Georgie, 17, has created an emotional piano composition for ISAD 2021.
Action for Stammering Children’s Youth Panel member, Georgie, 17, has composed a powerful piano piece called ‘Emotion Within’. The composition aims to give her audience an insight of the emotions experienced by someone who stammers by bringing to life her stammer through the music.
To celebrate International Stammering Awareness Day, taking place this year on Friday 22nd October, Georgie, 17, has composed her very own piano piece. ‘Emotion Within’ aims to express the emotions felt by someone who stammers. Georgie composed the piece to raise awareness of the condition and to fundraise for the Charity, Action for Stammering Children. You can listen to the piece on Georgie’s Spotify channel, when it is released.
Stammering is a speech disorder, affecting around 8% of children[1]. The condition disrupts verbal fluency and can result in difficulty getting the words out. Stammering can have a significant impact on a child’s social experiences and mental health. Children who stammer are more likely to be bullied[2], rejected by their peers[3] and are at risk of facing societal stigma into adulthood[4].
Georgie is part of Action for Stammering Children’s Youth Panel. The Youth Panel is a group of passionate and engaged young people who stammer, aged between 16 – 25 from across the UK. Their aim is to raise awareness of stammering, reduce the stigma associated with it and reach out to other young people who stammer.
Georgie has explained more about her piece:
‘”Emotion Within” is a modern classical composition all about the emotions within people who stammer. This piece is for for international stammering awareness day on 22nd October. My composition will hopefully give a unique and different perspective of what it is like having a stammer and help show all the different emotions that we experience. The low notes represent the emotions that we hide. Things like worry, anxiety, guilt, shame but as the piece goes on, it portrays the determination and resilience that we have and that actually having a stammer is part of us. This piece almost tells a story of our stammer journey. Yes, our stammer can be a pain but it has enabled us to be strong and resilient and that we can achieve anything despite it. The piece also shows that sometimes our stammer behaves itself and other times it lets itself out of the cage. I came up with the idea one evening as I love composing classical pieces so I thought wouldn’t it be cool and unique to create a composition all around stammering all for charity. It would show that people who stammer arent alone and I hope that this piece will raise awareness of how people who stammer feel but also to show how determined we all are. Throughout my compositions I have made, my main aim is to inspire and encourage others through my music and I hope that this piece can demonstrate this too.’
Steven Gauge, Chief Executive of Action for Stammering Charity, commented: “We are so excited to see our Youth Panel members raising awareness of stammering in such a creative way. We hope that Georgie’s composition will encourage more conversations about stammering and that it allows people who stammer to feel like they can express themselves more openly. Our Youth Panel are essential to informing our strategy in how we can support more young people who stammer and their families and this is just one way among many.”
[1] Yairi, E., & Ambrose, N., 2013. Epidemiology of stuttering: 21st century advances. Journal of Fluency Disorders, 38, p66 – 87.
[2] Blood, G. W., & Blood, I., M., 2007. Preliminary study of self-reported experience of physical aggression and bullying of boys who stutter: relation to increased anxiety. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 104, p1060 – 1066
[3] Davis, S., Howell, P & Cooke, F., 2002. Sociodynamic relationships between children who stutter and their non-stuttering classmates. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43, p939 – 947.
[4] Boyle, M. P., 2018. Enacted stigma and felt stigma experienced by adults who stutter. Journal of Communication Disorders, 73: 50 -61.
