Callum Schofield said his own name for the first time at the age of 18 without stuttering. He spent his childhood and teenage years without a voice, which he says had a massive impact on his mental health.
Callum is now a podcast host, motivational speaker and stammering activist raising awareness of the needs of children (and adults) with a stammer. He also advocates for male mental health on his blog and YouTube channel.
Where to get help with a stammer
In our chat, Callum talked about the two organisations that helped him gain control of his speech. He says that every stammerer is different, but these are the organisations he found help from:
- The Starfish Project - for help with the physical aspects of stammering
- Stop Holding Back - works on improving the mindset of someone with a stammer to help them achieve more in life
Where to connect with Callum
Advice for parents on stammering
This is honestly one of the loveliest pieces of advice I've had on the podcast. Callum says "Trust the timing." When his mother tried to help him as a younger child, it just didn't work. It would have been easy to despair, but she persisted in supporting her son, and when the time felt right for Callum, he got the help he needed.
I know this advice to work well for smaller parenting dilemmas too, especially with teenagers.
More teen mental health resources
There are lots more episodes of the Teenage Kicks podcast – do have a browse and see if I’ve covered anything else you might find useful. And if you have a suggestion of something you’d like to see talked about on the podcast please do email me on teenagekickspodcast@gmail.com I have loads more fabulous guests coming up to help families navigate some of the most complicated – but wonderful – teenage parenting years. I’ve also got some posts on the blog that might help parents with other teenage parenting dilemmas, so do pop over to Actually Mummy if you fancy a read.
Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe now to the Teenage Kicks podcast to hear all my new episodes. I'll be talking to some fabulous guests about difficult things that happened to them as teenagers - including losing a parent, becoming a young carer, and being hospitalised with mental health problems - and how they overcame things to move on with their lives.
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