WHERE THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY

Idell Dockins listens to her tapes from the Hollins Communications Research Institute. The tapes have ehlped her keep practicing the skills she learned at the school to help her speak clearly.

For 58 years Idell Dockins knew she had a speech problem and for 58 year she tried every possible remedy she could get her hands on and they all failed, but one.

Dockins, who was 64 at the time, saw something on TV's "How Did You Do That," that gave her hope.

She was off to the Hollins Communications Research Institute in Roanoke, Va.

She had nothing to lose by going there. When Dockins entered school she first learned of her stuttering problem and had lived with having to have someone there to speak for her for almost 60 years.

She was one of 16 children and her mother never considered her to be any different than the other children.

From the first day in school when her teacher discovered her stuttering problem a mountain of fear started growing inside Dockins.

"We observe people that are watching us and it causes us to be uncomfortable and a chain reaction occurs that doesn't stop and we can't speak," she said.

"Before, I don't think life could have been any worse than hell," Dockins said.

She had to have someone with her to order a Coke at a restaurant.

She couldn't even answer her teacher when roll was called in school.

"I've always thought there's an answer somewhere, it just took finding it," Dockins said.

She was always buying books and trying what everybody said would work, but nothing did.

"I didn't give up. I kept searching and searching," she said.

When she found the Hollins Communications Research Institute, she enrolled and took the three week intensive course.

She started in the morning with her other classmates from around the country and they were in class all day and for two hours at night.

Breaking only for lunch and supper. The course was seven days a week.

The first two weeks of the course Dockins and her classmates were working with clinicians on full breath exercises, stretched syllables and other speech skills that people who don't stutter take for granted.

The final week of the course the students got to go to the mall and try speaking in a public place.

"After the training, it was like you never wanted to stop talking," Dockins said.

"After the class, it felt like heaven," Dockins said.

The institute sent Dockins and her classmates home, but will be there if anyone needs them.

They gave each student tapes to practice with to help them along the way.

"The more you practice the less you do it," Dockins said.

"They taught you what you were doing wrong, it is a fantastic school," Dockins said.

Now she has good and bad days. Some days she talks as if she never had a problem and some days she has to pause and think about what she is saying.

But even on the bad days it seems as if she doesn't have a problem.

She admits she still has trouble with her B's, but she listens to her tapes everyday and works on speaking better along with her numerous hobbies.

At age 67, Dockins is getting the chance she didn't have for the first 60 years of her life. She can speak clearly and she doesn't have to depend on others to speak for her.

About the school, Dockins said "It is something that if I could have had it in school, I'd give everything I ever earned in my life for it."

Dockins said that people who have children with this problem should get it fixed now, so that they can achieve so much more in life.

"I have the tools, now I go and do what I want to do."