Little-known fact.
When I was young—about 4, or so, my mom could probably clarify the exact age—I had a stuttering problem. According to doctors who treated me, my brain worked faster than I could speak, and there was a delay between what I thought I wanted to say and what I actually could say.
I remember snippets of going to speech therapy. I had to sit in a dark room, and there would be pictures displayed. I don’t remember what I was supposed to do with them, but I know they were there.
Sometimes I still catch my brain getting ahead of my mouth. There’s so much I want to say! I have to force myself to slow down, which is probably a good thing. You know that phrase, “Think before you speak”? I do that all the time.
My family has chronicled my and my sister’s life almost entirely through photographs and video tape. We can pull out “Wile Family #2” and see me walking around and saying cute things. There are a few tapes where you can hear my stuttering. My mom used to say I would get frustrated and my veins in my neck would start to bulge as I tried to get the words out.
It’s encouraging to see speech therapy getting more of a following because of “celebrities” like Joe Biden bringing attention to the fact that stuttering is more common than people think and can be treatable.
I’m glad my parents could afford treatment for me, but I recognize not all children have that same advantage. I hope that health insurance will someday be available for any and all children who need speech therapy. Stuttering can be embarrassing and inhibiting, and even when I tell people today that I stuttered as a child, they assume I had something “wrong” with me. But, there’s nothing wrong with having too much to say.
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