Darth Vader actor James Earl Jones, country singer Mel Tillis, U.S. President Joe Biden, they are three famous people who overcame a stuttering problem to find phenomenal success. In the latter’s case, speech therapy in kindergarten did little to ease his severe speech impediment. Like many people who have dealt with stuttering, Biden received his share of bullying, including from a Catholic nun, who made fun of him during a speech in class. His verbal challenges even earned his the nickname “Dash,” a nod to how much Biden’s speech mimicked the cadence of the dot-dash pattern of Morse code, (per Biden’s biography, “Promises to Keep”).
In order to conquer his challenges with verbal expression, Joe Biden came up with his own solutions. He spent hours in front of a mirror, with a flashlight pointed at his face, speaking out the words of great poets, like William Butler Yeats. He did this until he could speak “flawlessly” in front of a crowd (per The Miller Center).
Eventually, his tenacity paid off, earning Biden a win as high school class president, a position that pointed toward his later political victories. In 2008, NPR recognized him as a “gifted, albeit long-winded orator,” instead of a young man “with a bad stutter.”
