was no noise, he just opened his mouth.” When he was in the middle of telling a story ''…he suddenly stopped and you wondered if you had done anything wrong. Then you looked at him and you knew that you hadn't, it was all right.”


Biographer John Pudney wrote, “Perhaps his failure to correct his speech impediment was the overarching symbol of his entire life. He learned to live with his stammering; he knew what it permitted him to do, what not, where it would snare him and destroy the effects he sought to achieve and how to avoid the traps.” We see some evidence of this as Alice enters into a world that becomes “curiouser and curiouser” yet manages to avoid the snare and traps that Pudney describes.


Stuttering did not stop Lewis Carroll. He brought to life many lasting and imaginative stories for children. His own struggles and family history of stuttering are not as well known as they should be to further inspire children who stutter.


We find multiple instances of how Carroll may have written about his stuttering (and the people with whom he spoke) in Alice in Wonderland. Several striking examples are found in dialogue between Alice and the Red Queen:


" 'She can't do Subtraction,' said the White Queen. 'Can you do Division? Divide a loaf by a knife—what's the answer to that?' 'I suppose—' Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen answered for her. 'Bread-and-butter, of course.' "


“Curtsy while you’re thinking of what to say. It saves time.”


“'It's time for you to answer now,' the Queen said, looking at her watch, 'Open your mouth a little wider when you speak...'”


"Look up, speak nicely, and don't twiddle your fingers" "Think before you speak. Write it down afterward!"


Alice also receives communication advice from Tweedledee and Tweedledum:


“The first thing in a visit is to say ‘How d’ye do?’ and shake hands.”


5


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