Head of the Department of Media and Journalism at African University of Communications and Business (AUCB), NanaBanyin Dadson, has opened up about living with stammering and how he turned what many see as a limitation into a source of strength and confidence.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Personality Profile programme, Mr Dadson explained why he became involved with the Ghana Stammerers Association and why he believes more awareness is needed, especially in schools.

According to him, stammering is a neurological condition and not something people can simply overcome without understanding and support.

“Stammering, we learn, is a neurological problem, which means it comes from the brain,” he said.

“So, it isn’t something that you can just take tablets, and it is gone.”

Mr Dadson told host Kofi Hayford that his decision to join the association was largely driven by concern for children who stammer and often struggle in school environments where teachers may not fully understand their condition.

“The reason why I joined this association was that the association was speaking for young people, children,” he explained.

“We were old enough. We can even tell jokes about it. But we have children who are in school who stammer but do not earn the patience of their teachers.”

He recounted how some children are ignored in class because teachers become impatient with the time it takes them to speak.

“Some small boy or girl raises a hand in school, and the teacher will look at him and say, ‘Oh, not you,’ because it takes time for him to get the word out,” he said.

According to him, many teachers wrongly assume children who stammer are being dishonest simply because they struggle to express themselves fluently.

“As soon as they see that you are stammering out words, they think that whatever you say is a lie,” he stated.

Mr Dadson also shared some of the embarrassing moments he personally experienced because of his speech condition.

Recalling one incident at a bank years ago, he said he struggled to pronounce the number “22” when a teller asked him to identify his queue number.

“Twenty-two was such a difficult word. Any word that started with ‘t’,” he explained.

“When the teller asked, ‘What is your number?’ 22 would not come. Everyone around was looking at me. Perhaps they thought I had stolen the cheque.”

He described the experience as deeply embarrassing.

“You can’t say your number and everyone is looking at you,” he recalled.

Despite the challenges, Mr Dadson said he never allowed stammering to stop him from teaching, even during his years as a young teacher and later as a university lecturer.

He revealed that while students were generally respectful, he found some church responsibilities more difficult because they involved public speaking and reading announcements aloud.

“When you are a teacher in a Methodist school, you are automatically perhaps the catechist,” he said.

“You are supposed to read Bible passages in church. You are supposed to prepare announcements and stuff like that. Sometimes it was very difficult reading an announcement without stammering.”

Asked how he managed to build confidence while teaching despite his condition, Mr Dadson described his approach as “an act of defiance”.

“How do I have things to say and I can’t say them?” he wondered.

He explained that over time, colleagues became so familiar with him that many hardly noticed his stammer anymore.

To make students feel comfortable, he said he often addressed the issue openly from the very first class.

“What I do is I make fun of it.”

“I go to a class for the first time, and I actually tell a joke about stammerers.”

Mr Dadson added that students would sometimes try to help him complete difficult words during lectures, but he remained determined to speak for himself.

“Sometimes I can’t get my words out quickly enough, and someone will volunteer to say the word,” he said.

“I tell them that whether you say the word or not, I will still say it.”