Do people understand you when you stutter?

[JDRow]

This is a spin-off to Adam's thread.

Like I said on that one, I've never thought people had much trouble understanding me when I talk to them, even though I stutter a lot. Usually the only time people tell me they couldn't understand is if I wasn't talking loudly enough. So I just figured my stuttering didn't stop them from understanding, and that it was just annoying and frustrating to the listener, rather than something they really couldn't understand. But, I might be wrong.

What have you found? Can people understand you when you stutter, or do they have trouble?

[happy7117]

This is a spin-off to Adam's thread.

Like I said on that one, I've never thought people had much trouble understanding me when I talk to them, even though I stutter a lot. Usually the only time people tell me they couldn't understand is if I wasn't talking loudly enough. So I just figured my stuttering didn't stop them from understanding, and that it was just annoying and frustrating to the listener, rather than something they really couldn't understand. But, I might be wrong.

What have you found? Can people understand you when you stutter, or do they have trouble?

I'll just summarize the reply I put under the other thread dealing with this same frusterating problem!!

My parents have lived with me for so long, they probably have a better ear for trying to understand me. It's like they are so used to hearing the stutter, they sort of can understand throughout all the nasty stuttering what I realy want to say.

Most people when I stutter alot, will not be able to understand me. It's not their fault. I should not be angry for them for not being able to understand me.

Something I or we cannot control like stuttering naturaly makes it hard for people to know what we are saying.

As I said before already, people who act like they know what we are saying probably do not mean it.

Sure, they may nod their head, or say "hh-mm", or "yeah", but they might be doing that just to be nice to us.

After a ton of unfun stuttering, a listener might not want to ask us to repeat what we are saying because they did not understand us.

So a listener instead of putting us through the hell of asking us to say what we were trying to say, might just nod in agreement.

In truth, this false reply is very mean and hurtfull to any stutterer I'm sure.

It means, they did not understand us, and are replying to something that they have no idea what they are replying to.

I also think it is very rude for this "false reply", and also if they do not say "I'm sorry. I did not understand you".

They can at least admit they did not understand us, instead of acting like they did when they didn't.

On the other hand, it is also nasty to hear "I'm sorry, I did not understand you", so they probably nod their head or false respond so we think they understood us.

False responding, and pretending to listen to us when they are not, tuning us out, "I did not understand you", may be nasty to hear which it is. But for us stutterers, that's cruely how it is!

I would much rather a person be honest about not understanding me, instead of sort of half listening, or acting like they can understand me when they don't!

Naturaly, when I stutter less IF I ever stutter less, people CAN understand me better. And they can truthfully reply, because although I may have stuttered a little, I still was able to get my message across clearly!

Damn, that was not a summary.. that was a full post!!!