Music Therapy Interventions for Improving Fluency Among People Who Stutter

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Re: time pressure, stuttering, and music therapy

From: Erika Shira
Date: 19 Oct 2008
Time: 12:56:18 -0500
Remote Name: 66.92.76.147

Comments

"Music has a way of relaxing time pressure and just changing the experience of time. In addition to teaching the brain to generate speech in a set time frame, do you think music teaches the brain to experience time differently? For instance, pauses in a song are, literally, heard. Also, music advances our notion of communication in that it's not as goal oriented or about instant gratification." Wow, this is really beautifully put; do you want to write my next paper for me? ;o) I think you absolutely described the way that music takes away the sense of time pressure. That's a great phrase! In grad school we were taught a lot about the qualitative difference between "purposeful/respectful silence" and "awkward silence." Silence is one of the hardest things for a counselor to learn. That sometimes we just need to leave space, but we need to be present so that it's open space rather than pressured space. Music provides a nice opportunity for this, because I think that space and silence (as well as slow tempos) are acceptable and grounding in music, whereas silence or slowness in speech can seem uncomfortable. I wonder if another part of what the music does is to teach people that silence and space can feel comfortable? Maybe even if someone doesn't learn to speak a sentence a whole lot faster, they can learn to present themselves in a way that feels present and purposeful, rather than hesitant? I saw a comment in another article about having "acceptance of one's own stuttering" being an appropriate treatment goal, and I really resonated with this. I definitely think that music can bring this about for people, but I hadn't thought about exactly why this is. I think you're right that it comes largely from the idea of silence and space in music. Thank you!


Last changed: 10/19/08