Feel like your stutter dominates every waking second of your life? You’re not alone. An estimated 70 million adults world-wide have a stutter. Many believe their lives will be significantly limited by the way they speak, but it doesn’t have to be that way . Aged 17, Paul stopped trying to ‘fix’ his stutter, and over a long and succesful career has designed a unique, five-step road map to help him become so much more than his stutter : it can help you do the same. This is a powerful and practical book that focuses on what you love to do and guides you to create the life you really want and deserve.

This textbook presents a new paradigm for understanding the nature and treatment of stuttering based on recent discoveries in neuroscience. The authors illustrate how visible stuttering manifestations are actually a solution to a central problem, acting as a compensatory mechanism for a central involuntary block, rather than a problem in themselves. This book features methods that reduce stuttering by inhibiting this central block, through the use of sensory and motor tools, notably mirror neurons, and shows readers that stuttering is not a condition that can be effortlessly "trained out" of the system or eliminated via simple speech retraining.

Malcolm Fraser knew from personal experience what the person who stutters is up against. His introduction to stuttering corrective procedures first came at the age of fifteen under the direction of Frederick Martin, M.D., who at that time was Superintendent of Speech Correction for the New York City schools. A few years later, he worked with J. Stanley Smith, L.L.D., a stutterer and philanthropist, who, for altruistic reasons, founded the Kingsley Clubs in Philadelphia and New York that were named after the English author, Charles Kingsley, who also stuttered. The Kingsley Clubs were small groups of adult stutterers who met one night a week to try out treatment ideas then in effect. In fact, they were actually practicing group therapy as they talked about their experiences and exchanged ideas. This exchange gave each of the members a better understanding of the problem. The founder often led the discussions at both clubs. In 1928 Malcolm Fraser joined his older brother Carlyle who founded the NAPA-Genuine Parts Company that year in Atlanta, Georgia. He became an important leader in the company and was particularly outstanding in training others for leadership roles. In 1947, with a successful career under way, he founded the Stuttering Foundation of America. In subsequent years, he added generously to the endowment so that at the present time, endowment income covers over fifty percent of the operating budget. In 1984, Malcolm Fraser received the fourth annual National Council on Communicative Disorders' Distinguished Service Award. The NCCD, a council of 32 national organizations, recognized the Foundation's efforts in "adding to stutterers', parents', clinicians', and the public's awareness and ability to deal constructively with stuttering." Book jacket.

In the years prior to publication ‘cures’ for stuttering seemed to appear constantly, but many were of limited value, were poorly evaluated and gave only a temporary alleviation that was not transferred to daily life. More responsible clinicians produced publications expounding one particular approach to therapy but less was available giving a balanced overview which was of practical help to therapists. Originally published in 1983, this book aimed to provide such an overview, with a focus on practical intervention rather than on theory. The need for careful assessment is particularly stressed and also the need for flexibility in the choice of treatment for any one client. Changes in fluency are looked at in relation to the effects they might have on the person’s life as a whole and factors involved in the maintenance of this change are discussed. In addition, adjuncts to speech therapy, such as drugs, hypnosis and various forms of masking are evaluated. Issues of the training of therapists are raised and suggestions made as to the nature of the therapeutic relationship when working with people who stutter.

Originally published in 1987, this book presented new ideas on the treatment of stuttering, by leading authorities within Britain at the time. There are chapters on children and adolescents, as well as on adults. In each chapter the author describes the therapeutic approach, how it fits into general views on the nature of stuttering, the clients for which it is appropriate, and possible methods of evaluation. The book is aimed at speech therapists and psychologists and provided an important up-date of the subject for practitioners.