Stammering is a speech condition that is rooted in the white matter pathways connecting areas of the brain involved in speech. It affects 1% of the adult population, and roughly 70m adults worldwide. It shows in dysfluent, sometimes blocked speech, and avoidance behaviour, and it can have a significant impact on life experience, career prospects and mental health.

Walter Scott has stammered since the age of three. His past jobs have included working as a speechwriter. In 2014 he co-founded the Defence Stammering Network to support military personnel and civil servants who stammer, to educate and raise awareness about the condition, and to campaign for better support.

Much of the challenge of living with a stammer stems from the cultural pressure to be fluent - or at least to appear fluent. Society, and its employers, broadcasters and educators generally set high standards for fluency. Yet for those who stammer, the effort to appear fluent and avoid stammering compounds the dysfluency. Walter's message is that if society can only relax its standards for fluency, and recognise that human speech is a miraculous gift that should not be taken for granted, life could be so much easier for those who stammer.

In recent years Walter has written a series of articles and blog posts and given numerous public talks about stammering. He has recently published a collection of these in an Amazon Kindle ebook entitled A Few Quick Words, and filmed a series of short vlogs on stammering for YouTube.

BSA website: https://www.stammering.org/

Walter Scott on Twitter: @Walter_Scott1
A Few Quick Words ebook: www.amazon.co.uk/Few-Quick-Words-Outspoken-stammering-ebook/dp/B07BKT1YQR
A Few Quick Words clips: www.youtube.com/channel/UC4M5IdScEvl6pqPABdh3Mbg
Defence Stammering Network Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/DefenceStammeringNetwork/ Walter Scott has stammered since the age of three. He is a civil servant and Government communications specialist. His past jobs have included working as a speechwriter. In 2014 he co-founded the Defence Stammering Network to support military personnel and civil servants who stammer, to educate and raise awareness about the condition, and to campaign for better support.

Stammering is a speech condition that is rooted in the white matter pathways connecting areas of the brain involved in speech. It affects 1% of the adult population, and roughly 70m adults worldwide. It shows in dysfluent, sometimes blocked speech, and avoidance behaviour, and it can have a significant impact on life experience, career prospects and mental health.

Much of the challenge of living with a stammer stems from the cultural pressure to be fluent - or at least to appear fluent. Society, and its employers, broadcasters and educators generally set high standards for fluency. Yet for those who stammer, the effort to appear fluent and avoid stammering compounds the dysfluency. Walter's message is that if society can only relax its standards for fluency, and recognise that human speech is a miraculous gift that should not be taken for granted, life could be so much easier for those who stammer.

In recent years Walter has written a series of articles and blog posts and given numerous public talks about stammering. He has recently published a collection of these in an Amazon Kindle ebook entitled A Few Quick Words, and filmed a series of short vlogs on stammering which can be watched on YouTube. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx