SHOW: All Things Considered (9:00 PM ET) - NPR

August 13, 2003 Wednesday

LENGTH: 791 words

HEADLINE: Convention of FRIENDS, an association for stutterers

ANCHORS: MICHELE NORRIS

REPORTERS: MARGOT ADLER

BODY:
MICHELE NORRIS, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.

About 1 percent of the population stutters. Much remains a mystery about this neurological disorder. Some children grow out of it; others never do. Every year the Association of Young People Who Stutter, also known as FRIENDS, holds an annual meeting. NPR's Margot Adler went to the recent convention in Secaucus, New Jersey.

MARGOT ADLER reporting:

The first thing you learn at the convention of FRIENDS is never to finish a stutterer's sentence, something people do all the time. The several hundred kids, teens, parents and speech pathologists who came to the convention were pretty adamant that stuttering is not something to be cured, that the fear of stuttering causes more speech problems than stuttering itself.

For many of the kids, this supportive group is the first place where they have felt truly free to communicate. Matt Torello (ph) is 15, and from Long Island.

MATT TORELLO (Long Island Resident): It affects l--like when I try and gave a--a--a answer in front of class. I--I--I try really hard to, like, not stutter, and it seems like the harder I try, the more I do.

ADLER: Many of these kids and adults have had years of speech therapy. Many have spent years not saying what they think or want in order not to stutter. There are a thousand stories: the woman who would never order a ham sandwich because she couldn't say it, but could say tuna, even though she hated it; the couple who decided not to have children because stuttering has a hereditary component. Bob Murphy(ph) is a firefighter who told the convention his job forces him to talk to despite his stutter.

Mr. BOB MURPHY (Firefighter): If I have to get on the radio at work, and I o--open my mouth and I don't talk, someone dies. My friends die.

ADLER: Elizabeth Kapstein started a support group in Brooklyn, New York.

Ms. ELIZABETH KAPSTEIN (Brooklyn, New York): I had a severe stu--stu--stutter when I was a kid. I mean, I couldn't say my name, I couldn't say hello; it was the hardest thing. Telephones are the enemy. Some days I--I have a stutter that's big, and some days it's small. It's not as big as it used to be.

ADLER: She says many techniques she learned in speech therapy taught her what not to say, something that took years to undo. But suppose you stuttered on purpose. In one of the most surprising workshops, Peter Reitzes, a workshop facilitator, gives instructions to a room of some 40 teens.

Mr. PETER REITZES (Workshop Facilitator): Sometimes we try not to stutter. Today we're gonna go to the mall, and if you choose to speak to somebody, l--l--l--let's try to do it while stuttering.

ADLER: He asks a teen to help give an example. Reitzes plays the store owner.

NICK: Hi. I'm N--N--Nick. Do you know--do--do you know where the ar--arcade is?

Mr. REITZES: The arcade is right down at the very end; you want to make a left.

Nick, why do you talk like that?

NICK: I--I--I--I'm a st--s--stutterer.

Mr. REITZES: Very good. There's gonna be a lot of stutterers in the mall. If somebody asks you a question about stuttering, it's because they want to know. Is that right?

Unidentified Man: That's right.

Mr. REITZES: Politely. We're polite stutterers. OK.

(Soundbite of laughter)

ADLER: Groups of six or seven teens with a leader fan out across the Middlebrook Mall in Secaucus. Two kids go into a Dollar Store and pick up packs of Saddam Hussein cards.

Unidentified Boy: How m--m--much is this?

Unidentified Woman: $1.06.

Unidentified Boy: I'll have two. And w--w--what time do--do--do you close?

Unidentified Woman: 9:30.

Unidentified Boy: 9:30. Thank you.

Mr. REITZES: When you stutter on purpose you come to realize that there's not m--much to be scared of, because you're doing the thing you're trying so hard to avoid doing.

ADLER: Peter Reitzes says telling people to stutter is like a ski instructor telling a student to first learn how to fall.

Mr. REITZES: And if you're not worrying about falling, then you're gonna worry about skiing correctly. It's the same with stuttering. If you're not so worried about what you're going to do wrong and you just get it out of the way, then all of a sudden it's like (sighs) a sigh of relief. Your anxiety's gone, and now let's do communication.

ADLER: When the kids get back from the mall, the workshop leaders insist that the parents and speech pathologists in the audience can only question the kids about their experience if they too stutter. A few rise to talk, but many find they are embarrassed and silent. It's a good lesson in understanding the anxiety stutterers face every day. Margot Adler, NPR News.