International Stammering Awareness Day: ‘Shades of stammering – What’s yours?’

Every year on the 22nd of October, the world comes together to observe International Stammering Awareness Day, a day dedicated to increasing public understanding of stammering, celebrating the voices of people who stammer and calling on communities to do better. This year’s theme “Shades of Stammering — What’s Yours?” reminds us that stammering looks and feels different for every person who lives with it. Some repeat sounds. Some get stuck mid-sentence. Some hide it so well you would never know, but at a great personal cost. Every shade of stammering deserves to be seen, heard, and respected. What is Stammering? Stammering is a speech condition that disrupts the flow of speech through repetitions, prolongations or blocks. It is not caused by nervousness, low intelligence, poor upbringing or spiritual problems. It is a neurological condition. Approximately 1 in 100 adults stammer, meaning hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians stammer. It cannot be cured, but with support from a speech and language therapist, people who stammer can manage it and communicate with confidence. The Hidden Cost: Career Entrapment What many people do not see is the daily emotional burden of stammering. Many people who stammer experience anxiety, shame and low self-esteem. Some avoid speaking altogether, in classrooms, job interviews, social gatherings, not because they have nothing to say, but because they fear how they will be received. This fear has a name: career entrapment . Many gifted Ghanaians quietly abandon dreams of becoming lawyers, teachers, doctors, politicians or broadcasters, not because they lack ability, but because stammering makes those spaces feel closed to them. This is a silent injustice that robs individuals of their potential and robs our society of their contributions. To Comedians Comedy is a gift. But using stammering as a punchline is not comedy. It is cruelty with a microphone. Somewhere in your audience is a child who stammers, watching the crowd laugh at the way they speak. We ask Ghana’s comedians to choose differently. There is no shortage of material in our rich culture. Stammering does not need to be one of them. To Teachers and Lecturers The classroom can be a place of growth or daily dread for a student who stammers and you decide which. Do not laugh at, mimic or single out a student for how they speak. Do not tell them to slow down or start again. Simply give them time, maintain eye contact and listen to what they are saying, not how they are saying it. Your patience can change a student’s life. Our Call to Action This year, the Speech Therapists and Audiologists’ Association of Ghana (STAAG), in collaboration with the Ghana Stammering Association, is calling on all Ghanaians to help build a more inclusive society. Here is what you can do: Give people who stammer time to finish speaking Never finish their sentences for them Do not laugh, mimic, or mock stammering Speak up when you witness others doing so If your child stammers, seek help from a speech and language therapist early Every voice matters. Every shade counts. Let us build a Ghana where no one is held back by how they speak. Dr. Josephine Ohenewa Bampoe President, Speech Therapists and Audiologists’ Association of Ghana (STAAG) Lecturer, University of Ghana Contact STAAG: jobamp@hotmail.com