Sam’s poetry puts the spotlight on stammer

Sam Wiggins penned the poem to encourage others to better understand stammers and how to react to someone with a stammer.

His mother, Victoria Wiggins, said Sam was inspired to create the video as he was about to start a new school and every time he moves year group, he likes to do a presentation to help his teachers and classmates understand his stammer.

The family moved to Malpas on the Shropshire border three years ago from Wrexham and Victoria said she cannot believe the response the video has had from people all over the country.

“Sam has had a stammer since he was about three, and started speech therapy when he was four,” Victoria said.

“This year he has found his stammer quite difficult. So we had a few chats about it all and how he felt, what was helping him, what wasn’t – and we decided to write a poem together about it all. The poem is in Sam’s words, I just helped him write it out.

“I didn’t expect it to have the response it did. I put it on Facebook first, just so friends and family could see really.

“It has taken off from there really – the British Stammering Association and Action for Stammering Children have been quite involved. Next month is stammering awareness day and I think they want to show Sam’s poem as part of it.”

Sam is used to talking about his stammer, as every time he started a new class at school he would create a Powerpoint presentation to help everyone understand his stammer. Sometimes people don’t really understand how to deal with a stammmer so we wanted to raise awareness and educate people,” Victoria added.

“The video has reached so many people – so many parents have messaged us about their children, saying it has really helped them. And children have said it helped them to feel like they were not alone.

“Years ago there was not as good an understanding and therapy was not as good as it is now.

"We moved to Cheshire from Wrexham about three years ago but Sam’s speech therapist in Wrexham was fantastic.

"There can be so much awkwardness when someone is stammering, people don’t know whether to make eye contact or finish the sentence for them.

"We have always celebrated being different and I think that has really helped Sam.”

The video now has more than 3,400 views in just three days.