Stammering, or stuttering, is a speech disorder that causes the flow of speech to be broken up. More than 70 million people worldwide are stutterers; that’s one in every 100. Even Naomi T. Kaye struggled with stammering in her early years.
Naomi used to stammer so bad that she couldn’t say her name and that happened throughout her entire childhood. It was incredibly embarrassing for her; people would finish her sentences for her. She said it was like people thought she was stupid if she took too long. They would get disinterested then walk away and she was just trying to say something.
She never knew when it was going to happen. It made her very uncomfortable. This went on until Naomi was 35 years old. She saw a lot of speech therapists because they’re supposed to know the signs of the voice. They told her, at the age of 10 they said there was nothing they could do for her. She felt doomed to be that way for the rest of her life.
Because Naomi was so shy her little sister went with her whenever she went to a department store. Her sister was six years younger than her but she could speak so when she couldn’t find something on a shelf in the store, her sister would have to go ask for her because she probably couldn’t get it out.
It affected everything Naomi did. When she was a teenager she would never answer the phone when it rang because it was too embarrassing for her to stammer.
Naomi’s mother, Amanda Ambrose, was a Jazz performer for over 60 years and she was on every major TV talk show. Naomi started singing when she was 14 because when you sing you don’t stammer! She still couldn’t introduce herself half the time and she couldn’t say thank you at the end when people were clapping. Naomi’s mother created these exercises called Voicercise, which is voice exercises, and it was based on science not on those faulty theories. After using them, low and behold her speaking problem disappeared and she began speaking for a living
When Naomi’s mother had a stroke at the age of 71, she survived another 11 years after that but it affected her speaking. After having continuous mini strokes, it eventually affected her voice so she asked Naomi to please take over Voicercise for her and carry on her most important life’s work. And because it had changed Naomi’s life there was no way she could say no!
It’s amazing to see how far Naomi got with her stammering issue. She went from being afraid to even speak on the phone to speaking and singing for thousands of people, throughout her career. Voicercise, in a way, helped Naomi find her true self and if this story doesn’t inspire you to try out Voicercise for your stammering problem then I don’t know what will!
Written by: Airis Kemp (Instagram: @loveairisstyle)