Stammering

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Firstly, I don't have a stammer. I sometimes have a problem finding the right words, but I think that's totally different from the issue of stammering.

Anyway, I was watching a programme on TV last night ('The Kid's Speech' BBC1) and it made me feel quite sad. The programme centred on 3 kids with stammers (2 of them were very severe, the other was mild, in my opinion). They were on a course to help them deal with their stammers. But, what struck me was that one of the kids with a severe stammer probably had an ASD - I'd say Aspergers. This was not mentioned and I was left wondering if anyone in the boy's life had spotted it. He had an obsessive interest in dinosaurs, read alot and his parents kept going on about how he never joined in with family stuff or with other kids (as if the stammer was to blame for his lack of interest in social things). When he was in the street with the speech & language therapists, practising speaking with strangers, they kept talking about his lack of eye contact. When he did make eye contact, everything he had learned appeared to go out of the window and his stammering was as bad as ever. It seemed like the adults in this little boy's life were just so focused on the stammer, that they didn't see the full picture. I'm not an expert, but it just seemed so obvious to me. Given how much about the boy's life was being displayed on TV, I think if he did have a diagnosis of ASD, this might have been mentioned.

I was wondering if anyone else had experience of living with a stammer and if it affected people's abilities to see the rest of your personality or if your ASD was missed as a result. Or if anyone else in the UK saw the programme - what did you think?

They iffy not have mentioned it on tv for privacyreasons. Although that is unlikely cuz privacy is a joke these days.

I sometimes stammer when I'm being rushed, and need to think up something on the spot, I'm stressed, and I'm not confident with what I'm saying, but that doesn't happen very often, I usually speak just fine, if a little too bit soft or too loud. When I'm giving a presentation and I focus the stress into something positive I'm one of the best speaker's in my class.

I watched this program too. It was quite sad. I felt very sorry for that little boy Reggie and also wondered if he had AS.

I'm a living example. My stammering/stuttering was regarded as one major issue that prevented me from socializing more. Though I've never seen a language & speech therapist, because I categorically refused any attempt to help it, and my parents were unable to change my view on it.