourful socks, which I wore to a party soon afterwards. As I entered the room I could feel the people looking at the tie but I reacted as if everything was perfectly normal - the result - nobody even remarked about my tie. As I sat down I made sure to show my socks, and one girl burst out laughing at them. I asked what the joke was, and then she suddenly seemed to come to her senses, as she could not answer me. That evening was certainly a triumph for me, slowly but surely I was gaining confidence. If I could wear that tie without myself feeling conspicuous, it would be accepted as part of me. If I therefore stuttered without feeling ill at ease or self conscious it would be accepted as my manner of speech. I enrolled at a public speaking class next and the first even- ing everyone had to rise and say why he had come to the class. The first said that they found it necessary for business pur- poses to be able to talk fluently and easily in public, etc. Then came my turn - no worrying about stuttering this time - I faked for an extra long period on my first word and watched all th