Turning Points

Most every person who stutters will experience a turning point-a moment in time when they come to accept their stuttering and embark on living a life without compromise. Before reaching their turning point, each person who stutters must fight past feelings of shame, despair, and loneliness. These dispirited feelings affect more than just the person who stutters: family, friends, teachers, speech-language pathologists, and others are also affected. Those who tell their stories include: students finding their voice in the chaos of college; young and mature professionals finding the fortitude to pave successful careers; a senior on a lifelong journey to find a fluent voice; a parent who shares her emotional path to help her son adjust to stuttering; and, speech-language pathologists who empathize with their clients. Each of the essays in this collection is deeply personal, and yet there are common threads that bind both the stories and the people who tell them. These heartfelt stories will inspire and educate all readers about this misunderstood communication disorder, and help those who stutter find the strength to become their true selves.