[ Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Charlie Healey
Date: 13 Oct 2008
Time: 12:15:29 -0500
Remote Name: 129.93.99.57
Steve: That's an interesting notion that voluntary stuttering is used to progressively resemble an actual stuttering behavior. I begin right away with trying to help the client pseudostutter in the same way he stutters normally. Many times when I use voluntary stuttering to help a client learn how his stuttering feels and sounds, a fake stutter immediately turns into a real stutter. I always ask if a faked stutter felt or sounded real. When you can do something on purpose that is usually considered out of control, then you have much better learning and understanding taking place in knowing what to do to make changes in way one talks. The sooner we can make stuttering real, the better, at least in my mind. Also, bear in mind that the focus of voluntary stuttering is not only to learn what is happening when stuttering occurs, but to also bring stuttering out in the open and do it on purpose for those clients that tend to push the stuttering down inside and are afraid that someone will hear them stutter. So, there are lots of ways voluntary stuttering can be used in therapy but I don't think that gradually moving from very artificial stuttering to real stuttering is the way I would think about the purpose of voluntary stuttering.