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From: Jamie G from West Virginia, United States
Date: 09 Oct 2007
Time: 12:43:15 -0500
Remote Name: 157.182.15.56
Hello, I am a graduate student at WVU, and I appreciated reading about the phenomenon that many stutterers do not stutter or stutter much less when alone. It does suggest that there may be a psychological component to stuttering, but it also brings to my mind Starkweather's demands versus capacities theory that increased demands for speech (like having an audience) can affect speech when environmental pressures exceed a speaker's capacity to be fluent. Even though most professionals believe there is a strong nuerological component, emotional pressures should not be ignored. But now that we know about neurotransmitters and the physical chemistry of emotion, the line between psychology and physicality becomes blurry. Even a problem with behavioral mimcking could be caused by changes in neurochemistry or structure, rather than pure emotion or psychological pressure. Your therapy techinque sounds interesting and promising. It was exciting to see a new perspective about the possible cause of stuttering.