The Cupertino Courier

Community

Support group aids people with speaking difficulties

By Dominique Fong

Jeff Olevson speaks with confidence and an articulate assembly of carefully chosen words. He also speaks at his own pace, sometimes taking a deep breath to avoid the stutter he has learned to control.

"My stuttering has gotten a lot better,'' says Olevson, who is the president of the San Jose chapter of the National Stuttering Association.

"What's helped that get better is my attitude. It's not really the technique," he says. "When I know I'm about to stutter I pause and ease into the word. I just accept that I stutter."

As chapter president, Olevson, a Sunnyvale resident, heads a support group every second Wednesday of the month at Kaiser Hospital on Kiely Boulevard in Santa Clara.

There is a common misconception that stuttering is caused by a nervous or emotional disorder. It is a communication disorder that disrupts speech and the exact cause in unknown.

Growing up with a speech impediment was never a disability for Olevson, who says he led a normal life in high school. He went to the prom, participated in sports and had supportive friends.

Degrees of stuttering severity vary from person to person. Some, such as Olevson, are "covert stutterers," people who substitute difficult words with synonyms.

Olevson mentions, with a grin, that he used to avoid words that began with "h" such as "Hawaii" or "home," cleverly coming up with such substitutes as "the islands" or "place." With the help of speech therapy, he no longer has difficulty.

Maintaining a positive perspective has affirmed his self confidence, but it has been a long process. In high school, one month after a fight with one of his good friends, he asked her if the fight was related to the fact that he stuttered.

Surprised when she said no, he realized she did not define their friendship by his speaking habits.

"NSA taught me that stuttering doesn't define me. What defines me is my accomplishments," Olevson says.

He first joined the support group by chance in his freshman year at San Jose State University. When his speech therapist, then a graduate student in the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, searched "stuttering" on Google, she found the NSA website and proposed that they visit the group.

Before the first meeting in spring of 2002, Olevson had never met anyone else who stuttered. At the NSA support group, he discovered a welcoming, friendly community.

Encouraged by the group, he continued to attend NSA meetings throughout college. Last summer, former chapter leader Howard Delman noticed Olevson's enthusiasm and asked him to be the next leader.

"I sort of watched him grow up," says Delman. "I was looking for somebody who could not only do the job but fulfill the commitments. I wanted to be sure and confident that they would do a good job."

Olevson loosely structures his meetings, usually allowing the group to choose a facilitator, who comes up with a creative topic or speaking activity for the next meeting.

At a recent meeting, the members sat in a circle and played a memorization game beginning with, "I went to the store and bought an apple." The next person says, "I went to the store and bought an apple and a book." The game continues with more items in alphabetical order.

As part of his efforts to spread awareness about stuttering, Olevson, Delman and member Mel Hofman--"the three musketeers" of the group--occasionally visit a fluency course for speech language pathologists to talk about their experiences.

Since becoming chapter leader, Olevson has started regular social outings for the group, what he calls a "chat 'n' chew."

"My goal is to make it a comfortable atmosphere to come and speak."