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Liberal Democrat councillor Janet Grauberg has refused to let a stammer hold back her ambitions |
Speaking out boldly about stammering
Senior Lib-Dem councillor reveals how she tackled stammering by refusing to go quietly
PUBLIC speaking might seem like a daunting prospect for anybody who has stammered since childhood. Yet Liberal Democrat councillor Janet Grauberg has made it her life’s work.
Speaking for the first time about how she overcame the odds, Cllr Grauberg said: “From the very start I always put myself in positions to speak.”
As a six-year old she was taken out of class to attend speech therapy at a nearby hospital.
“I remember going to a big hospital building and them trying to re-teach me how to speak,” Cllr Grauberg said. “I felt like they were changing who I was, although I know it was with the best of intentions.”
As the council’s treasurer, Cllr Grauberg holds one of the most senior positions at the Town Hall, regularly having to go head to head in debates with political rivals.
But she doesn’t let it faze her – at Cambridge University, where she studied geography, she attended debating society meetings with Ed Davey, Liberal Democrat MP for Kingston and Surbiton.
Cllr Grauberg said: “It’s my impression from what I have read that there’s better understanding about speech therapy now than 35 years ago.”
Today’s stammering experts urge sufferers to learn to accept their speech impediment rather than try and find a magical cure.
How confident a person appears to be in managing their problem, rather than the degree of fluency they have attained, is considered the measure of success.
In the past, stammering has been described variously as an anatomical disorder, a disease, a psychiatric illness, an anomaly of brain functioning and an emotional disturbance.
While some stutterers speak more fluently under pressure, such as in an interview or exam, others are paralysed by the characteristic involuntary pauses in these stressful circumstances.
For younger children “parent-child interaction therapy” has been designed to help parents learn to give their child more time when they are speaking.
“I don’t think about it now, although I remember it being difficult at the time,” Cllr Grauberg said. “People did act impatiently and still do when they first meet me but, actually, people pretty soon come to terms with it. I’ve always taken the view that people have to take me as they find me.
“My father stammered when he was a boy, but he grew out of it, so I wasn’t copying him. I thought I would grow out of it like him.”
Cllr Grauberg says the council chamber is not her favourite event of the month, but that’s not because she dreads her turn to stand up and fight her corner.
“Everyone is trying to score points and not really dealing with the issues,” she said. “People challenge me about my public speaking skills, in terms of am I getting the message across, am I saying the right thing, as they would any other councillor.” |
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