Man turns his own speech disorder into a opportunity to help others like himself

Image: University News, Appalachian State University

Many people who have speech disorders are bullied as children, become reclusive and shy, and settle for jobs they don't like because of speech disorders.

One of these, a former journalism hopeful, turned his stutter into motivation to help others like himself overcome these obstacles. Joe Klein decided to pursue a career studying speech and language disorders, trying to better understand symptoms and causes, and to develop new techniques for treatment, based on his own experience. Stuttering, like many other speech disorders, is not well understood; it is difficult to treat or to overcome on one's own, and can greatly impact the social life and job prospects of sufferers. As assistant professor, he now helps to train speech-language pathologists at Appalachian State University.