James, Former IOL client

I have been very fortunate health wise in life. Though, I was born with two medical problems. One, I am a hay fever victim in the early fall, the other was a speech impediment. The speech impediment consisted of not being able to pronounce words and stuttering.

I was raised in Wichita, KS. Three days a week I attended the Institiute of Logopedics then located on the Wichita State University campus to correct my speech impediment. This was during my second, third and fourth grades of attending Riverside Elementary School.

The University was located in the northeast part of Wichita. My mother would give me 10 cents for bus fare. The cost was 5 cents to ride the bus downtown, get a transfer and ride a bus to the University where I would get my speech training. After an hour of speech correction work, I would spend the other nickel to ride back home.

With the training taking place almost 60 years ago, I can not recall all the circumstances or problems I encountered. As far as having a speech problem two words stand out that caused problems I can remember. One was the word "garage" and the other word was "boulevard." We lived close to the Arkansas River and a well known street was River Boulevard. I could not pronounce the word "boulevard" which was a cause for me to stutter and mispronounce words

At that age it was also an emotional problem. Other kids would call me names such as "dumb bunny" which of course was defeating for me. It was embarrassing as kids trying to be helpful in teaching me words often lost their patience and it ended up being a frustrating experience for both of us. I would stutter more if I became upset.

While attending the Institute of Logopedics one training exercise that took place was to pronounce the letter "f" correctly. The speech teacher placed a small piece of paper on my tongue. If I said the word with the letter "f" correctly the piece of paper would blow off my tongue. The analogy the instructor gave was like blowing snow off a mountain.

The worst feeling about the speech problem was you had the feeling of being different. I know my hanidcap made learning difficult. Looking back I know it cost my parents a lot of money, time and confusion. But without the training I received at the Institute of Logopedics, I would have had a difficult time making a living or maybe surviving.

On the bright side of the picture; I gradutated from Wichita High School North and attended college in Emporia. I graduated with a business degree and a minor in physical education. Served two years in the Navy. I had a wonderful career as a high school business teacher and coach. After coaching high school tennis for 30 years I was inducted into the Kansas Tennis Coach Hall of Fame in 1998. This would never have been possible if it wasn't for a place now called HEARTSPRING.