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From: Joe Klein
Date: 02 Oct 2007
Time: 08:34:41 -0500
Remote Name: 74.76.104.81
Hi Rick. Great question. I'm at home, and can't think of any citations, but I know their have been studies looking at the overall speech rate (time of speech with disfluencies included) and articulation rate (time of speech with no disfluencies), and that many PWS have a slow speech rate (because of the time stuttering takes) and a fast articulation rate (because they are talking so quickly). I think there are two reasons for this: One, an inherited "fast" rate of speech, as those muscles involved in speech just go a little faster than average, may be a reason why some people stutter (enough to put them over the stuttering "edge," so to speak). Two, and this is probably true for many PWS, is that it is a learned behavior, as PWS try to rush through the unpleasant speaking situation as fast as possible. Stuttering is a nasty disorder, as so many of the natural coping mechanisms for children (hey, something's stuck? I'll just push as hard as I can...) work to worsen and complicate the problem. Going more slowly is a HUGE advantage for people who stutter. Whether they choose to slow down by elongating their words or taking nice, natural pauses in their speech (or both) doesn't matter too much. Whatever feels most comfortable for the person... but, wow does it help some people speak much more fluently... Take care, Joe