Positive Attitude
By Paul Paquin
When I was about five years old, I started to stutter badly. It would take me about five minutes to read a sentence. Going to school made me more afraid to speak. High school was a little better because I had teachers who understood me. After I graduated from high school, I went to Harvard Ellis Technical School and graduated with a 95 in carpentry and cabinet making. After five years in the trade, I was offered a teaching position in cabinetmaking, but I refused because of my speech. I went to work in a furniture factory and after 11 years, I became assistant foreman in the specialty department. When the company went bankrupt, I started working for myself, making custom furniture, repairing and refinishing antiques, and installing ceramic tile and hardwood floors. I am now retired.
When I started going to the fluency group at the University of Connecticut with Susan Munroe in 1990, I learned a lot of new ways to improve my speech: doing cancellations, talking more slowly, easy onsets, and avoiding word substitutions. After attending for several years, I feel more confident about myself. I had trouble on the telephone all of my life. Now I can have a conversation with a lot of people, and ordering food in a restaurant is now easy. The University has been a wonderful experience for me. I feel I am about 80% fluent today.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me and for sending me Malcolm Fraser’s book, Self Therapy for the Stutterer [1]. It has also been useful to me in continuing to improve my fluency. I’m 71, which proves that it is never too late to work on your speech. I keep a positive attitude about life!