Frustrations of a Stutterer

StutterCast.com

Summary of Topics:

• The inability to communicate effectively….or at all!
• Constant misunderstandings due to replaced words and convoluted speech.
• Stress and exhaustion from situations requiring constant communication.
• Self-consciousness, low self-esteem, and feelings of being handicapped or inadequate.
• Compensating self-consciousness and low self-esteem with feelings of aggression, anger, excessive criticism.
• Side effects and other “stuttering symptoms.”
• Ticks,
• Wordiness,
• Excessive use of fillers (ya know, um, ah, like…)

Fillers are parts of speech which are not generally recognized as purposeful or containing formal meaning, usually expressed as pauses such as uh, like and er, but also extending to repairs (“He was wearing a black—uh, I mean a blue, a blue shirt”), and articulation problems such as stuttering. Use is normally frowned upon in mass media such as news reports or films, but they occur regularly in everyday conversation, sometimes representing upwards of 20% of “words” in conversation.[citation needed] Fillers can also be used as a pause for thought (“I arrived at, um—3 o’clock”).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_disfluency