2Close. It will come at its own pace and by the sound of it you're finding that already.
I too was a bit of a late starter and had trouble with the role play thing. I still do now, in fact I hate it. As for the patter I used to practise continuously, talk to myself walking around the supermarket, driving, whatever. Got some odd looks but it worked for me.
Don't be in too much of a hurry to ditch your own way of doing things (within reason) as it's the personal differences that make the lessons interesting. Flexibility too. As one who never got on well with formulae (translation: never understood them) I used to find it easy to reduce briefings and ground school to the lowest common denominator as that was usually me! Many students would look at me as if I'd lost the plot when I spoke of having three bananas of lift on one side of the equation and three bananas of weight on the other (often followed by the dawn of understanding). Who says it has to be complicated?
Good luck and I hope you enjoy it. Instructing was my most enjoyable flying if not quite the best paid.
