Today, the 22nd of October 2001...

I only have personal testimony and memories of recieving speech therapy on this topic, and a great respect for speech therapists, one of whom helped me learn how to speak.

I Am a former stutter who could not finish a sentence. Word after word and the first sylable to the second of each one I stuttered. As soon as my impediment became obvious, I began speech therapy at the age of six.
After four years of public school therapy, I recieved FREE comprehensive therapy at the University of Louisianna, considered to be a top school in the field, at least here in the U.S. It took less than a year at LSU for my stutter to become remarkably self-corrective. Speech therapy enabled me to stop stuttering the moment I hear myself begin to do it. So now if I am speaking and I begin to stutter, I can pause and restate with out even trying. I also recall doing breathing exercises as part of my therapy. Unfortunatly speech therapy cannot correct all stutters and impediments, because some of them are caused by nerve damage of some sort. Because of a deadly fever as an infant, I suffered minor brain damage in the speech center of my brain, which manifest as a stutter upon the development of my language skills.

I did not know, until I saw this thread that there was such an international day for people who stutter.