Steve Dorfman|Palm Beach Post
Regardless of where you stand politically, there’s no denying this about President Joe Biden: Being so open about how he dealt with a childhoodstutter — one that occasionallycrept into his public speaking during the 2020 presidential campaign —has been inspirational for countless fellow stutterers.
It certainly was for Brayden Harrington.
The New Hampshire teen was 13 when he met Biden in 2020 during a campaign stop.
The two bonded over their shared conditions — and the future president urged Brayden, “Don’t let it define you. You’re smart as hell.”
A few months later young Brayden took the stage to speak at the Democratic National Convention — and wowed the nation with his display of courage and vulnerability.
Brayden’s speech soon went viral, garnering hundreds of thousands of views online — and led to him writing a children’s book that was published last year: “Brayden Speaks Up: How One Boy Inspired the Nation.”
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‘Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter’
It turns out young Brayden isn’t the only one whose stutter — and connection to Joe Biden — served as inspiration for a new book.
John Hendrickson, senior editor at The Atlantic, has a new book coming out in January: “Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter.”
Hendrickson says he first began stuttering at age 4.
The book is an expansion of Hendrickson’s article in the Jan./Feb. 2020 issue of The Atlantic — “What Joe Biden Can’t Bring Himself to Say.”
In the article, which was viewed online by about twomillion people and was named one of 2019’s best articles by Longform,Hendrickson explores what the lifelong effects of struggling with a stutter has meant for both Biden and himself.
“Stuttering can feel like a series of betrayals,” he wrote. “Your body betrays you when it refuses to work in concert with your brain to produce smooth speech. Your brain betrays you when it fails to recall the solutions you practiced after school with a speech therapist ... If you’re a lucky stutterer, you have friends and family who build you back up, but sometimes your protectors betray you too.”
However, Hendrickson believes that struggling with stuttering can also help a person develop some admirable qualities.
“Stuttering teaches you empathy at a very young age because carrying out simple tasks, such as ordering a sandwich, prove to be extremely challenging,” he told PBS’s "Frontline" in 2020. “And when you can’t just live your daily life doing these basic things without a great deal of difficulty, you look around at others who are dealing with a lot themselves and you feel for them. You identify with them. You empathize with them.”
Understanding more about stuttering
According to The Stuttering Foundation (stutteringhelp.org), around 1% of the world’s population — some 70 million people — are stutterers.
That translates to more than threemillion Americans who, like Biden, Hendrickson and Brayden, struggle with the condition.
Experts believe stuttering is a biological and neurological condition that is usually caused by one or more of four possible triggers: 1) genetics (two-thirds of stutterers have a family member who stutters or used to); 2) developmental delays; 3) neurophysiology; and/or 4) family dynamics.
Research has shown that people who stutter process speech, certain sounds and language differently than those who don’t stutter.
“Reactions to stuttering vary from person to person,” explains speech language pathologist Melody Erez, owner of Acorn & Oak Speech Therapy in Coconut Creek. “Physically, they may feel tension as the stutter occurs. Some people explain that they feel tightness in their throat, lips, mouth, or their jawline. Some also exhibit secondary behaviors that include head nodding, leg tapping, eye movements or throat clearing.”
Erez says that “people say they feel helpless or have a loss of control.”
On an emotional level, Erezsays that when a person stutters “he or she may feel anxious anticipating when a stutter might happen, or how others may react. This can all lead to communication avoidance if the person doesn't receive speech therapy.”
Indeed, as Hendrickson wrote in The Atlantic article: “Let’s say you’re in fourth grade and you have to stand up and recite state capitals. You know that Juneau is the capital of Alaska, but you also know that you almost always block on theJsound. You become intensely anxious not because you don’t know the answer, but because youdoknow the answer, and you know you’re going to stutter on it.”
Stuttering is usually diagnosed in childhood and Erez notes that “while approximately 75% of children will outgrow stuttering, 25% do not.”
In order to help resolve a stutter, says Erez, the context of the stuttering and the behaviors associated with it must be determined: “Frequency of stuttering is highly variable, so we look at it in multiple settings, with various different people, or in different contexts — such as reading, talking, or describing a picture, for example.”
Erez says speech pathologists also “look at the impact of stuttering on the individual’s ability to participate verbally in various activities and settings. And when a stutterer displays avoidance behaviors that may show how the individual feels.”
Treatment for a stutter
Erez explains that treatment for a stutter falls into one of two approaches: indirect and direct.
“With younger children, indirect treatment is when the speech-language pathologist helps the child's parents focus on how to modify their communication styles and environment,” she says. “Indirect approaches are effective at reducing or even eliminating stuttering in some young children. These strategies can include slowing down your own speech and asking fewer questions.”
Conversely, for older children and adults, direct treatment provides strategies for easing into words and reducing tension during stuttering moments.
“We also discuss the feelings they have about stuttering and self-esteem, as well as how the person is communicating — or avoiding communicating — with others,” she says.
Erez stresses that no matter a person’s age, stuttering is no reflection on the person’s intelligence, creativity, sense of humor or overall worth.
“I make sure we do activities where we talk about our hobbies and what we’re good at, and how stuttering is only a part of who we are,” she says. “I show them a list of countless famous people who stutter, and we talk about how these celebrities do all kinds of impressive things. I want them to know they have no limits to what they can achieve.”
