Editor's note: This story is based on an interview conducted via e-mail after reporter Lisa Tatum read Bobby Childers' speech, "Stuttering: The real story behind the person," on his Web site at www.nettak.com/bobby/ welcome.html.

No one really knew what a smart kid Bobby Childers was in elementary school -- teachers didn't have the patience to let him answer out loud.

In high school, girls didn't know what a fun guy Childers was -- most walked away before he could ask them for a date.

By the time he got to college in 1975, stuttering had all but silenced Childers.

"I tended to stick to myself," he recalls.

After spending most of his life avoiding situations that would require him to talk, the Las Cruces, N.M., man is speaking out about stuttering. He recently gave his first speech at New Mexico State University in Carlsbad, N.M. Childers, 43, attributes his newfound courage to a combination of supportive friends and a dedicated speech therapist.

More than 3 million Americans live with chronic stuttering. During National Stuttering Awareness Week, May 8-15, many will join Childers in efforts to educate people about the affliction they deal with daily.

The National Stuttering Association says there is no single cause for the condition, but research suggests a connection between stuttering and neurological coordination of the speech mechanism.

Stuttering affects more men than women and tends to run in families. The association says stuttering is influenced by behavioral factors but is not caused by emotional problems or nervous disorders. A common misconception is that parents can cause their children to stutter.

Childers said he started stuttering at age 5 after falling from a tree. Doctors told his parents he'd outgrow it, but he never did. School speech therapists offered little help to Childers as he grew up.

"Speech therapy in the middle 1960s in a small town like Carlsbad, N.M., wasn't the best it could have been," he said. One therapist told him his stuttering made him look bad and disgraced his family. It was enough to turn him off of therapy for nearly 30 years.

In college, Childers turned to alcohol to ease his speech problem. He said he dropped out of school when he feared he would become an alcoholic. Twenty years later, he is working on a degree in business computer systems and plans to graduate next year. He attributes his college success to the school environment.

"The faculty, staff and students made me feel that my lack of speech didn't matter to them. They liked me for who I was, not how I sounded," he said. "That helped my speech become slightly more fluent, as I felt like I didn't have to hide anything from them."

Childers said a listener's attitude can make a tremendous difference in his speaking efforts. Laughs and smirks are the worst offenses someone can commit when listening to a stutterer, he said. He also gets frustrated when someone tells him to slow down or finishes his sentences for him.

Childers said it is difficult to describe stuttering.

"Talking is rather like breathing, it just seems to flow, and when you can't get a breath, you feel like you are going to die," he said.

"Stuttering is similar in that you feel that your speech should just flow right off your tongue and then you get stuck on a word. No matter how hard you try, no amount of force is going to shove that word out of your mouth."

Though he has come a long way from the silence of his early years, Childers said he still struggles to keep a good attitude about his speech hindrance. He still shies from some situations most people take for granted. He avoids the telephone when possible and won't go through a fast-food drive- through unless someone else is with him to order into the "squawk box."

"I will always stutter," Childers said. "That, I have come to accept. But I am hoping that with therapy, I can reduce the amount of stuttering that I do."

All content copyrighted 2000 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.