From the age of about 6 I have had a stammer, stutter, or whatever one might call the effect. Some periods in my life it has been troublesome, others it has faded away, and I could speak clearly.
Once I was to address a daunting number of engineers and managers at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, setting out, I seem to remember, the method of providing TT&C for the new projected satellite X4. I stepped up to the dais, said Good Morning, and launched into the explanation. I overcame my stammer by concentrating on the job, and was pleased with the result. That wasn't the only time I had a similar experience.
I think the initial cause was being suddenly removed twice from safe and happy evacuation billets and taken home to London with no notice. At a lecture on the disability, I learnt that the stammerer will increase the air pressure in the mouth by locking the front part of the mouth and pushing from the lungs. The figure given may have been as high as 20psi, I can't remember.
Sorry this is off topic - maybe wryly ameliorated by the way some people tend to laugh at a sufferer's attempts to get out out words staring with certain sounds. I find it hard to say hard "j"s, my own name!
Add image to post link below the message box. Your photo will be uploaded to the postimage website and then shared here via a thumbnail link. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view.
