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From: Greg Snyder
Date: 04 Oct 2009
Time: 00:36:36 -0500
Remote Name: 207.68.248.51
Hi Concerned Mom… This may or may not be a mainstream view of the stuttering phenomenon, but I'll offer my two cents on this. It's my belief that the "act" of stuttering isn't stuttering at all. "Stuttering" (i.e., the phenomenon) occurs at the neural level. It's a phenomenon of the central nervous system. The act of stuttering is actually the body trying to jump-start (or initiate) the system back into action. Now--the body has an amazing skill of compensating and adjusting in order to preserve functioning…However, when it's left only a few alternatives, the body tends to try to use "more force" to fix the problem. We see this all the time in other pathologies (such as vocal pathologies)--or even when you're remote control is running out of batteries. What do you do? Push the button harder. So let's take this back to stuttering. During our teenage years, we often lose a lot of control over stuttering. So the body, in an attempt to compensate (or regain control) does whatever it can--which usually results in muscular hyperfunction. And rather than relaxing, we end up adding tension onto tension onto tension. So much so that it's entirely counterproductive. So as far as "what types" of blocks--I can't answer that. I don't believe there are different types of "blocks" per-se, but rather as a function of the different speech sounds being stuttered upon and the normal dynamics and evolution of stuttering. However, severity can most definitely ebb and flow--and in our most severe, muscular force and tension can be both exceedingly strong and seemingly global (relative to speech production). And (again), it's my view that this is the body trying to kick-start the system or overcome the stuttering block (at the neural level). Unfortunately, it's not a very efficient response. Fortunately, stuttering modification tools (such as volitional stuttering, bouncing, stretching, etc) can be very effective to combat these counterproductive responses to stuttering. (Sorry for the stream of consciousness; hope this helps…)