Mendy was dating. And his stutter was proving to be a serious deterrent.

As a toddler, Mendy had been a late talker. With the help of speech therapy, he finally began babbling at age 3 but still struggled to string coherent sentences together.

At five, we realized his struggle with words was turning into a stutter. When government-mandated speech therapy didn’t help, we paid out of pocket for big-name stuttering specialists — with no results to show for it.

I constantly told him, “Just like Mommy can’t see so well and needs glasses, you don’t speak so well. And that’s completely okay.” In hindsight, I see that I reassured him to a fault. By downplaying his stutter, I prevented him from taking therapy seriously.

Thankfully, Mendy never suffered socially because of his stutter. He’s charming, handsome, and has loads of friends. His close friends were accustomed to his stutter and barely heard it anymore.

At thirteen, we enrolled Mendy in a stuttering program that taught him to speak in a certain rhythm. Still no difference.

While studying in yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel, he participated in a stuttering program that included group counseling. There was some improvement. For two years, we spent a mini fortune on that program.

When Mendy was in his comfort zone, his speech was mostly fine. But when he spoke in public or felt anxious, he frequently got stuck on his syllables. This forced him to talk slowly, causing him endless embarrassment.

He skipped words he thought he’d stutter on, and often refrained from speaking up or asking for help in public. As he approached the stage of shidduchim, he started worrying that his stutter would affect his future.

This year, when a prospective shidduch expressed concerns about his stutter, I realized it was time for serious intervention.

When Mendy heard about Mr. Weiss’s program, he rolled his eyes. “What’s this? Magic tricks? Instant salvation?” He’d been battling his stutter for so many years and was doubtful this would be “it”. After much convincing, he agreed to give it a try.

Mr. Weiss assessed Mendy and said his was a challenging case. The years of therapy had made Mendy’s speech irregular. He’d been taught to modify sounds and letters to improve his fluency. Now, Mr. Weiss said, he first needed to break all those ingrained practices to get Mendy to speak correctly.

They met once in person for an intense, four-hour session. He made Mendy talk and talk, identifying, breaking, and healing the barriers in his brain.

That session was a month ago. Since then, they speak daily on the phone and we’re seeing remarkable improvement.

My husband told me this week, “Mendy’s speech is unbelievably smooth. He sounds great!” Friends and family members are amazed at the difference.

Mendy shared that with every passing day, it’s getting easier for him to speak. He’s filled with hope, anticipation, and confidence, ready to build his future without the stutter in his way.

We’re so grateful to Hashem for His tremendous chesed in sending us the right shaliach to help our son.

*Names and identifying details have been changed.