School for Stammerers – how therapy changed the lives of the tongue-tied
The David McGuire programme uses physical and psychological techniques which can lead to life-changing results. ILLUSTRATION | FILE
What you need to know:
- A former student of the McGuire programme, David Conley, told a local newspaper that he developed his stammer around the age of five.
- One said getting rid of the stammer was a “euphoric moment, like being released from a dark cave I had been locked up in all my life.
- Many experiences were held in common: being bullied at school, laughed at, finding people walking away impatiently, having the phone put down on them.
Appearing together on television were a lorry driver, a teacher, a pharmacist, a photographer and two schoolboys. Four males and two females. What on earth could they have in common?
The answer: they were stammerers and what they shared was the evident agony of striving desperately to speak when the words would not come.
They appeared on a one-off ITV programme, School for Stammerers, one of the most agonising yet uplifting you would ever see. It followed the emotional journey of the six sufferers as they underwent a four-day speech therapy course, known as the McGuire programme.
Founded in 1994 by David McGuire, himself a former stammerer, it uses physical and psychological techniques which can lead to life-changing results.
Each of the TV six was allotted a personal coach who was a former stammerer; from seven in the morning to ten at night, the students were allowed to talk to no-one but their coaches, and within 48 hours they were required to go out in public and speak to 100 people, asking the time, the way to the shops etc.
PAINFUL STORIES
Their back stories were painful. Emily, the teacher, said she could speak happily to a class of small children but when it came to job interviews, she was tongue-tied and helpless.
Jessica, who was bullied at school, became a professional photographer but needed a friend to talk to her clients; she was engaged but would not marry until she could say her wedding vows without stammering.
The pharmacist, a British Asian, refused to use the telephone because he could never get out the words, “Good morning.” The lorry driver said he chose that particular job because it meant he did not have to speak to anyone.
Many experiences were held in common: being bullied at school, laughed at, finding people walking away impatiently, having the phone put down on them. Often this led to isolation and withdrawal.
A former student of the McGuire programme, David Conley, told a local newspaper that he developed his stammer around the age of five. At Leeds University, he dropped out of studying chemistry because he could not face doing presentations in front of his peers.
TRANSFORMATION
For years he gave the wrong name to his hairdresser. He said he was Steve because it was easier to say than David. “For years, I was Steve to the people there.” He added, “I never used the telephone. I would walk past ringing phones.”
What changed everything was the McGuire programme, which he attended in Dundee, Scotland. “The transformation was unbelievable,” he said. “I found I could do things I could never do before.”
He later graduated from Northumberland University and got a job as an analytical chemist. That was also the result for all six of the TV stammerers. Each one delivered a short, flawless speech to camera at the end of the course, often near tears. One said getting rid of the stammer was a “euphoric moment, like being released from a dark cave I had been locked up in all my life.”
Jessica set a date for her wedding, now that she can say her vows, and the lorry driver has embarked on a new avocation, as a stand-up comedian.
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A butcher who became trapped in his walk-in freezer owes his life to a frozen sausage.
When Chris McCabe, 70, entered the freezer in his shop in Totnes, Devon, the door blew shut behind him. He wasn’t too worried because there was a safety button inside. But then he found that it was frozen solid.
FROZEN MEAT
The temperature in the freezer was minus 20 degrees Celsius, which could kill a human in about an hour.
Frantically, the butcher banged on the door, but nobody could hear him so he looked round for a tool to batter the button. Frozen meat was all there was. Beef was too slippery to hold and lamb was too big, so he reached for a frozen roll of blood sausage, known here as black pudding.
“It was the right shape, solid, pointed and I could get plenty weight behind it,” Chris said. “I used it as a battering ram.” It did its job and the mechanism responded.
“Black pudding saved my life,” said Chris.
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A lawyer’s dog, off its lead and running free, seizes a leg of lamb from a butcher’s shop and runs off. The butcher goes to the lawyer’s office and innocently asks, “If a dog running unleashed steals a piece of meat, does the owner have the right to demand payment for the meat from the dog’s owner?”
The lawyer smiles and replies, “Absolutely!” “Then you owe me £5,” the butcher says. “Your dog stole the meat from my shop.” Without a word, the lawyer writes a cheque for £5 and the butcher leaves, smiling happily. Two days later, the butcher receives a bill from the lawyer: £100 for legal consultation.
