For people who stutter, pronouncing their own name is often the most difficult. In Den Bosch, stutterers walked through the city on Saturday afternoon to introduce themselves to shoppers. Kim van Heeswijk from Tilburg was one of them.
Helping people to stop stuttering is not that easy. Helping stutterers to deal with it as best as possible is possible. The McGuire course is very suitable for this.
“This course is a kind of extensive assertiveness training for people who stutter. This program has changed my life. Six years ago I couldn’t even pronounce my name,” says Vlijmenaar Berry Branten fluently.
He is now an instructor of the McGuire course and walks through the center of Den Bosch with fellow stutterers on Saturday afternoon. “We teach people new speaking techniques and a different way of breathing to maintain this. Stutterers try to do everything to hide their stutter, what we teach them is to show it. Grow over your fears. You always have to keep doing what you don’t really want to do.”
Gain self-confidence
Kim van Heeswijk from Tilburg already took this course ten years ago. She noticed that she was stuttering more and is now participating again. “I still feel tension, but I also gain self-confidence from addressing people. Ten years ago I would never have done this and I would think you were crazy if you said that I would address a hundred people and give a speech at the market.”
Because that’s what the students are doing this Saturday. They introduce themselves to many people and give a speech. “Can I ask you something? We are taking a stuttering course. Because we stutter and we have to speak to a hundred people today to get over our fear of speaking. I always have trouble with my first name. Could I introduce myself. I am Kim van Heeswijk,” Kim says without hesitating to a shopping couple.
Not completing words or sentences
For Kim, the course is not only important to practice speaking publicly. She also enjoys meeting fellow stutterers. “This feels like a warm bath. No one else knows what we feel and experience.”
The stutterers receive many tips during the course. But are there also tips for people who are confronted with stutterers? Kim knows. “Never finishing a word or sentence, that’s really terrible. You shouldn’t look away either. I like to maintain eye contact. It gives me the feeling that you are listening and that you have time. If I feel that someone is in a hurry, I am also rushed and I am even more likely to stutter.”
