I've attended speech therapy from a young age (4-17). It's incredibly intense, however, it helped me read people's body language and communicate a lot better. I remember crying because the speech therapist wouldn't let me leave the room until I said "Watch" instead of "Wash" three times in a row. It took 40 minutes.
I'm conflicted because it genuinely did help me but I also felt like I wasn't treated well the majority of the time, either being too coddled or yelled at.
It helps, especially with early intervention done. I wouldn't want to live in a timeline where I never received the services. But I can also understand how it can stress and overwhelm people, especially when given the wrong speech therapist or someone who doesn't care besides teaching.
That sounds rough. I'm glad you ultimately got some benefit from it though. It's horrible to put in work and see no benefit but putting in work and getting results in a nice feeling.
I just see it as something that's inflicted on people and the kind of never ending 'you can't talk properly' judgement as something that just motivates suicide, you can't bully people into learning how to talk you'll just screw them up
There's also the pressure to be chatty and extroverted in addition to being fluent and clear.
As someone who genuinely does not like to comment on everything and likes to chill and keep the peace, you'll be judged.
I recently had to attend some speech for school. The speaker was a famous photographer. They described how they used to be shy and hardly spoke a word. And how hard work has transformed them into a bubbly effluent chatterbox. Like it was a triumph to which every quiet or reserved person should aspire.
If someone talks and has some kind of speech impediment, just try to understand them. So many people have different accents, styles of speaking, levels of language fluency...Good people will just try to communicate with you. The childish people who judge are seldom eloquent Shakespeares or gifted freestylers themselves and could use a humbling.