Vartabedian: Shuttered by a Stutter

I’m about to let you in on a little secret.

I have something very much in common with Joe Biden, Tiger Woods, and John Updike, not that I have vice-presidential tendencies or can match wits with the world’s greatest golfer and a famous American writer.

What brings us together is a speech defect. At one time or another, we lingered through a stuttering problem that could very easily have wrecked our lives.

The same holds true for baseballer Johnny Damon, singer Carly Simon, and actress Marilyn Monroe. They, too, faced this mysterious disorder but didn’t allow it to catapult their successful careers.

A new movie titled “The King’s Speech” is shedding new light on stuttering and has hit home. As a youngster, I couldn’t put two sentences together without fumbling over my speech. My deficiency wreaked havoc with my self-esteem and tormented my days in grammar school when I was forced to face the class and render a report.

More than once, it turned into a laughing matter, causing the teacher to reprimand her students. She would often pull me aside and say, “Thomas, it’s all mind over matter. Practice in front of a mirror and gain confidence. Read your own lips.”

My heart would sink whenever she called upon me. I was the only one in my classroom who stuttered. It wasn’t until I took a public speaking class and joined the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF) that the problem disappeared.

One of my fellow members stuttered and we hit it off well together. He ultimately became a successful courtroom attorney and a true role model. His advice?

“It’s only a problem if you make it one,” he told me. “Obstacles are the stumbling blocks that become the stepping stones to success.”

I began giving educationals, read a lot from books, and avoided eye contact at all costs. I made notations on index cards and had little prompting sheets. I joined a theater group. Little by little, my confidence was restored.

The ultimate reward was an oratory medal from the American Legion after delivering a flawless rendition of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address at Memorial Day exercises my senior year. I still have that token and rub it every now and then for good luck.

As the kid who stuttered, I became the man who now addresses school classrooms on genocide education, speaks at ethnic commemorations, and gives impromptu eulogies at funerals without a hitch. My best moments, however, were served as a Merit Badge counselor for the Boy Scouts.

In some ways I feel connected to that movie and King George VI, hoping it receives its share of Hollywood recognition.

Until now, I did not know that 60 percent of people who stutter have a family member in the same capacity. No one in my family stuttered until my eldest son was born. He, too, went through the same ordeal as me, withdrawing to his own cocoon and always staying in the background.

Through corrective classes and self-motivation, he was able to assuage his deficiency somewhat, graduate from college with high honors, and land a job as a mechanical engineer with a high-profile international ceramics company.

Part of his job is giving reports and delivering papers in France where the company is headquartered. The kid with the debilitating stutter is on the interviewing end now with prospective employees. Unless you listen closely, you would never sense a stammer.

His daughter—my first granddaughter—had inaudible speech as a child. Thanks to therapy and other language aids, she was able to overcome the obstacle before starting school. If only she can learn to slow down and not mince her words.

Another grandson falls in the same boat with his delivery. Unless you lend an acute ear, you might not catch his drift. At age four, he’s very sensitive to it. A class he’s now taking appears to be working wonders. By kindergarten, he might be another Daniel Webster.

They tell me that high expectations and fast-paced lifestyles can contribute. I can understand that lifestyle with adults, but youngsters?

I wasn’t aware that three million Americans stutter—about one percent of the total population—and that four times as many males as females stutter.

We go through life with liabilities. They can either crush our spirit or make us stronger. Winston Churchill never let this impediment lie in his path as England’s great prime minister. One of my favorite actors of all time is James Earl Jones. His manner of speech is flawless as seen in such films as “Field of Dreams.” Who would have ever expected a glitch in his enunciation?

Whatever our obstacles, may they intend to make us better and not bitter.

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Tom Vartabedian

Tom Vartabedian is a retired journalist with the Haverhill Gazette, where he spent 40 years as an award-winning writer and photographer. He has volunteered his services for the past 46 years as a columnist and correspondent with the Armenian Weekly, where his pet project was the publication of a special issue of the AYF Olympics each September.