Stutter Reflection

At the age of four, I was diagnosed with a speech impediment. At the time, I was attending Kids and Company Pre-School. After a year of being borderline for the general tests, my parents enrolled me into Jefferson Early Childhood Center for speech. Soon after, my speech become more easily spoken and heard (thanks to the help of Mary Lind and Judy). My elementary career consisted of speech therapy, as well. During elementary, I had to overcome numerous obstacles. One of the hardest was speaking in front of a crowd. Speaking in front of people was always a challenge for me, and I would often hear the soft giggles from classmates as I went to speak because I could not properly pronounce a word. Also, adults would try their hardest to understand what I said the first time, …show more content…
Romme, we mainly focused on my slight stutter. The stutter primarily came into effect when I was speaking in front of a large group or people I did not know. Overcoming this difficulty was extremely challenging as well. I was always self-conscious of kids making fun of me for not being able to speak as clearly as others. As always, there was that small group of kids who found humor in others problems, so I set being able to keep a conversation going without stuttering as a goal of mine. By the end of sixth grade, my speech improved tremendously, to the point where I no longer needed a speech class.
Having my speech impediment has taught me not to make fun of others. Knowing what it feels like, I will always show empathy for the people being made fun of, so I don’t to put others through the pain I went through. After seeing all of the help others had done for me, I have always wanted to do a profession that involves helping others. My first thought was teaching. After I overheard a student working with a speech pathologist during my freshman year, that thought changed. Becoming a speech pathologist would allow me to help others who I can personally relate to and the problems they are