Being bullied throughout middle school and early high school, Senior Talha Aziz experienced mental trauma affecting the development of his speaking skills. Stuttering and mumbling has held Aziz back from getting a job and socializing with new people.

“I normally don’t go to social events since I try to ignore people mocking my stuttering, and it’s hesitated me to even go to homecoming or other school events,” Aziz said.

Having minimal support from family and friends, Aziz has given up on trying to improve his speech skills.

“I haven’t tried any exercises because I don’t know where to even start and with whatever’s going on with the world I just gave up,” Aziz said.

When Aziz was younger, opinions from others would have a negative effect on him, but he’s working to overcome this stage in life. Recently, he has been avoiding these comments that people make about him.

“Don’t be afraid to be yourself, and it’s hard sometimes to ignore bullying, but this avoidance has made me individually stronger,” Aziz said. 

Aziz has taken advantage of this online learning to participate in classes, and with other people not usually participating, he is continuing his development of self-confidence. 

“Online classes have been actually more comfortable for me to talk to people since everyone is muted and I don’t have to hear them laugh at me,” Aziz said.

Speech-Language Pathologist Sahil Sharma described his background in Speech Pathology and how he trains his students to behave in a classroom environment.

“I currently have 80-90 students in which I’ve been teaching them some of the behavior norms people have in classrooms to avoid arguments and bullying,” Sharma said.

Sharma explained how bullying and mental trauma affect someone’s communication skills and can happen any time in someone’s life.

“Many speech impediments are caused by accidental trauma, mental trauma, and sometimes a change in events in someone’s life, causing some people to stutter and stammer,” Sharma said.

Sharma described the special education system and how people don’t understand what’s going on inside their doors.

“A lot of the general public is not aware of how we handle the Special Education students. People don’t understand how they’re positively affected with these classes and how they perform in the real world with certain empathy and sympathy they need for support,” Sharma said.

Sharma finally gave advice to Aziz on how to overcome some of these impediments.

“Just have a positive frame of mind, everyone is not the same. All the fingers on our hands are not the same. If you are serious about improving your speaking skills then ask your parents or teachers to get you into this system and I’ll be happy to help,” Sharma said.