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From: Gunars Neiders
Date: 13 Oct 2007
Time: 09:46:45 -0500
Remote Name: 67.171.0.68
Joseph..........You ask: Do we not aim as perfect fluent speech? Human nature being what it is we not only ask but *demand* perfect speech. This is one of the main reasons why we stutter. Here is how I make my point (which will be expanded in my dissertation):………..1) All humans will make mistakes in their speaking even those who we call fluent. ………2) When a fluent person encounters disfluencies, he really pays no attention to them, but keeps on talking……..3) When a stutterer encounters a disfluency he upsets himself saying to himself: “I should not stutter. I have to have perfect speech. It is awful that I stutter. I am not as good as other people who don’t stutter. I have to stop stuttering. My speech must be perfect.”………4) The more he tells himself such nonsense, the more tense he gets, the more he struggles. Soon he has facial tics and other secondary symptoms…….5) Even after he has gone to an intensive speech therapy and has less than 1% of disfluent syllables (the standard measure for fluent speech), he is telling himself, “I must have perfect speech. If I have even one disfluency then I will again be a stutterer. If I become a stutterer again I am totally worthless and can’t ever be successful in anything I do.” So what happens? He has one disfluency, becomes concerned and little anxious. His disfluency rate goes up. He panics, because he demands perfect fluency. He relapses……………………………………………….Now let us take a person who stutters and does not demand perfect speech, but just forward moving flowing speech and an attitude where he tells everyone he meets that sometimes he stutters. He knows that just as in stock market there are daily variations. In order to win in stock market only the general trend of the stock has to go up. So it is with fluency. Only less struggle, easier speech, less self-defeating emotions, less irrational self-talk. Since, he does not demand perfect speech he says to himself, “I don’t have to be afraid of disfluency. I can stand it. I can calmly work on speech therapy techniques.” So what happens: ……….a) He is only expecting a trend of more fluent speech………..b) He focuses more on his successes than failures……..c) He does voluntary pseudo-stuttering and finds out he has to struggle less……….d) His attitudes and his speech improve……….e) He arrives at a disfluency count of less that 1% of syllables……….d) He says to himself, “Some days I may have more than 1% of stuttered syllable. So what, I don’t need perfect speech. I am communicating, I am happy, I have the job I want, and most people know that I sometimes have more than 1% of disfluencies. There is nothing magical about that 1% anyway, nor being considered a person who stutters. As long as my speech is free and easy, I can do everything I want, as long as I don’t struggle, don’t avoid, don’t feel anxiety, guilt, or shame, I am satisfied. …………….f) He knows even though a person is called fluent he has his disfluencies as well. No person has perfect speech. One of the greatest orators of all time was Winston Churchill, and he stuttered. Big deal…………g) He never relapses from his imperfect fluency and good-enough attitude about himself and the world. ............If you want my dissertation you have to e-mail me your e-mail address to neidersg@comcast.net