I have trouble speaking?

Sometimes I’ll catch myself doing the same things. When I do, I pause, regroup my thoughts and slow down my speech. Do you really stutter or just stutter a few words when you get nervous?

Welcome to Fluther and to the real world. It sounds like you might benefit from the guidance of a speech therapist.

Certainly speech therapy can help. I’m not sure it’s something you can do on your own.

@bkcunningham I don’t have a real stutter, I just stutter when I can’t think straight. Like, in awkward situations where I don’t really know what to say.

@wundayatta Is there online speech therapy – like with videos or articles? I don’t want to meet someone about this in person. I rather learn to do it on my own.

Welcome to Fluther.

First of all, work on pacing yourself. Slow down; don’t try to speak quickly. Breathe before you speak a single word. The time you spend in inhale-exhale-inhale again can help you to marshal your thoughts, select the words you want to say, and rehearse in your mind (in a second or two; it can be that quick) the words you want to say and the tone of voice to say them.

Write a lot, and use your ‘internal voice’ to mentally ‘speak’ the words to yourself.

Sing. Read poetry – out loud. These other forms of verbal expression can help you with normal speech.

What kind of situations?

If you’re talking about everyday conversations, people tend to like talking about themselves, so asking a few questions can get things flowing when you can’t think of anything to say. Generally, if you act friendly, confident and interested in people, they aren’t going to call you out for a slurred word or stutter or two. A little bit of awkwardness can be endearing if you handle it right.

My husband went to speech therapy as a young child, and he found Toastmasters to be very useful as an adult.

Don’t worry about it. In time, you will overcome this. Remember we are all the same in that there is always some area we can improve upon. Tolerant and kind people will understand. There are many more than you think. You will be fine.

Speech therapy would help, so would singing or reading rhythmical poetry aloud.

As everyone already said, a speech therapist will probably be the most helpful to you.
I kinda have the same problem, but it tends to happen when I do a presentation in front of a class, or when I talk to complete strangers.
I’m still trying to overcome it as well.
Try taking deep breaths, talking slower, or try picturing the words you’re going to say in your mind before you speak; I know that sounds weird but it helps me sometimes.
Hope this helps, and good luck. I’m sure you’ll be better at it eventually, just keep practicing.

Start reading out loud regularly. Be confident, don’t doubt yourself ever!