The Invisible Challenges of Stuttering | Ruban Pillai | TEDxFolkestone

This talk aims to help everyone understand how challenging stuttering can be, both psychologically and emotionally, as these aspects are often overlooked when discussing stuttering. What people don’t see is that the fear of stuttering can dictate almost every decision a person makes.

Stuttering (also known as Stammering) is a neurological speech condition that affects 1% of the world’s population.

A person’s self-esteem, confidence and mental health will slowly deteriorate through years of negative experiences and their entire lives will be shaped around their fear of stuttering in public. Society still sees stuttering as a comical quirk but it is a serious condition that has led to people taking their own lives.

There isn’t a traditional happy ending to this talk but, more importantly, there is a call to action for us all to consider. We need to stop looking at stuttering as something to fix and instead help people who stutter feel safe enough to express themselves regardless of how they sound. This is when the real transformation will begin.
Ruban Pillai is a British born Tamil and he has been overtly stuttering since the age of 4. After over 20 years of silence, he started to speak openly about the topic to his family and community and has since given talks to help raise awareness of stuttering at universities, places of employment, TV and radio.

As a graduate seeking employment in banking and finance, Ruban used to leave presentations and job interviews disgruntled and prospective employers told him that he could not progress due to his stutter. Ruban persevered and, alongside his full-time career, he has acted as a change maker within the industry to help ease the path for others experiencing the same challenges.

He has spent the past 5 years opening up about his challenges publicly and has helped others do the same and transform the world around them.

To find out more information head to rubanpillai.com This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx