Redefining Stuttering: What the Struggle to Speak Is Really All About
By John C. Harrison
2011 edition
649 pages
Download a free copy HERE (PDF)
(The paper version of the book can be ordered on line from Amazon and the National Stuttering Association.)
Information shared about the author and the book
John Harrison is a recovered stutterer who lived with the problem for roughly 30 years. He's also a 34-year member of the National Stuttering Association in America and one of the first people to join the organization.
Through participation in a variety of personal growth programs throughout the 60s, John discovered that stuttering was not what he thought it was. It was not just a speech problem, but a problem that involved many different sides of himself.
Then in 1977 John joined the NSA, and for over three decades he became involved in every aspect of NSA activities.
He ran chapter meetings. He helped develop programs. He ran workshops for the NSA in cities all over the U.S. as well as in Australia, Ireland, England, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. He served as Associate Director and also served on the board for almost two decades. He shared beers and dinners and life experiences with several thousand people who stuttered. And he talked with people who recovered, some of whom share their stories in this book.
All this gave him an unusually good vantage point from which to explore the stuttering phenomenon.
In preparing a presentation for the NSA's first annual conference, held in San Francisco in the mid-80s, John came up with a new model, or paradigm, for stuttering that was inclusive enough to answer all his questions. He called this model the Stuttering Hexagon, and this book is a distillation of everything that John found out.
REDEFINING STUTTERING is a fascinating presentation of a new way to look at stuttering. The book explores many different facets of stuttering. You'll find dozens of stories and articles - including many ahah! moments - written by and about people who developed significant insights into themselves and their speech.
REDEFINING STUTTERING will broaden your awareness and make you think. It will help to transform the way you see this problem. It will also help you reach beyond the difficulties and challenges of stuttering to chart a course to a freer, fuller, more expressive life.
Also by John C. Harrison
Strategies for Disabling the Stuttering Hexagon
